"[I]n the planet Mercury (belike) it may be so, if not better still for [the biographer];--for there the intense heat of the country, which is proved by computators, from its vicinity to the sun, to be more than equal to that of red hot iron,--must, I think, long ago have vitrified the bodies of the inhabitants, (as the efficient cause) to suit them for the climate (which is the final cause);  so that, betwixt them both, all the tenements of their souls, from top to bottom, may be nothing else, for aught the soundest philosophy can shew to the contrary, but one fine transparent body of clear glass (bating the umbilical knot);--  so, that till the inhabitants grow old and tolerably wrinkled, whereby the rays of light, in passing through them, become so monstrously refracted,--or return reflected from their surfaces in such transverse lines to the eye, that a man cannot be seen thro';--his soul might as well, unless, for more ceremony,--or the trifling advantage which the umbilical point gave her,--might, upon all other accounts, I say, as well play the fool out o'doors as in her own house."
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
At least 82 entries in ESTC (1759, 1760, 1761, 1762, 1763, 1765, 1767, 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, 1773, 1774, 1775, 1776, 1777, 1779, 1780, 1781, 1782, 1783, 1786, 1788, 1791, 1792, 1793, 1794, 1795, 1796, 1798, 1799, 1800). Complicated publication history: vols. 1 and 2 published in London January 1, 1760. Vols. 3, 4, 5, and 6 published in 1761. Vols. 7 and 8 published in 1765. Vol. 9 published in 1767.<br>
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See Laurence Sterne, <u>The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman</u>, 9 vols. (London: Printed for D. Lynch, 1760-1767). &lt;<a href="http://find.galegroup.com/ecco/infomark.do?&contentSet=ECCOArticles&type=multipage&tabID=T001&prodId=ECCO&docId=CW114738374&source=gale&userGroupName=viva_uva&version=1.0&docLevel=FASCIMILE">Link to ECCO</a>&gt;&lt;<a href="http://find.galegroup.com/ecco/infomark.do?&contentSet=ECCOArticles&type=multipage&tabID=T001&prodId=ECCO&docId=CW114607600&source=gale&userGroupName=viva_uva&version=1.0&docLevel=FASCIMILE">Link to 1759 York edition in ECCO</a>&gt;<br>
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First two volumes available in ECCO-TCP: &lt;<a href="http://name.umdl.umich.edu/004792564.0001.001">Vol. 1</a>&gt;&lt;<a href="http://name.umdl.umich.edu/004792564.0001.002">Vol. 2</a>&gt;. Most text from second London edition &lt;<a href="http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?ctx_ver=Z39.88-2003&xri:pqil:res_ver=0.2&res_id=xri:lion&rft_id=xri:lion:ft:pr:Z000046871:0">Link to LION</a>&gt;.<br>
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For vols. 3-4, see ESTC T14705 &lt;<a href="http://estc.bl.uk/T14705">R. and J. Dodsley, 1761</a>&gt;. For vols. 5-6, see ESTC T14706 &lt;<a href="http://estc.bl.uk/T14706">T. Becket and P. A. Dehondt, 1762</a>&gt;. For vols. 7-8, see ESTC T14820 &lt;<a href="http://estc.bl.uk/T14820">T. Becket and P. A. Dehont, 1765</a>&gt;. For vol. 9, <a href="http://estc.bl.uk/T14824">T. Becket and P. A. Dehondt, 1767</a>.<br>
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Reading in Laurence Sterne, <u>Tristram Shandy: An Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Sources, Criticism</u>, Ed. Howard Anderson (New York: Norton, 1980).