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the Intelligible World, by Gabriel John. It is a pretty close copy of the Tale of a Tub in manner; some appearances of imitation may, therefore, be, supposed to result from the common reference of both writers to Swift. If Sterne can be supposed to have taken any thing from this book, it must be the hint of his marbled pages. The author of Gabriel John has covered almost the whole of his 163d page with dashes, thus

and he observes in a corner; The author very well understands, that a good sizeable hiatus discovers a very great genius, there being no wit in the world more ideal, and consequently more refined, than what is displayed in those elaborate pages, that have ne'er a syllable written on them. The only subject of doubt respecting the charge of imitation in this case is, that Sterne may be allowed to have possessed sufficient genius to extend one of Swift's hiatus over a whole leaf, without the aid of our anonymous writer.

The essay in question was professedly

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composed to satirize Norris's Theory of the Ideal World; but Hobbes (whose reveries still retained the much injured name of philosophy), Bentley, and Wotton, the objects of Swift's satire, were made equal victims of our author's ridicule. The book contains several poems which have no apparent connection with the general design, excepting some parodies of Dr. Bentley's peculiar system of emendation. It must be owned, that the author had warned the reader, with uncommon candour, in the title page, that he should introduce other strange things, not insufferably clever, nor furiously to the purpose; the worst that can be said of him therefore, is, that he has kept his word.

Another old English book was pointed out, in the Monthly magazine, a few years ago, as a source of imitation for Tristram Shandy. I procured it, by the kind assistance of Colonel Stanley, at a

considerable price, and was happy to dispose of it very soon after, to a collector, who fell in love with the frontispiece.

"The Life of a Satyrical Puppy, called Nim," is a small octavo volume, of 118 pages, "by T. M. printed by and for Humphrey Mosley, at the Prince's Arms, in St. Paul's Church-Yard, 1657." It is dedicated to George Duke of Buckingham, and presents to him Nim, and Bung his man, "both born to attend his lordship's mirth." It appears to me a very lame attempt at personal satire, the object of which cannot now be discovered. The book is extremely rare. Nothing can be more unlike the style of Tristram Shandy, than the contents of this work, and I acquit Sterne completely from the charge of having copied it.

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The frontispiece represents Nim and his man, in the dress of the times. The figure of Bung serves to explain a phrase

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in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night; he is The trunk-breeches do not reach quite to the knee, above and below which, the garter is applied spirally, till it disappears in the boot.

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Why," says our poet, may not imagination trace the noble dust of Alexander, till he find it stopping a bunghole?" These masters of ridicule may be tracked to a state of similar degradation, through the works of estimable writers, to miserable farces, and at length to the jest-books, where the dregs of different authors are so effectually intermingled, that the brightest wit is confounded with the vilest absurdity.

CHAPTER III.

Sketches of ludicrous writers, of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

THE spring has not been more celebrated by poets, than the evening by the authors of facetious books. Perhaps the jovial Deipnosophists of Athenæus influenced Bouchet, and some of the more learned writers of this kind, who represent their discussions as taking place after supper. In the Moyen de Parvenir, the company are supposed to be constantly at table, and to form a sort of Everlasting club.

I. The Serees, or Evenings, of GUILLAUME BOUCHET, have gone through three editions; the first at Paris, in three

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