Date: 1760-7
"Whether they were above my uncle Toby's reason,--or contrary to it,-- or that his brain was like wet tinder, and no spark could possibly take hold,--or that it was so full of saps, mines, blinds, curtins, and such military disqualifications to his seeing clearly into Prignitz and Scroderus's doc...
preview | full record— Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768)
Date: 1774, rev. 1787, 1779 in English
"And yet I wish--Oh! my friend, 'tis like drawing a curtain before my heart--only to taste this felicity, and die and expiate my crimes.--My crimes!"
preview | full record— Goethe, Johann Wolfgang (1749-1832)