The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

We live in a world beset on all sides with mysteries and riddles -- and so 'tis no matter -- -- -else it seems strange, that Nature, who makes everything so well to answer its destination, and seldom or never errs, unless for pastime, in giving such forms and aptitudes to whatever passes through her hands, that whether she designs for the plough, the caravan, the cart -- or whatever other creature she models, be it but an asse's foal, you are sure to have the thing you wanted; and yet at the same time should so eternally bungle it as she does, in making so simple a thing as a married man.

Whether it is in the choice of the clay -- -- -or that it is frequently spoiled in the baking; by an excess of which a husband may turn out too crusty (you know) on one hand -- -- -or not enough so, through defect of heat, on the other -- -- -or whether this great Artificer is not so attentive to the little Platonic exigences of that part of the species, for whose use she is fabricating this -- -- -or that her Ladyship sometimes scarce knows what sort of a husband will do -- -- -I know not: we will discourse about it after supper.