supply, added to a very extensive subscription of the nobility and gentry to three additional volumes of sermons, has afforded a sufficient provision to enable them to support themselves in their late recluse manner of life, to which they have determined to return. As Sterne hath drawn his own character (under the name of Yorick) with great happiness and skill, we will take the liberty of introducing it here, the better to complete our account of the author and his works: — « This is all that ever stagger'd my faith in << regard to Yorick's extraction, who, by what I <«< can remember of him, and by all the accounts << I could ever get of him, seem'd not to have had « one single drop of Danish blood in his whole <«< crasis; in nine hundred years it might possibly << have all run out. I will not philosophize one << moment with you about it; for, happen how it << would, the fact was this: That instead of that «< cold phlegm and exact regularity of sense and «< humours, you would have look'd for in one « so extracted; - he was, on the contrary, as « mercurial and sublimated a composition, << heteroclite a creature in all his declensions « with as much life and whim, and gaîté de cœur << about him, as the kindliest climate could have << engendered and put together. With all this sail, « poor Yorick carried not one ounce of ballast: « he was utterly unpractised in the world; and, -- as <<< at the age of twenty-six, knew just about as well << how to steer his course in it, as a romping un<< suspicious girl of thirteen: so that, upon his first << setting out, the brisk gale of his spirits, as you « will imagine, ran him foul, ten times in a day, << of somebody's tackling; and as the grave and « more slow-paced were oftenest in his way, << you may likewise imagine, 'twas with such he « generally had the ill luck to get the most en<< tangled. For aught I know, there might be some « mixture of unlucky wit at the bottom of such << fracas - For, to speak the truth, Yorick had an << invincible dislike and opposition in his nature <<< to gravity; not to gravity as such-for, where « gravity was wanted, he would be the most grave << and serious of mortal men for days and weeks << together; ;- but he was an enemy to the affec<< tation of it, and declared open war against it, <<< only as it appeared a cloak for ignorance, or << for folly; and then, whenever it fell in his way, << however sheltered and protected, he seldom << gave it much quarter. << Sometimes, in his wild way of talking, he << would say, that gravity was an arrant scoun<<< drel; and he would add, of the most danger. << ous kind too, because a sly one; and that he « verily believed, more honest, well-meaning peo<< ple were bubbled out of their goods and money « by it in one twelvemonth, than by pocket<< picking and shop-lifting in seven. In the naked << temper which a merry heart discovered, he << would say, There was no danger - but to itself: «- whereas the very essence of gravity was << design, and consequently deceit; it was a << taught trick to gain credit of the world for more << sense and knowledge than a man was worth; << and that, with all its pretensions, it was no « better, but often worse, than what a French wit « had long ago defined it — viz. A mysterious «< carriage of the body, to cover the defects of << the mind: which definition of gravity, Yo«rick, with great imprudence, would say, de<< served to be wrote in letters of gold. << But, in plain truth, he was a man unhack« neyed and unpractised in the world, and was <«< altogether as indiscreet and foolish on every << other subject of discourse, where policy is wont << to impress restraint. Yorick had no impression «<< but one, and that was what arose from the << nature of the deed spoken of; which impression << he would usually translate into plain English « without any periphrasis, and too oft without « much distinction of either personage, time or << place; so that when mention was made of a << pitiful or an ungenerous proceeding, he never « gave himself a moment's time to reflect who << was the hero of the piece-what his station · << or how far he had power to hurt him hereafter; <<- but, if it was a dirty action, without more the man was a dirty fellow and so a ado, << on. And as his comments had usually the ill « fate to be terminated either in a bon mot, or << to be enlivened throughout with some drollery << or humour of expression, it gave wings to «Yorick's indiscretion. In a word, though he << never sought, yet, at the same time, as he sel« dom shunn'd occasions of saying what came « uppermost, and without much ceremony, -he << had but too many temptations in life, of scat<< tering his wit and his humour, his gibes and << his jests about him. They were not lost for << want of gathering. >> At the end of the year 1767, Sterne left York, and came to London in order to publish The Sentimental Journey *, which he had written during the preceding summer at his favourite living of Coxwould. His health had been for some time declining; but he continued to visit his friends, and retained his usual flow of spirits. In february 1768, he began to perceive the approaches of death, and with the concern of a good man, and the solicitude of an affectionate parent, devoted his attention to the future welfare of his daughter. After a short struggle with his disorder, his debilitated and worn out frame submitted to fale on the 18th day of march 1768, at his lodgings in Bondstreet. He was buried privately in a new burying ground, belonging to the parish of St. George's, Hanover-square, at twelve o'clock at noon, * Published at London in 1768, in two volumes. attended only by two gentlemen in a mourning coach, no bell tolling. His death was announced in the news-papers of march 22d, 1768, by the following paragraph : << Died at his lodgings in Bond-street, the Rev. « Mr. Sterne. << Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him well; a fellow << of infinite jest, most excellent fancy, etc. >> all agree; WIT, HUMOUR, GENIUS hadst thou, To the AUTHOR of the above Lines, on the Death of YORICK. So!... this is wisdom to insult the dead; Heap fancied crimes upon a mortal's head : -« Sooner than join with thee! - I would say rather Angel of mercy!-thy sweet task be mine « To blot them, ere they reach the throne divine! >> Yorick, farewell! peace dwell around thy stone |