I found such to be the case in my own intercourse with him.

He always attacked me in a bantering way, but, I thought, half in earnest too.

Hence I never found it advisable to enter into argument with him.

How can you argue with a man, a brilliant wit and an accomplished theologian, who continually flashes back and forth between first principles and witticisms?
When I would undertake to grapple with him on first principles he would throw me off with a joke, and while I was parrying the joke he was back again upon first principles.
"An illustration of his way of treating men and questions was his reception of me when I presented myself to him, some months before Dr.Brownson did, for reception into the Church.

'What truths were the stepping-stones that led you here ?' he would have asked if he had had the temperament of the apostle.