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The Pickwick Papers

The end of the arguement.

'The chairman said that he was quite sure the honourable Pickwickian would take back what he had just said.'

Mr Blotton, with all possible respect for the chairman, was quite sure he would not take it back.

The chairman felt that he really had to demand whether the honourable gentleman had used the words which he had just used in a common sense.

Mr Blotton had no hesitation in saying that he had not used the words in a common sense- he had spoken in a Pickwickian sense. (Hear, hear.) He was bound to admit that, personally, he had the highest regard and respect for the honourable gentleman; he had merely considered him a hypocrite from a Pickwickian point of view. (Hear, hear.)

Mr Pickwick felt much gratified by the fair, honest, and complete explanation which he had received. He wanted it to be at once understood, that his own observations had been also intended to have a Pickwickian meaning. (Cheers.)

Here the entry terminates, as we have no doubt the debate did also, since it had reached such a highly satisfactory and intelligible point. The facts which the reader will find in the next chapter have no official statement like the club record , but they have been carefully collected from letters and other authorities, and are so unquestionably genuine that we can safely make them into an organized narrative.

Vocabulary:

Take back: Here it means to admit that he should not have said this.
Demand: Halfway between a request and an order.
Common sense: Here this means in the way that most people would understand them.
Pickwickian sense: There is no such thing - but it allows him a way to finish the argument.
Bound: Forced.
Regard: Opinion.
Merely: Only
Hypocrite: someone who says one thing, but does the opposite.
Gratified: Pleased
Hypocrite: Someone who says one thing, but does another
Observations: Comments.
Terminate: Finish.
Intelligible: Easy to understand. (Dickens is being sarcastic).
Genuine: Real and true

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