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getting akin amongst so flat-nosed a peopleā āøŗā you must read the book;ā āøŗā find it out yourself, you never can.ā āøŗā 

ā€”ā€™Twas shaped, Sir, like an ace of clubs.

ā€”ā€™Tis a full inch, continued my grandfather, pressing up the ridge of his nose with his finger and thumb; and repeating his assertionā āøŗā€™tis a full inch longer, madam, than my fatherā€™sā āøŗā You must mean your uncleā€™s, replied my great-grandmother.

āø»My great-grandfather was convinced.ā ā€”He untwisted the paper, and signed the article.

XXXIII

āøŗā What an unconscionable jointure, my dear, do we pay out of this small estate of ours, quoth my grandmother to my grandfather.

My father, replied my grandfather, had no more nose, my dear, saving the mark, than there is upon the back of my hand.

ā€”Now, you must know, that my great-grandmother outlived my grandfather twelve years; so that my father had the jointure to pay, a hundred and fifty pounds half-yearlyā ā€”(on Michaelmas and Lady-day),ā ā€”during all that time.

No man discharged pecuniary obligations with a better grace than my father.ā āø»And as far as a hundred pounds went, he would fling it upon the table, guinea by guinea, with that spirited jerk of an honest welcome, which generous souls, and generous souls only, are able to fling down money: but as soon as ever he enterā€™d upon the odd fiftyā ā€”he generally gave a loud Hem! rubbā€™d the side of his nose leisurely with the flat part of his fore fingerā āøŗā inserted his hand cautiously betwixt his head and the cawl of his wigā ā€”lookā€™d at both sides of every guinea as he parted with itā āøŗā and seldom could get to the end of the fifty pounds, without pulling out his handkerchief, and wiping his temples.

Defend me, gracious Heaven! from those persecuting spirits who make no allowances for these workings within us.ā ā€”Neverā ā€”O never may I lay down in their tents, who cannot relax the engine, and feel pity for the force of education, and the prevalence of opinions long derived from ancestors!

For three generations at least this tenet in favour of long noses had gradually been taking root in our family.ā āø»Tradition was all along on its side, and Interest was every half-year stepping in to strengthen it; so that the whimsicality of my fatherā€™s brain was far from having the whole honour of this, as it had of almost all his other strange notions.ā ā€”For in a great measure he might be said to have suckā€™d this in with his motherā€™s milk. He did his part however.ā āøŗā If education planted the mistake (in case it was one) my father watered it, and ripened it to perfection.

He would often declare, in speaking his thoughts upon the subject, that he did not conceive how the greatest family in England could stand it out against an uninterrupted succession of six or seven short noses.ā ā€”And for the contrary reason, he would generally add, That it must be one of the greatest problems in civil life, where the same number of long and jolly noses, following one another in a direct line, did not raise and hoist it up into the best vacancies in the kingdom.ā āø»He would often boast that the Shandy family rankā€™d very high in King Harry the VIIIā€™s time, but owed its rise to no state engineā ā€”he would sayā ā€”but to that only;ā āøŗā but that, like other families, he would addā āøŗā it had felt the turn of the wheel, and had never recovered the blow of my great-grandfatherā€™s nose.ā āøŗā It was an ace of clubs indeed, he would cry, shaking his headā ā€”and as vile a one for an unfortunate family as ever turnā€™d up trumps.

āø»Fair and softly, gentle reader!ā āø»where is thy fancy carrying thee?ā āøŗā If there is truth in man, by my great-grandfatherā€™s nose, I mean the external organ of smelling, or that part of man which stands prominent in his faceā āøŗā and which painters say, in good jolly noses and well-proportioned faces, should comprehend a full thirdā āøŗā that is, measured downwards from the setting on of the hair.ā āøŗā 

āøŗā What a life of it has an author, at this pass!

XXXIV

It is a singular blessing, that nature has formā€™d the mind of man with the same happy backwardness and renitency against conviction, which is observed in old dogsā ā€”ā€œof not learning new tricks.ā€

What a shuttlecock of a fellow would the greatest philosopher that ever existed be whiskā€™d into at once, did he read such books, and observe such facts, and think such thoughts, as would eternally be making him change sides!

Now, my father, as I told you last year, detested all thisā ā€”He pickā€™d up an opinion, Sir, as a man in a state of nature picks up an apple.ā ā€”It becomes his ownā ā€”and if he is a man of spirit, he would lose his life rather than give it up.

I am aware that Didius, the great civilian, will contest this point; and cry out against me, Whence comes this manā€™s right to this apple? ex confesso, he will sayā ā€”things were in a state of natureā ā€”The apple, as much Frankā€™s apple as Johnā€™s. Pray, Mr. Shandy, what patent has he to show for it? and how did it begin to be his? was it, when he set his heart upon it? or when he gathered it? or when he chewā€™d it? or when he roasted it? or when he peelā€™d, or when he brought it home? or when he digested?ā ā€”or when heā āøŗ?ā āøŗā For ā€™tis plain, Sir, if the first picking up of the apple, made it not hisā ā€”that no subsequent act could.

Brother Didius, Tribonius will answerā ā€”(now Tribonius the civilian and church lawyerā€™s beard being three inches and a half and three eighths longer than Didius his beardā ā€”Iā€™m glad he takes up the cudgels for me, so I give myself no farther trouble about the answer).ā ā€”Brother Didius, Tribonius will say, it is a decreed case, as you may find it in the fragments of Gregorius and Hermoginesā€™s codes, and in all the codes from Justinianā€™s down to the codes of Louis and Des Eauxā ā€”That the sweat of a manā€™s brows, and the exsudations of a manā€™s brains, are as much a manā€™s own property as the breeches upon his backside;ā ā€”which said

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