he juris-consulti--the
jurisprudentes--the civilians--the advocates--the commissaries--the
judges of the consistory and prerogative courts of Canterbury and York,
with the master of the faculties, were all unanimously of opinion, That
the mother was not of (Mater non numeratur inter consanguineos, Bald. in
ult. C. de Verb. signific.) kin to her child.--

And what said the duchess of Suffolk to it? said my uncle Toby.

The unexpectedness of my uncle Toby's question, confounded Kysarcius
more than the ablest advocate--He stopp'd a full minute, looking in
my uncle Toby's face without replying--and in that single minute
Triptolemus put by him, and took the lead as follows.

'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 (Vide Brook Abridg. tit. Administr. N.47.)) 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 laying 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
laid, Sir, with my mother,' said the lad--'why may not I lay with
yours?'--'Tis the Argumentum commune, added Yorick.--'Tis as good,
replied Eugenius, taking down his hat, as they deserve.

The company broke up.

Chapter 2.LXV.

--And pra