Page:The life and opinions of Tristram Shandy (Volume 2).pdf/118

 encompass them about with clouds and thick darkness:—Could no such thing as favour and affection enter this sacred :—Did disdain to take a bribe in it;—or was asham'd to shew its face as an advocate for an unwarrantable enjoyment: Or, lastly, were we assured, that  stood always unconcern'd whilst the cause was hearing,—and that passion never got into the judgment-seat, and pronounc'd sentence in the stead of reason, which is supposed always to preside and determine upon the case:—Was this truly so, as the objection must suppose;—no doubt then, the religious and moral state of a man would be exactly what he himself esteem'd it;—and the guilt or innocence of every man's life could be known, in general, by no better measure, than the de-