Page:The life and opinions of Tristram Shandy (Volume 4).pdf/189

 the child a new name—Had a priest, for instance, which was no uncommon thing, through ignorance of the Latin tongue, baptized a child of Tom-o'Stiles, in nomino patriæ & filia & spiritum sanctos,—the baptism was held null—I beg your pardon, replied Kysarcius,—in that case, as the mistake was only in the terminations, the baptism was valid—and to have rendered it null, the blunder of the priest should have fallen upon the first syllable of each noun—and not, as in your case, upon the last.—

My father delighted in subtleties of this kind, and listen'd with infinite attention.

Gastripheres, for example, continued Kysarcius, baptizes a child of John Stradling's, in Gomine gatris, ''&c. &c''.