Peregrine both wished and hoped to see the disputants proceed to
arguments of more weight and conviction; and the painter, dreading
the same issue, interposed with the usual exclamation of "For
God's sake, gentlemen;" when the governor rose from table in great
dudgeon, and left the room, muttering some ejaculation, of which
the word coxcomb only could be distinctly heard. The physician,
being thus left master of the field of battle, was complimented on
his victory by Peregrine, and so elevated by his success, that he
declaimed a full hour on the absurdity of Jolter's proposition, and
the beauty of the democratic administration; canvassed the whole
scheme of Plato's republic, with many quotations from that ideal
author, touching the to kalon: from thence he made a transition to
the moral sense of Shaftesbury, and concluded his harangue with the
greatest part of that frothy writer's rhapsody, which he repeated
with all the violence of enthusiastic agitation, to the unspeakable
satisfaction of his entertainer, and the unutterable admiration of
Pallet, who looked upon him as something supernatural and divine.
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