The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman/Volume 7/Chapter 40
CHAP. XL.
And now for Lippius's clock! said I, with the air of a man, who had got thro' all his difficulties—nothing can prevent us seeing that, and the Chinese history, &c. except the time, said François———for 'tis almost eleven—then we must speed the faster, said I, striding it away to the cathedral.
I cannot say, in my heart, that it gave me any concern in being told by one of the minor canons, as I was entering the west door,—That Lippius's great clock was all out of joints, and had not gone for some years—It will give me the more time, thought I, to peruse the Chinese history; and besides I shall be able to give the world a better account of the clock in it's decay, than I could have done in its flourishing condition———
—And so away I posted to the college of the Jesuits.
Now it is with the project of getting a peep at the history of China in Chinese characters—as with many others I could mention, which strike the fancy only at a distance; for as I came nearer and nearer to the point—my blood cool'd—the freak gradually went off, till, at length I would not have given a cherry-stone to have it gratified—The truth was, my time was short, and my heart was at the Tomb of the Lovers———I wish to God, said I, as I got the rapper in my hand, that the key of the library may be but lost; it fell out as well———
For all the Jesuits had got the cholic—and to that degree, as never was known in the memory of the oldest practitioner.