Though man is of all others the most curious vehicle, said my father, yet at the same time 'tis of so slight a frame, and so totteringly put together, that the sudden jerks and hard jostlings it unavoidably meets with in this rugged journey, would overset and tear it to pieces a dozen times a day----was it not, brother _Toby_, that there is a secret spring within us. --Which spring, said my uncle _Toby_, I take to be Religion. --Will that set my child's nose on? cried my father, letting go his finger, and striking one hand against the other. ----It makes everything straight for us, answered my uncle _Toby_. ----Figuratively speaking, dear _Toby_, it may, for aught I know, said my father; but the spring I am speaking of, is that great and elastic power within us of counterbalancing evil, which, like a secret spring in a well-ordered machine, though it can't prevent the shock----at least it imposes upon our sense of it.

'Though man is so curious a vehicle,' said my father, 'yet his frame is so slight, and so totteringly put together, that the sudden jostlings it unavoidably meets with in this rugged journey, would tear it to pieces a dozen times a day - were it not, brother Toby, that there is a secret spring within us.'
'I take it you mean Religion,' said my uncle Toby.
'Will that set my child's nose on?' cried my father, letting go his finger.
'It makes everything straight for us,' answered my uncle Toby.
'Figuratively speaking, dear Toby, it may,' said my father; 'but the spring I am speaking of, is that great power within us of counterbalancing evil, which, like a secret spring in a well-ordered machine, though it can't prevent the shock - at least it deadens our sense of it.
