wife, beginning with the great broad cloak of hypocrify, and fo down through all its little trimmings and facings, tearing away without mercy all that look'd feemly, we should leave but a tatter'd world of it. SERM. XVII. P. 50.' D DEFAMATION. OES humanity clothe and educate the unknowIY orphan Poverty, thou haft no genealogies: -See! is he not the father of the child? Thus do we rob heroes of the best part of their glory-their virtue. Take away the motive of the act, you takeaway all that is worth having in it -wrest it to ungenerous ends, you load the virtuous man who did it. with infamyundo it all-I befeech you, give him back his honour,-restore the jewel you have taken from him-replace him in the eye of the world It is too late. IBID. P. 52. T RELIGION. THERE are no principles but thofe of religion to be depended on in cafes of real distress; and these are able to encounter the worst emergencies, and to bear us up, under all the changes and chances to which our life is fubject. SERM. KV. P. Ihon GRE ELOQUENCE. REAT is the power of eloquence; but never is it fo great as when it pleads along with nature, and the culprit is a child ftrayed from his duty, and returned to it again with tears. CORPORAL TRIM'S DEFINITION OF INFER, an' pleafe your worship, replied Trim, that the radical moisture is nothing in the world but ditch-water--and that the radical heat, of those who can go to the expence of it, is burnt brandythe radical heat and moisture of a private man, an' please your honours, is nothing but ditch-water—and a dram of geneva-and give us but enough of it, with a pipe of tobacco, to give us fpirits, and drive away the vapours we know not what it is to fear death. am at a loss, Captain Shandy, quoth Doctor Sop, to determine in which branch of learning your fervant fhines moft, whether in phyfiology or divinity. Slop had not forgot. Trim's comment upon the fer mon. It is but an hour ago, replied Yorick, fince the Corporal was examined in the latter, and pass'd muster with great honour. The radical heat and moisture, quoth Doctor Slop, turning to my father, you must know is the bafis and foundation of our being as the root of a tree is the fource and principle of its vegetation, it is inherent in the feeds of all animals, and may be preferved fundry ways, but principally, in my opinion, by confubftamials, impriments, and occludents.Now this poor fellow, continued Doctor Slop, pointing to the Corporal, has had the misfortune to have heard fome fuperficial empiric difcourfe upon this nice point. That he has, faid my father. Very likely, faid my uncle.I'm fure of it, quoth Yorick, T. SHANDY, VOL. III. CHAP, 40. SOCIETY. NOTWITHSTANDING all we meet with in books, in many of which, no doubt, there are a good many handfome things faid upon the sweets of retirement, &c.-yet ftill" it is not good for man to be alone:" nor can all which the cold-hearted pedant ftuns our ears with upon the subject, ever give one answer of fatisfaction to the mind; in the midst of the loud. eft vauntings of philofophy, Nature will have her yearnings for fociety and friendship ;-a good heart wants fome object to be kind to-and the best parts of our blood, and the pureft of our fpirits, fuffer moft under the deftitution. Let the torpid Monk feek heaven comfortless and alone God fpeed him! For my own part, I fear, I should never fo find the way: let me be wife and religious-but let me be man: wherever thy Provi-, dence places me, or whatever be the road I take to get to thee-give me fome companion in my journey, be it only to remark to, how our fhadows lengthen as the fun goes down; to whom I may fay, How fresh is the face of Nature! How fweet the flowers of the field! How delicious are these fruits! SERMON XVII. P. 60. DISSATISFACTION. PITY the men whofe natural pleasures are burdens, and who fly, from joy (as thefe fplenetic and morose fouls do) as if it was really an evil in itself. SERMON XXII. P. 145. SORROW AND HEAVINESS OF HEART. I F there is an evil in this world, 'tis forrow and heavinefs of heart The lofs of goods,-of health; of coronets and mitres, are only evils as they occafion forrow;-take that out-the reft is fancy, and dwelleth only in the head of man. Poor unfortunate creature that he is! as if the caufes of anguifh in the heart were not enow-but he must fill up the meafüre with thofe of caprice; and not only walk in a vain fhadow,-but difquiet himself in vain too. We are a reftlefs fet of beings; and as we are likely to continue fo to the end of the world,--the best we can do in it, is to make the fame ufe of this part of our character, which wife men do of other bad propenfities when they find they cannot conquer them,— they endeavour, at least, to divert them into good channels. If therefore we must be a folicitous race of self-tormentors, let us drop the common objects which make us fo,and for God's fake be folicitous only to live well: SERMON XXIXVP. |