A man could not be charged with such
obtuseness if he were only ignorant of some philosophical truth, or even
of a fact commonly known, or if his mistake were clearly from
inadvertence. I have heard the question asked "Which is it more correct
to say. Seven and five _is_ eleven, or seven and five _are_ eleven?" and
if a man reply hastily "_Are_ is the more correct," he could not be
charged with having made a "bull," any more than if a boy had made a
mistake in a sum of addition or subtraction. If a foreigner says "I have
got to-morrow's Times," we do not consider it a bull because he is
ignorant that he should have said "yesterday's," and a person who does
not understand Latin may be excused for saying "Under existing
circumstances," perhaps long usage justifies the expression. For this
reason, and also because no dulness is implied, we may safely say "the
sun sets," or "the sun has gone in." To constitute a bull, there must be
something glaringly self-contradictory in the statement. But every
observation containing a contradiction does not show dulness of
apprehension, but often talent and ingenuity. Poetry and humour are much
indebted to such expressions--thus the old Greek writers often call
offerings made to the dead "a kindness which is no kindness," and Horace
speaks of "discordant harmony" and "active idleness.
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