’Tis a ground and principle in the law, said _Triptolemus_, that things do not ascend, but descend in it; and I make no doubt ’tis for this cause, that however true it is, that the child may be of the blood and seed of its parents----that the parents, nevertheless, are not of the blood and seed of it; inasmuch as the parents are not begot by the child, but the child by the parents --For so they write, _Liberi sunt de sanguine patris & matris, sed pater & mater non sunt de sanguine liberorum_. ----But this, _Triptolemus_, cried _Didius_, proves too much--for from this authority cited it would follow, not only what indeed is granted on all sides, that the mother is not of kin to her child--but the father likewise. ----It is held, said _Triptolemus_, the better opinion; because the father, the mother, and the child, though they be three persons, yet are they but (_una caro_[4.13]) one flesh; and consequently no degree of kindred----or any method of acquiring one _in nature_. ----There you push the argument again too far, cried _Didius_----for there is no prohibition _in nature_, though there is in the Levitical law----but that a man may beget a child upon his grandmother----in which case, supposing the issue a daughter, she would stand in relation both of ----But who ever thought, cried _Kysarcius_, of lying with his grandmother? ------The young gentleman, replied _Yorick_, whom _Selden_ speaks of----who not only thought of it, but justified his intention to his father by the argument drawn from the law of retaliation. --“You lay, Sir, with my mother,” said the lad-- “why may not I lie with yours?” ----’Tis the _Argumentum commune_, added _Yorick_. ----’Tis as good, replied _Eugenius_, taking down his hat, as they deserve. The company broke up. [Footnote 4.10: Vide Swinburn on Testaments, Part 7, §8.] [Footnote 4.11: Vide Brook, Abridg. Tit. Administr. N. 47.] [Footnote 4.12: Mater non numeratur inter consanguineos, Bald. in ult. C. de Verb. signific.] [Footnote 4.13: Vide Brook, Abridg. tit. Administr. N. 47.] CHAPTER XXX --And pray, said my uncle _Toby_, leaning upon _Yorick_, as he and my father were helping him leisurely down the stairs----don’t be terrified, madam, this stair-case conversation is not so long as the last ----And pray, _Yorick_, said my uncle _Toby_, which way is this said affair of _Tristram_ at length settled by these learned men? Very satisfactorily, replied _Yorick_; no mortal, Sir, has any concern with it----for Mrs. _Shandy_ the mother is nothing at all a-kin to him----and as the mother’s is the surest side ----Mr. _Shandy_, in course, is still less than nothing ------In short, he is not as much a-kin to him, Sir, as I am.---- ----That may well be, said my father, shaking his head. ----Let the learned say what they will, there must certainly, quoth my uncle _Toby_, have been some sort of consanguinity betwixt the duchess of _Suffolk_ and her son.