, »I'm a kind of plaid at present; a compound of all
sorts of colours.«
    »A waverer,« said Pott, solemnly, »a waverer. I should like to show you a
series of eight articles, sir, that have appeared in the Eatanswill Gazette. I
think I may venture to say that you would not be long in establishing your
opinions on a firm and solid blue basis, sir.«
    »I dare say I should turn very blue, long before I got to the end of them,«
responded Bob.
    Mr. Pott looked dubiously at Bob Sawyer for some seconds, and, turning to
Mr. Pickwick, said:
    »You have seen the literary articles which have appeared at intervals in the
Eatanswill Gazette in the course of the last three months, and which have
excited such general - I may say such universal - attention and admiration?«
    »Why,« replied Mr. Pickwick, slightly embarrassed by the question, »the fact
is, I have been so much engaged in other ways, that I really have not had an
opportunity of perusing them.«
    »You should do so, sir,« said Pott, with a severe countenance.
    »I will,« said Mr. Pickwick.
    »They appeared in the form of a copious review of a work on Chinese
metaphysics, sir,« said Pott.
    »Oh,« observed Mr. Pickwick; »from your pen, I hope?«
    »From the pen of my critic, sir,« rejoined Pott with dignity.
    »An abstruse subject I should conceive,« said Mr. Pickwick.
    »Very, sir,« responded Pott, looking intensely sage. »He crammed for it, to
use a technical but expressive term; he read up for the subject, at my desire,
in the Encyclopoedia Britannica.«
    »Indeed!« said Mr. Pickwick; »I was not aware that that valuable work
contained any information respecting Chinese metaphysics.«
    »He read, sir,« rejoined Pott, laying his hand on Mr. Pickwick's knee, and
looking round with a smile of intellectual superiority, »he read for metaphysics
under the letter M, and for China under the letter C, and combined his
information, sir?«
    Mr. Pott's features assumed so much additional grandeur at the recollection
of the power and research displayed in the learned effusions in question, that
some minutes elapsed before Mr. Pickwick felt emboldened to renew the
conversation; at length, as the Editor's countenance gradually relaxed into its
customary expression of
