How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
"My [Skimpole's] butcher says to me he wants that little bill. It's a part of the pleasant unconscious poetry of the man's nature that he always calls it a 'little' bill--to make the payment appear easy to both of us. I reply to the butcher, 'My good friend, if you knew it, you are paid. You haven't had the trouble of coming to ask for the little bill. You are paid. I mean it. [...] '"
"But, suppose," said my guardian, laughing, "he had meant the meat in the bill, instead of providing it?"
"My dear Jarndyce," he returned, "you surprise me. You take the butcher's position. A butcher I once dealt with occupied that very ground. Says he, 'Sir, why did you eat spring lamb at eighteen pence a pound?' 'Why did I eat spring lamb at eighteen pence a pound, my honest friend?' said I, naturally amazed by the question. 'I like spring lamb!' This was so far convincing. 'Well, sir,' says he, 'I wish I had meant the lamb as you mean the money!' 'My good fellow,' said I, 'pray let us reason like intellectual beings. How could that be? It was impossible. You HAD got the lamb, and I have NOT got the money. You couldn't really mean the lamb without sending it in, whereas I can, and do, really mean the money without paying it!' He had not a word. There was an end of the subject." (15.6-9)
This, boys and girls, is a type of argument called "sophistry": it seems logical and sound on its face, but in reality it's total baloney. Skimpole is an ace at this kind of double talk, and for some reason Jarndyce eats it up. It's a funny detail that he close-reads his butcher's conversation, noting that the butcher calls the bill "little" regardless of how much it actually is to make the transaction more pleasant.
Quote #5
"My friends," says he, "what is this which we now behold as being spread before us? Refreshment. Do we need refreshment then, my friends? We do. And why do we need refreshment, my friends? Because we are but mortal, because we are but sinful, because we are but of the earth, because we are not of the air. Can we fly, my friends? We cannot. Why can we not fly, my friends?"
Mr. Snagsby, presuming on the success of his last point, ventures to observe in a cheerful and rather knowing tone, "No wings." But is immediately frowned down by Mrs. Snagsby.
"I say, my friends," pursues Mr. Chadband, utterly rejecting and obliterating Mr. Snagsby's suggestion, "why can we not fly? Is it because we are calculated to walk? It is. Could we walk, my friends, without strength? We could not. What should we do without strength, my friends? Our legs would refuse to bear us, our knees would double up, our ankles would turn over, and we should come to the ground. Then from whence, my friends, in a human point of view, do we derive the strength that is necessary to our limbs? Is it," says Chadband, glancing over the table, "from bread in various forms, from butter which is churned from the milk which is yielded unto us by the cow, from the eggs which are laid by the fowl, from ham, from tongue, from sausage, and from such like? It is. Then let us partake of the good things which are set before us!" (19.38-41)
Chadband's totally strange way of talking has Dickens poking fun at a style of public speaking that was popular at the time. It's sort of the opposite of the Socratic method, where questions are asked in order to get some deep thoughts and meaningful discussion going. Here, when Snagsby tries to answer Chadband, he is made to shut up because all of these questions (besides being completely ridiculous) only have one correct answer – Chadband's.
Quote #6
"You see, Mr. Snagsby," says Mr. Bucket, accompanying him to the door and shaking hands with him over and over again, "what I like in you is that you're a man it's of no use pumping; that's what you are. When you know you have done a right thing, you put it away, and it's done with and gone, and there's an end of it. That's what YOU do."
"That is certainly what I endeavour to do, sir," returns Mr. Snagsby.
"No, you don't do yourself justice. It an't what you endeavour to do," says Mr. Bucket, shaking hands with him and blessing him in the tenderest manner, "it's what you do. That's what I estimate in a man in your way of business." (22.136-138)
Bucket has several interesting modes of speaking. In this one, he forcibly praises the person he's speaking to because that person is about to act in the way that Bucket... ahem... really, really strongly suggests (with some threat implied if that suggestion isn't taken closely to heart). It's easy to imagine this kind of thing working well on the weaker-minded – kind of like the Force and the whole "these aren't the droids you're looking for."