As many pictures as have been given of my father, how like him soever in different airs and attitudes, --not one, or all of them, can ever help the reader to any kind of preconception of how my father would think, speak, or act, upon any untried occasion or occurrence of life. --There was that infinitude of oddities in him, and of chances along with it, by which handle he would take a thing, --it baffled, Sir, all calculations. ----The truth was, his road lay so very far on one side, from that wherein most men travelled, --that every object before him presented a face and section of itself to his eye, altogether different from the plan and elevation of it seen by the rest of mankind. --In other words, 'twas a different object, and in course was differently considered:
This is the true reason, that my dear _Jenny_ and I, as well as all the world besides us, have such eternal squabbles about nothing. --She looks at her outside, --I, at her in--. How is it possible we should agree about her value?
Although many pictures have been given of my father, in different airs and attitudes, not one of them could help the reader to predict how my father would think, speak, or act, upon any occasion. He had such an infinitude of oddities in him, that to know how he would take a thing, baffled, Sir, all calculations.
The truth was, that every object presented its face and cross-section to his eye, altogether different from the plan of it seen by the rest of mankind.
This is the true reason that my dear Jenny and I have such eternal squabbles about nothing. She looks at her outside, I, at her in. - How is it possible we should agree about her value?
Book 5 - Chapter 24