Copernican system, called so after his name; and the backslidings of my aunt Dinah in her orbit, did the same service in establishing my father’s system, which, I trust, will forever hereafter be called the Shandean System , after this.
In any other family dishonour, my father, I believe, had as nice a sense of shame as any man whatever;⸺and neither he, nor, I dare say, Copernicus , would have divulged the affair in either case, or have taken the least notice of it to the world, but for the obligations they owed, as they thought, to truth.— Amicus Plato , my father would say, construing the words to my uncle Toby , as he went along, Amicus Plato ; that is, Dinah was my aunt;— sed magis amica veritas ⸺but Truth is my sister.
This contrariety of humours betwixt my father and my uncle, was the source of many a fraternal squabble. The one could not bear to hear the tale of family disgrace recorded,⸺and the other would scarce ever let a day pass to an end without some hint at