CHAPTER THREE
To my uncle Mr Toby Shandy do I stand indebted for the
preceding anecdote, to whom my father, who was an excel-
lent natural philosopher, and much given to close reasoning
upon the smallest matters, had oft, and heavily, complained
of the injury; but once more particularly, as my uncle Toby
well remembered, upon his observing a most unaccountable
obliquity, (as he called it) in my manner of setting up my
top, and justifying the principles upon which I had done it,-
the old gentleman shook his head, and in a tone more
expressive by half of sorrow than reproach, - he said his
heart all along foreboded, and he saw it verified in this, and
from a thousand other observations he had made upon me,
That I should neither think nor act like any other man's
child:-But alas! Continued he, shaking his head a second
time, and wiping away a tear which was trickling down his
cheeks, My Tristram's misfortunes began nine months be-
fore ever he came into the world.
-My mother, who was sitting by, looked up,-but she
knew no more than her backside what my father meant,-
but my uncle, Mr Toby Shandy, who had been often in-
formed of the affaire-understood him very well.