For three generations at least this _tenet_ in favour of long noses had gradually been taking root in our family. ------TRADITION was all along on its side, and INTEREST was every half-year stepping in to strengthen it; so that the whimsicality of my father's brain was far from having the whole honour of this, as it had of almost all his other strange notions. --For in a great measure he might be said to have suck'd this in with his mother's milk. He did his part however. ----If education planted the mistake (in case it was one) my father watered it, and ripened it to perfection.

For three generations at least this opinion in favour of long noses had gradually been taking root in our family; so my father's whimsical brain was far from having devised this, as it had almost all his other strange notions. He might be said to have sucked this in with his mother's milk. However, if education planted the mistake, my father watered it, and ripened it to perfection.
