The Rationalist is ... (paraphrased Oakeshott) ...

... always standing for independence from all authority except 'reason'
... the enemy of mere tradition
... contentious against authority
... skeptical (for him, nothing is beyond the criticism of 'reason')
... optimistic (for him, 'reason' can always find any thing's value)
... fortified by the belief that 'reason' is universal in man
... an individualist
... finds it hard to believe that another "who thinks honestly and clearly
can think differently than himself"
... insistent that his own experience is foundational to his 'reason's' materials
... ready to reduce experience to principles
... without peace in unclarity
... domineering over experience
... without appreciation for the minutiae of experience
... gnostic
... uncomprehending of the dictum - Oportet Quaedam Nescire
... a well trained, but not educated, mind
... ambitious to be a "self-made-man," not to live as part of the experience of mankind
... preternaturally deliberate in his life plans
... not a passive experiencer
... not sure how humanity has survived without his 'reason'
... living every day as if it were his first
... of the opinion that habits are failures
... temperamentally distrustful of time, hungry for eternity
... nervous and irritable about anything topical and transitory