[following transcribed passage on 'gravity,' from Tristram Shandy I.ii] 'Insight vitiated by instinct of self defence -- probably typical of Sterne, whom I have begun to read. How did he discover the art of leaving out what he wanted to say? And why was it lost again until our own time. Can nothing liberate English fiction from conscientiousness? S. clearly a g[rea]t writer and his philosophy of life almost good and quite good in quotations: "Look at little me" spoils it in the bulk. 'But (now finishing T.S.): what character drawing! [goes on to comment further]'