Page:The life and opinions of Tristram Shandy (Volume 1).pdf/30

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[26]

their mouths, scouring and scampering it away like so many little party-colour'd devils astride a mortgage,—and as if some of them were resolved to break their necks.—So much the better—say I to myself;—for in case the worst should happen, the world will make a shift to do excellently well without them;—and for the rest,—why,—God speed them,—e'en let them ride on without opposition from me; for were their lordships unhorsed this very night,—'tis ten to one but that many of them would be worse mounted by one half before tomorrow morning.

Not one of these instances therefore can be said to break in upon my rest.—But there is an instance, which I own puts me off my guard, and that is, when I see one born for great actions, and, what isstill