Page:The life and opinions of Tristram Shandy (Volume 3).pdf/98

 wonder how it holds out, or could be sufficient for the wants and emergencies of so many great states, and populous empires.

Indeed there is one thing to be considered, that in Nova Zembla, North Lapland, and in all those cold and dreary tracts of the globe, which lie more directly under the artick and antartick circles,—where the whole province of a man's concernments lies for near nine months together, within the narrow compass of his cave,—where the spirits are compressed almost to nothing,—and where the passions of a man, with every thing which belongs to them, are as frigid as the zone itself;—there the least quantity of judgment imaginable does the business,—and of wit,—there is a total and an absolute saving,—for as not one spark