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commentary on the beautiful conclusion of the Contemplation of Joseph.'

The sixteenth Sermon contains a more striking imitation. "There is no small degree of malicious craft in fixing upon a season to give a mark of enmity and ill-will; a word, a look, which, at one time, would make no impression,—at another time, wounds the heart; and like a shaft flying with the wind, pierces deep, which with its own natural force, would scarce have reached the object aimed at."

This is little varied from the original : There is no small cruelty in the picking out of a time for mischief; that word would scarce gall at one season, which at another killeth. The same shaft flying with the wind pierces deep, which against it, can hardly find strength to stick upright.*

In Sterne's fifth Sermon, the Contemplation of Elijah with the Sareptan,' is

6

*Hall's Shimei Cursing.

closely followed.

out of others:

Witness this passage The prophet follows the

call of his God:-the same hand which brought him to the gate of the city, had led also the poor widow out of her doors, oppressed with sorrow.'

The prophet follows the call of his God; the same hand that brought him ta the gate of Sarepta, led also this poor widow out of her doars.+

The succeeding passages which correspond, are too long for insertion.

Sterne has acknowledged his acquaintance with this book, by the disingenuity of two ludicrous quotations in Tristram Shandy.‡

The use which Sterne made of Burton and Hall, and his great familiarity with their works, had considerable influence on his style; it was rendered, by assimilation with their's, more easy, more natural, and more expressive.

* Sterne.

↑ Bishop Hall, p. 1323.

Every

Vol. i. chap. xxii. and val. vii. chap. xiii.

writer of taste and feeling must indeed be invigorated, by drinking at the "well of English undefiled;" but like the Fountain of Youth, celebrated in the old romances, its waters generally elude the utmost efforts of those who strive to appropriate them.

CHAPTER V.

Of the personages of Tristram Shandy. Anecdotes of Doctor Slop.

THERE are some peculiarities in the principal characters of Tristram Shandy, which render it probable that Sterne copied them from real life. My enquiries at York have thrown no light on this subject, excepting what regards the personage of Doctor Slop. From some publications which accidentally fell into my hands, I had formed a conjecture, which Dr. Bel comb assures me is supported by tradition, that under this title, Sterne meant to satirize Dr. JOHN BURTON, of York.

Dr. Burton's treatise on midwifery, which was published in 1751, agrees in VOL. I.

I

many respects with the work ascribed to Dr. Slop. It is distinguished by that

zeal for the horrible mechanism of the art, which was carried to an excess at that period: the tire tete, the then newly invented forceps, and other instruments of torture and misery, appear in his sculptures; and the whole composition is calculated to produce, in unprofessional readers, mingled sensations of ridicule and disgust.

The squabble between Dr. Burton and Dr. Smellie is clearly referred to, in Tristram Shandy, vol. ii. p. 119. Smellie, who was an ignorant man, mistook the head-piece of a print, in a collection of obstetrical works, for the name of an author, and quoted* Lithopædus Senonensis with much gravity.

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*The seventeenth author, collected, as you tell "us, by Spachius, is Lithopædus Senonensis, which "instead of being an author, is only the drawing of a petrified child, when taken from its mother, after "she was opened; and this is evident from the title, "Lithopædii Senonensis Icon, which, with the expla"nation, is contained in one single page only."

Burton's Letter to Smellie, p. 21.

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