Page:The life and opinions of Tristram Shandy (Volume 1).pdf/130

 ful: So that in the midst of a dispute on the subject, in which, by the bye, he was frequently involved,—he would sometimes break off in a sudden and spirited, or rather , raised a third, and sometimes a full fifth, above the key of the discourse,—and demand it categorically of his antagonist, Whether he would take upon him to say, he had ever remember'd,—whether he had ever read,— or even whether he had ever heard tell of a man, call'd Tristram, performing any thing great or worth recording?—No—, he would say,— !—The thing is impossible.

What could be wanting in my father but to have wrote a book to publish this notion of his to the world? Little boots it to the subtle speculatist to stand single in his opinions,—unless he gives them