He has been much admired by Mr. John Neal, and was a great man in a small way. The other gave name to the most important of the Exact Sciences, and was a great man in a great way- I may say, indeed, in the very greatest of ways. Yet the fact, the deed, the thing diddling, is somewhat difficult to define. Had Plato but hit upon this, he would have been spared the affront of the picked chicken. But I am not to be bothered by any similar query.
Man is an animal that diddles, and there is no animal that diddles but man.
It will take an entire hen-coop of picked chickens to get over that. What constitutes the essence, the nare, the principle of diddling is, in fact, peculiar to the class of creatures that wear coats and pantaloons. To diddle is his destiny. Diddling, rightly considered, is a compound, of which the ingredients are minuteness, interest, perseverance, ingenuity, audacity, nonchalance, originality, impertinence, and grin. His operations are upon a small scale.