# Chapter XXXVI explained — The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman > Chapter companion for The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman by Laurence Sterne. ## What happens Walter Shandy's disappointment with Erasmus's dialogue on long noses is recounted, and the narrator warns the reader against letting Satan seize their imagination, urging them to read widely to understand the moral of the marbled page. ## Themes in this chapter ### Knowledge and Philosophy Walter's scholarly pursuit of Erasmus's dialogue and the narrator's insistence on reading for understanding highlight the theme of knowledge. ### The Absurdity of Systems Walter's disappointment with a learned text supporting his hypothesis underscores the absurdity of rigid intellectual systems. ## Character check-ins ### Walter Shandy Disappointed by Erasmus's dialogue on long noses, which he studied in support of his hypothesis. ### Tristram Shandy Narrator who addresses the reader directly, warning against imaginative mischief and urging extensive reading. ## Key lines > Of all the tracts my father was at the pains to procure and study in support of his hypothesis, there was not any one wherein he felt a more cruel disappointment at first, than in the celebrated dialogue between Pamphagus and Cocles , written by the chaste pen of the great and venerable Erasmus , upon the various uses and seasonable applications of long noses. Among all the writings my father worked hard to get and study for his theory, none disappointed him more initially than Erasmus's famous dialogue about the uses of long noses. _Walter's scholarly frustration is introduced._ > Read, read, read, read, my unlearned reader! read⁠—or by the knowledge of the great saint Paraleipomenon ⁠—I tell you beforehand, you had better throw down the book at once; for without much reading , by which your reverence knows I mean much knowledge , you will no more be able to penetrate the moral of the next marbled page (motly emblem of my work!) than the world with all its sagacity has been able to unravel the many opinions, transactions, and truths which still lie mystically hid under the dark veil of the black one. Read extensively, my uneducated reader, or you might as well stop now, because without deep reading and knowledge, you cannot understand the meaning of the upcoming marbled page, just as the world cannot decipher the mysteries hidden in the black page. _The narrator emphasizes the necessity of reading for comprehension._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/tristram_shandy_se/chapters/xxxvi - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/tristram_shandy_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/tristram_shandy_se/chapters