Page:The life and opinions of Tristram Shandy (Volume 3).pdf/164

 his heart upon it? or when he gather'd it? or when he chew'd it? or when he roasted it? or when he peel'd? or when he brought it home? or when he digested?—or when he—?—. For 'tis plain, Sir, if the first picking up of the apple, made it not his,—that no subsequent act could.

Brother Didius, Tribonius will answer,—(now Tribonius the civilian and church lawyer's beard being three inches and a half and three eighths longer than Didius his beard,—I'm glad he takes up the cudgels for me, so I give myself no further trouble about the answer.)—Brother Didius, Tribonius will say, it is a decreed case, as you may find it in the fragments of Gregorius and Hermogeness codes, and in all the codes from Justinians down to