Page:The life and opinions of Tristram Shandy (Volume 3).pdf/167

 of a smart attack; inasmuch as few men of great genius had exercised their parts in writing books upon the subject of great noses: by the trotting of my lean horse, the thing is incredible! and I am quite lost in my understanding when I am considering what a treasure of precious time and talents together has been wasted upon worse subjects,—and how many millions of books in all languages, and in all possible types and bindings, have been fabricated upon points not half so much tending to the unity and peacemaking of the world. What was to be had, however, he set the greater store by; and though my father would oft-times sport with my uncle Toby's library,—which, by the bye, was ridiculous enough,—yet at the very same time he did it, he collected every book