Page:The life and opinions of Tristram Shandy (Volume 1).pdf/127

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[123]

they imposed upon their child,—or more so, than in the choice of Ponto or Cupid for their puppy dog.

This, he would say, look'd ill;—and had, moreover, this particular aggravation in it, viz. That when once a vile name was wrongfully or injudiciously given, 'twas not like the case of a man's character, which, when wrong'd, might hereafter be clear'd;—and, possibly, sometime or other, if not in the man's life, at least after his death,—be, somehow or other, set to rights with the world: But the injury of this, he would say, could never be undone;—nay, he doubted even whether an act of parliament could reach it:—He knew as well as you, that the legislature assum'd a power over surnames;—but for very strong reasons, which he could give, it had ne-ver