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fort in any thing this world can give.It is this bleffing gives every one to fit quietly under his vine, and reap the fruits of his labour and industry:-in one word, which bespeaks who is the beftower of it-it is that only which keeps up the harmony and order of the world, and preferves every thing in it from ruin and confufion.

SERMON, XLI. P. 203.

OPPOSITION.

HERE are fecret workings in human affairs,

THERE

which over-rule all human contrivance, and counterplot the wifeft of our councils, in so strange and unexpected a manner, as to caft a damp upon our best schemes and warmest endeavours. '

SERMON, XXXIX. P. 170

Captain

Captain Shandy's Fuftification of his own Principles and Condit, in wishing to continue'

I

the War. Written to his Brother.

AM not infenfible, brother Shandy, that

when a man, whofe profeffion is arms, wishes, as I have done, for war-it has an ill afpect to the world; and that, how juft and right foever his motives and intentions may be, -he ftands in an uneafy pofture in vindicating himself from private views in doing it.

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For this caufe, if a foldier is a prudent man, which he may be, without being a jot the lefs brave, he will be fure not to utter his wish in the hearing of an enemy; for fay what he will, an enemy will not believe him. He will be cautious of doing it even to a friend,-left he may fuffer in his efteem :-But if his heart is overcharged, and a fecret figh for arms must have its vent, he will reserve it for the ear of a brother, who knows his character to the bottom, and what his true notions, difpofitions, and principles of honour are: What, I hope, I have been

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been in all these, brother Shandy, would be unbecoming in me to fay :much worse, I know, have I been than I ought,--and fomething worfe, perhaps, than I think: But fuch as I am, you, my dear brother Shandy, who have fucked the fame breafts with me,-and with whom I have been brought up from my cradle, and from whofe knowledge, from the firft hours of of our boyish paftimes, down to this, I have concealed no one action of my life, and scarce a thought in it-Such as I am, brother, you muft by this time know me, with all my vices, and with all my weakneffes too, whether of my age, my temper, my paffions, or my understanding.

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Tell me then, my dear brother Shandy, upon which of them it is, that when I condemned the peace of Utrecht, and grieved the war was not carried on with vigour a little longer, you fhould think your brother did it upon unworthy views; or that in wifhing for war, he should be bad enough to wifh more of his fellow-creatures flain,—more flaves made, and more families driven from their peaceful habitations, mere ly for his own pleasure :-Tell me, brother Shandy, upon what one deed of mine do you ground it?

If

If when I was, a fchool-boy, I could not hear a drum beat, but my heart beat with itwas it my fault? Did I plant the propensity there? Did I found the alarm within? or Nature?

When Guy, Earl of Warwick, and Parifmus and Parifmenus, and Valentine and Orfon, and the Seven Champions of England were handed around the school,-were they not all purchased with my own pocket money? Was that felfish, brother Shandy? When we read over the fiege of Troy, which lafted ten years and eight months, --though with fuch a train of artillery as we had at Namur, the town might have been carried in a week-was I not as much concerned for the Greeks and Trojans as any boy of the whole school? Had I not three ftrokes of a ferola given me,, two on my right hand and one on my left, for calling Helena a bitch for it? Did any one of you fhed more tears for Hector? And when king Priam came to the camp to beg his body, and returned weeping back to Troy without it, you know, brother, I could not eat my dinner.

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Did that befpeak me cruel? Or becaufe, brother Shandy, my blood flew out into the

camp,

camp, and my heart panted for war, was it a proof it could not ache for the diftreffes of

war too!

O brother! 'tis one thing for a foldier to gather laurels,—and 'tis another to fcatter cypress.

-Tis one thing, brother Shandy, for a foldier to hazard his own life-to leap firft down into the trench, where he is fure to be cut in pieces:-Tis one thing from public spirit and a thirft of glory, to enter the breach the first man, to ftand in the foremost rank, and march bravely on with drums and trumpets, and colours flying about his ears :-'Tis one thing, I fay, brother Shandy, to do this, and 'tis another thing to reflect on the miseries of war ;— to view the defolations of whole countries, and confider the intolerable fatigues and hardships which the foldier himself, the inftrument who works them, is forced (for fix-pence a day, if he can get it) to undergo.

Need I be told, dear Yorick, as I was by you, in Le Fever's funeral fermon, That fo foft and · gentle a creature, born to love, to mercy, and kindness, as man is, was not shaped for this ? But

why

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