Under Thought is included every effect which has to be produced by speech, the subdivisions being,-- proof and
refutation; the excitation of the feelings, such as pity, fear, anger, and the like; the suggestion of importance or its opposite.
(This last resource was one he very frequently employed.) He would transfer a question to metaphysical heights, pass on to definitions of space, time, and thought, and, having deduced the
refutation he needed, would again descend to the level of the original discussion.
Again, when Socrates argues that he must believe in the gods because he believes in the sons of gods, we must remember that this is a
refutation not of the original indictment, which is consistent enough--'Socrates does not receive the gods whom the city receives, and has other new divinities' --but of the interpretation put upon the words by Meletus, who has affirmed that he is a downright atheist.
With regard to civil causes, subtleties almost too contemptible for
refutation have been employed to countenance the surmise that a thing which is only not provided for, is entirely abolished.
Some years ago I might have been induced, by an occasion like the present, to attempt a formal
refutation of their doctrine; at present it would be a work of supererogation.
The natural divisions are five in number;--( 1) Book I and the first half of Book II down to the paragraph beginning, "I had always admired the genius of Glaucon and Adeimantus," which is introductory; the first book containing a
refutation of the popular and sophistical notions of justice, and concluding, like some of the earlier Dialogues, without arriving at any definite result.
The people, in the case of which we speak, could justify its prejudice against Roger Chillingworth by no fact or argument worthy of serious
refutation. There was an aged handicraftsman, it is true, who had been a citizen of London at the period of Sir Thomas Overbury's murder, now some thirty years agone; he testified to having seen the physician, under some other name, which the narrator of the story had now forgotten, in company with Dr.
"Well," said Franz with a sigh, "do as you please my dear viscount, for your arguments are beyond my powers of
refutation. Still, in spite of all, you must admit that this Count of Monte Cristo is a most singular personage."
Two posts came in, and brought no
refutation, public or private.
Often the pleasure is illusory, but their error in calculation is no
refutation of the rule.
And in his action I found complete
refutation of all Wolf Larsen's materialism.
What word have you to say in
refutation of the charge?"