Page:The life and opinions of Tristram Shandy (Volume 9).pdf/63



in ordinary cases, that is, when I am only stupid, and the thoughts rise heavily and pass gummous through my pen

Or that I am got, I know not how, into a cold unmetaphorical vein of infamous writing, and cannot take a plumb-lift out of it for my soul; so must be obliged to go on writing like a Dutch commentator to the end of the chapter, unless something be done

I never stand confering with pen and ink one moment; for if a pinch of snuff or a stride or two across the room will not do the business for me—I take a razor at once; and having tried the edge