The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy,
Gentleman, The

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Title: The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
Author: Laurence Sterne
Release Date: October, 1997 [EBook #1079] [This file was first posted on October 25,
1997] [This file was last updated on October 23, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1

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The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman.
A work by Laurence Sterne
(two lines in Greek)

To the Right Honourable Mr. Pitt.
Sir,
Never poor Wight of a Dedicator had less hopes from his Dedication, than I have from
this of mine; for it is written in a bye corner of the kingdom, and in a retir'd thatch'd
house, where I live in a constant endeavour to fence against the infirmities of ill health,
and other evils of life, by mirth; being firmly persuaded that every time a man
smiles,--but much more so, when he laughs, it adds something to this Fragment of Life.
I humbly beg, Sir, that you will honour this book, by taking it--(not under your
Protection,--it must protect itself, but)--into the country with you; where, if I am ever told,
it has made you smile; or can conceive it has beguiled you of one moment's pain--I shall
think myself as happy as a minister of state;--perhaps much happier than any one (one
only excepted) that I have read or heard of.
I am, Great Sir, (and, what is more to your Honour) I am, Good Sir, Your Well-wisher,
and most humble Fellow-subject,
The Author.

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gent.
Chapter 1.
I.
I wish either my father or my mother, or indeed both of them, as they were in duty both
equally bound to it, had minded what they were about when they begot me; had they duly
consider'd how much depended upon what they were then doing;--that not only the
production of a rational Being was concerned in it, but that possibly the happy formation
and temperature of his body, perhaps his genius and the very cast of his mind;--and, for
aught they knew to the contrary, even the fortunes of his whole house might take their
turn from the humours and dispositions which were then uppermost;--Had they duly
weighed and considered all this, and proceeded accordingly,--I am verily persuaded I
should have made a quite different figure in the world, from that in which the reader is

likely to see me.--Believe me, good folks, this is not so inconsiderable a thing as many of
you may think it;--you have all, I dare say, heard of the animal spirits, as how they are
transfused from father to son, &c. &c.--and a great deal to that purpose:--Well, you may
take my word, that nine parts in ten of a man's sense or his nonsense, his successes and
miscarriages in this world depend upon their motions and activity, and the different tracks
and trains you put them into, so that when they are once set a-going, whether right or
wrong, 'tis not a half- penny matter,--away they go cluttering like hey-go mad; and by
treading the same steps over and over again, they presently make a road of it, as plain and
as smooth as a garden-walk, which, when they are once used to, the Devil himself
sometimes shall not be able to drive them off it.
Pray my Dear, quoth my mother, have you not forgot to wind up the clock?-- Good G..!
cried my father, making an exclamation, but taking care to moderate his voice at the same
time,--Did ever woman, since the creation of the world, interrupt a man with such a silly
question? Pray, what was your father saying?--Nothing.
Chapter 1.
II.