"And no one was able to answer him a word, neither durst any man from
that day forth ask him any more questions."--_Matthew._
The present chapter brings us to the subject of Repartee. Of this form of
wit, Professor Matthews says, "Nothing is more admirable, nothing more
quickly enlists our sympathies, than this perfect command and quick,
instantaneous concentration of the faculties, when a man is taken at a
disadvantage and has to repel an insinuation or an insult at a moment's
warning. That felicity of instantaneous analysis which we call readiness,
has saved thousands of men from mortification or contempt. The dextrous
leap of thought by which the mind escapes from a seemingly hopeless
dilemma is worth more than all the logic and learning of the world." "The
impromptu reply," says Moliere, "is precisely the touchstone of wit."
The pages of the Bible are sometimes enlivened by sharp repartees. The men
of old time, the men of the Hebrew nation, understood the power of the
quick and flashing answer, as well as more modern generations. Johnson and
Foote and Sheridan might have found it by no means easy to hold their own
in Judea. It is very likely that their powers would have been put to the
severest test.