Page:The life and opinions of Tristram Shandy (Volume 2).pdf/135

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[129]

seven watch-men that sit above upon a tower on high."—[A tower has no strength, quoth my uncle Toby, unless 'tis flank'd.] "In the darkest doubts it shall conduct him safer than a thousand casuists, and give the state he lives in a better security for his behaviour than all the causes and restrictions put together, which law-makers are forced to multiply:—Forced, I say, as things stand; human laws not being a matter of original choice, but of pure necessity, brought in to fence against the mischievous effects of those consciences which are no law unto themselves; well intending, by the many provisions made,—that in all such corrupt and misguided cases, where principles and the checks of conscience will not make us upright,—to"supply