_Tenaciousness or Obstinacy._
LXI. Not less tiresome than those we have just been speaking of, nor
less interrupting to the pleasure of conversation, are tenacious or
obstinate people. The spirit of contradiction is an infernal spirit,
and at the same time so perverse a one, that I very much doubt, whether
there has hitherto been a remedy found out for the cure of those who
are possessed with it.
LXII. This brings to my mind the example of Aristius. He is a great
frequenter of, and a busy man in clubs and coffee-houses, to which
he is always running, in quest of disputations and argumentations.
His opinion is his idol, and nobody must dissent from it, on pain of
experiencing the effects of his indignation; neither must any body
prefer an opposite one, lest he should be treated by him as an enemy;
and nothing can satisfy him, but a total acquiescence in, or silent
approbation of all he says. His influence in conversation may be
compared to that of the southern constellation, called _Orion’s Belt_,
which excites nothing but tempests. Nimbrosus Orion, as Virgil calls
it. No sooner does he enter a company, than the serenity of a pleasing
tranquil conversation, begins to degenerate into a turbulent tumultuous
noise. He begins with contradicting, the person contradicted defends
himself, others take part in the dispute, the fire of altercation
lights up, and catches from one to the other like the contagion of a
pestilence, _Insequitur clamorque virùm, stridorque rudentum_, till
at last, the conversation sounds like the talking of gibberish, and
becomes a confused jargon and noise, so that the company can neither
hear or understand each other. All this mischief in political society,
may be, and frequently is introduced by a tenacious and obstinate man.
Nor is this malady ever to be cured; for you can more easily turn the
stream of a rapid river, and make it run back contrary to its course,
than force him to give up an opinion he has once advanced.