 her.«
    [The language is good, and I declare Trim reads very well, quoth my father.]
    »Now, - as conscience is nothing else but the knowledge which the mind has
within herself of this; and the judgment, either of approbation or censure,
which it unavoidably makes upon the successive actions of our lives; 'tis plain
you will say, from the very terms of the proposition, - whenever this inward
testimony goes against a man, and he stands self-accused, - that he must
necessarily be a guilty man. - And, on the contrary, when the report is
favourable on his side, and his heart condemns him not; -- that it is not a
matter of trust, as the Apostle intimates, - but a matter of certainty and fact,
that the conscience is good, and that the man must be good also.«
    [Then the Apostle is altogether in the wrong, I suppose, quoth Dr. Slop, and
the Protestant divine is in the right. Sir, have patience, replied my father,
for I think it will presently appear that St. Paul and the Protestant divine are
both of an opinion. - As nearly so, quoth Dr. Slop, as East is to West; - but
this, continued he, lifting both hands, comes from the liberty of the press.
    It is no more, at the worst, replied my uncle Toby, than the liberty of the
pulpit; for it does not appear that the sermon is printed, or ever likely to be.
    Go on, Trim, quoth my father.]
    Another is sordid,
    [Sterne: The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman, S. 190.
Digitale Bibliothek Band 57: Operntexte von Monteverdi bis Strauss, S. 191 (vgl.
Sterne-Tristram Shandy, S. 97)]
    »At first sight this may seem to be a true state of the case; and I make no
doubt but the knowledge of right and wrong is so truly impressed upon the mind
of man, - that did no such thing ever happen, as that the conscience of a man,
by long habits of sin, might (as the scripture assures it may) insensibly become
hard; -- and, like some tender parts of his body, by much stress and continual
hard usage, lose, by degrees, that nice sense and perception with which God and
nature endow'd it. - Did this never happen; - or was it certain that self-love
could never hang the least bias upon the judgment; - or that the little
