es, which, so long
as I live, I have pledged myself to the people of these kingdoms to
support and to maintain?' suggested Pott.

'Why, I don't exactly know about that,' replied Bob Sawyer. 'I am--'

'Not buff, Mr. Pickwick,' interrupted Pott, drawing back his chair,
'your friend is not buff, sir?'

'No, no,' rejoined Bob, '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 "Encyclopaedia 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 co