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why did you not add, Yorick,-if not by NATURE- that he is fo by NECESSITY?-For what is war? what is it, Yorick, when fought as ours has been, upon principles of liberty, and upon principles of honour-what is it, but the getting together of quiet and harmless people, with their fwords in their hands, to keep the ambitious and the turbulent within bounds? And heaven is my witnefs, brother Shandy, that the pleafure I have taken in these things,—and that infinite delight, in particular, which has attended] my fieges in my bowling green, has arose within me, and I hope in the Corporal too, from the confcioufnefs we both had, that in carrying them on, we were answering the great ends of our creation.

T. SHANDY, VOL. III. CHAP. 75.

MY

MERCY.

Y uncle Toby was a man patient of injuries;-not from want of courage,-where juft occafions presented, or called it forth,—I know no man under whofe arm I would fooner have taken shelter -nor did this arise from any

infenfibility

infenfibility or obtufenefs of his intellectual parts; he was of a peaceful, placid nature,— no jarring element in it,-all was mixed up fo kindly within him; my uncle Toby had fearce a heart to retaliate upon a fly :- Go,-fays he

one day at dinner, to an overgrown one which had buzzed about his nofe, and tormented him cruelly all dinner-time, and which, after infinite attempts, he had caught at laft-as it flew by him I'll not hurt thee, fays my uncle Toby, rifing from his chair, and going across the room, with the fly in his hand, I'll not hurt a hair of thy head:-Go, fays he, lifting up the fafli, and opening his hand as he fpoke, to let it efcape;-go, poor devil, get thee gone, why fhould I hurt thee?-This world furely is wide enough to hold both thee and me.

**

This is to ferve for parents and governors instead of a whole volume upon the fubject. T. SHANDY, VOL. I. CHAP. 37.

INDOLENCE

INDOLENCE.

INCONSISTENT foul that man is!-languishing under wounds which he has the power to heal!-his whole life a contradiction to his knowledge!-his reafon, that precious gift of God to him(inftead of pouring in oil) ferving but to fharpen his fenfibilities,-to multiply his pains and render him more melancholy and uneafy under them!-Poor unhappy. creature, that he fhould do fo!.

are not the

neceffary causes of mifery in this life enow, but he muft add voluntary ones to his stock of forrow;-struggle against evils which cannot be avoided, and fubmit to others, which a tenth part of the trouble they create him, would remove from his heart for ever?

T. SHANDY, VOL. II. CHAP. 14.

CONSOLATION.

CONSOLATION.

EFORE an affliction is digested,—confolation ever comes too foon ;-and after it is digefted-it comes too late :-there is but a mark between these two, as fine almost as a hair, for a comforter to take aim at.

T. SHANDY, VOL. 11.

CHAP. 22.

THE STARLING.

ESHREW the fombre pencil! faid

BESHR

I vauntingly-for I envy not its powers, which paints the evils of life with fo hard and deadly a colouring. The mind fits terrified at the objects fhe has magnified herself, and blackened: reduce them to their proper fize and hue the overlooks them-'Tis true, faid I, correcting the propofition--the Baftile is not an evil to be defpifed-but strip it of its towers- -fill up the fofse- -unbarricade the

doors

doors call it fimply a confinement, and fup pofe 'tis fome tyrant of a diftemperand not of a man which holds you in it- -the evil vanishes, and you bear the other half without complaint.

I was interrupted in the hey-day of this foliloquy, with a voice which I took to be of a child, which complained" it could not get out.' I looked up and down the paffage, and feeing neither man, woman, or child, I went out without further attention.

In my return back through the paffage, I heard the fame words repeated twice over; and looking up, I faw it was a ftarling hung in a little cage" I can't get out-I can't get out," faid the ftarling.

I ftood looking at the bird: and to every perfon who came through the paffage it ran fluttering to the fide towards which they approached it, with the fame lamentations of its captivity" I can't get out," faid the ftarling-God help thee! faid I, but I will let thee out, coft what it will; fo I turned about the cage to get the door; it was twisted and

double

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