for female perusal."

66

"My dear good lady,"

replied the author, "do not be gulled by such stories; the book is like your young heir there," (pointing to a child of three years old, who was rolling on the carpet in his white tunics)" he shews at times a good deal that is usually concealed, but it is all in perfect innocence!"

DESIGN OF TRISTRAM SHANDY

G. E. G. to the Printer of the St. James Chronicle*

SIR,- The very extraordinary Genius and first-rate Wit of the late Mr. Sterne have rendered his Name and his Works so famous, and his Imitators have been so numerous, that I apprehend any Information concerning him or his Writings will be acceptable. The following Letter was written to a Friend of mine by one of his Acquaintance, in Answer to some Queries proposed by the former, concerning Mr. Sterne. It relates to the first two Volumes only of his Life of Tristram Shandy, as the others were not published at that Time. The Gentleman did not then choose to put his Name to it, and my Friend not having taken any Memorandum of it, does not recollect who his Correspondent was.

You may, however, Sir, be assured that the Letter is genuine, and that the Facts mentioned in it are to be depended on.

Taken from the fly-leaves of Isaac Reed's copy of Sterne's first two sermons, now owned by Mr. W. A. White, of New York City.

As the Editors of the other Newspapers generally take the Liberty of copying any curious Paper they see in yours, and without saying whence they stole them, I just mention that I send this to the St. James's Chronicle, and to no other, in order to prevent your Readers from supposing that you have copied from them.

April 10th, 1788

Your's,

G. E. G.

April 15th, 1760.

Indeed, my dear Sir, your Letter was quite a Surprise to me; I had heard that Mr. Shandy had engaged the Attention of the gay Part of the World, but when a Gentleman of your active and useful Turn can find Time for so many Enquiries about him, I see it is not only by the Idle and the Gay that he is read and admired, but by the Busy and the Serious : Nay, Common-Fame says, but Common-Fame is a great Liar, that it is not only a Duke and an Earl and a new made Bishop, who are contending for the Honour of being Godfather to his dear Child Tristram, but that Men and Women too, of all Ranks and Denominations,

are caressing the Father, and providing Slavering-Bibs for the Bantling.

In Answer to your Enquiries, I have sate down to write a longer Letter than usual, to tell you all I know about him and the Design of his Book. I think it was some Time in June last that he showed me his Papers, more than would make four such Volumes as those two he has published, and we sate up a whole Night together reading them. I thought I discovered a Vein of Humour, which must take with Readers of Taste, but I took the Liberty to point out some gross Allusions which I apprehended would be Matter of just Offense, and especially when coming from a Clergyman, as they would betray a Forgetfulness of his Character. He observed, that an Attention to his Character would damp his Fire and check the Flow of his Humour, and that if he went on, and hoped to be read, he must not look at his Band or his Cassock. I told him, that an over Attention to his Character might perhaps have that Effect, but that there was no Occasion for him to think all the Time he was writing his Book, that he was writing Sermons. That it was no difficult Matter to avoid the Dirtiness of Swift on the one Hand, and the Looseness

of Rabelais on the other and that if he steered in that middle Course, he might make it not only a very entertaining, but a very instructive and useful Book; and on that Plan I said all I could to encourage him to come out with a Volume or two in the Winter.

At this Time he was haunted with Doubts and Fears of its not taking. He did not, however, think fit to follow my Advice, yet when the two Volumes came out, I wrote a Paper or two by Way of recommending them, and particularly pointed to Yorick, Trim reading the Sermon, and such Parts as I was most pleased with myself.

If any Apology can be made for his gross Allusions and double Entendres, it is, that his Design is to take in all Ranks and Professions, and to laugh them out of their Absurdities. If you should ask him, why he begins his Hero nine Months before he is born, his Answer would be, that he might exhibit some Character inimitably ridiculous, without going out of his Way, and which he could not introduce with Propriety, had he begun him later. But as he intends to produce him somewhere in the 3d or 4th Volume, we will hope, if he does not