The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

When my father had danced his white bear backwards and forwards through half a dozen pages, he closed the book for good an' all, -- and in a kind of triumph redelivered it into Trim's hand, with a nod to lay it upon the 'scrutoire, where he found it.

-- -- -Tristram, said he, shall be made to conjugate every word in the dictionary, backwards and forwards the same way; -- -- -every word, Yorick, by this means, you see, is converted into a thesis or an hypothesis; -- every thesis and hypothesis have an offspring of propositions; -- and each proposition has its own consequences and conclusions; every one of which leads the mind on again, into fresh tracks of enquiries and doubtings.