"The more I debated with them the more familiar I became with their
tactics in debate. At the outset they counted upon the stupidity of their
opponents; but when they got so entangled that they could not find a way out,
they played the trick of acting the innocent simpleton.
Should they fail, in spite of their tricks of logic, they acted as if they
could not understand the counter-arguments and feeling themselves cornered,
hastily transferred the discussion to another field. They uttered truisms and
platitudes; and, if you accepted these, took this acceptance as applying to other
problems and matters differing essentially from the original theme.
If you cornered them on this point they would escape again, and you
could not force them to make any precise statement.
Whenever one tried, to get a firm grip on any of these apostles, one’s
hand grasped only a slimy jelly which slipped through the fingers, but
coagulated again a moment afterwards."
