no author, who understands just the boundaries of decorum & good-breeding would presume to think all: the truest respect which you can pay to the reader's understanding, is to halve this matter amicably, & leave him something to imagine, in his turn, as well as yourself, for my own part, i am eternally paying him compliments of this kind, & do all that lies in my power to keep his imagination as busy as my own.

laurence sterne