where thou art the mark of one man's envy, another man's malice, or a third man's revenge,where good men may be ready to fufpect thee, and whence bad men will be ready to pull thee down? I would be proud of nothing that is uncertain: Haman was fo, because he was admitted alone to queen Efther's banquet; and the diftinction raised him, but it was fifty cubits higher than he ever dream'd or thought of. Let us pafs on to the pretences of learning, &c. &c. If thou hast a little, thou wilt be proud of it in courfe: if thou haft much, and good fenfe along with it, there will be no reason to difpute against the paffion: a beggarly parade of remnants is but a forry object of pride at the best;-but more fo, when we can cry out upon it, as the poor man did of his hatchet,Alas! mafter, for it was borrowed *. It is treafon to fay the fame of Beauty,whatever we do of the arts and ornaments with which Pride is wont to fet it off: the weakest minds are moft caught with both; being ever glad to win attention and credit from fmall and fender accidents, through disability of purchas ing them by better means. SERMON XXIV. PAGE 182. * II. Kings, 6. 7. CRITICISM. HO CRITICISM. WOW did Garrick fpeak the foliloquy last night? Oh, against all rule, my lord,most ungrammatically! betwixt the substantive and the adjective, which should agree together in number, cafe, and gender, he made a breach thus,-stopping, as if the point wanted fettling; and betwixt the nominative cafe, which your lordship knows should govern the verb, he suspended his voice in the epilogue a dozen times, three feconds and three fifths by a stop-watch, my lord, each time-Admirable grammarian! -But in fufpending his voice-was the fenfe fufpended likewife? did no expreffion of attitude, or countenance fill up the chaẩm ?-Was the eye filent? Did you narrowly look? I fook'd: only at the top-watch, my lord.-Excellent obferver! And what of this new book the whole world makes fuch a rout about?-Oh! 'tis out of all plumb, my lord, quite an irregular thing!not one of the angles at the four corners was a right angle. I had my rule and compaffes, &c. my lord, in my pocket -Excellent critic! -And for the epick poem your lordship bid me look at upon taking the length, breadth, heighth and depth of it, and trying them at home ( home upon an exact scale of Bossu's-'tis out, my lord, in every one of its dimenfions.-Admirable connoiffeur !-And did you ftep in, to take a look at the grand picture in your way back"Tis a melancholy daub! my lord; not one principal of the pyramid in any one group!-and what a price!-for there is nothing of the colouring of Titian-the expreffion of Rubens-the grace of Raphael-the purity of Dominichino-the corregiefcity of Corregio-the learning of Pauffinthe airs of Guido-the taste of the Carrachis-or the Grand contour of Angelo.-Grant me patience, just Heaven!-Of all the cants which are canted in this canting world-though the cant of hypocrites, may be the worst-the cant of criticism is the most tormenting! I would go fifty miles on foot to kiss the hand of that man whofe generous heart will give up the reins of his imagination into his author's hands -be pleafed he knows not why, and cares not wherefore. T. SHANDY, VOL. II. P. 25. EPITAPH ON A LADY. COLU NOLUMNS and labour'd urns but vainly show The sweet Companion, and the friend fincere, In In heart-felt numbers, never meant to shine, "Twill flow eternal o'er a hearfe like thine. "Twill flow whilft gentle goodness has one friend, Or kindred tempers have a tear to lend. LETTER XLI. DEATH-BED REPENTANCE. W and the fpirits of youthful days are coo THEN the edge of appetite is worn down, led, which hurried us on in a circle of pleasure and impertinence, then, reafon and reflection will have the weight which they deferve ;afflictions, or the bed of fickness, will fupply the place of confcience; and if they should fail,old age will overtake us at laft, and fhew. us the past purfuits of life,-and force us to look upon them in their true point of view.-If there is any thing more to caft a cloud upon fo melancholy a profpect as this fhews us,-it is furely the difficulty and hazard of having all the work of the day to perform in the last hour; -of making an atonement to GOD when we have no facrifice to offer him, but the dregs and infirmities of thofe days, when we could have no pleafare in them. Whatever ftrefs fome may lay upon it,-a death-bed repentance is but a weak and flender plank to trust our all upon. SERMON XXXVII. P. 142. HUMOURING OF CERTAIN APPETITES. T RAVELLERS on a businefs of the last and moft important concern, may be allowed to please their eyes with the natural and artifici al beauties of the country they are paffing through, without reproach of forgetting the main errand they were fent upon; and if they are not led out of their road by variety of prospects, edifices and ruins, would it not be a fenfeless piece of feverity to shut their eyes against such gratifications-For who has required fuch fervice at their hands? SERMON XXXVII. P. 131. T1 INHUMANITY. HERE is a fecret fhame which attends eveact of inhumanity not to be conquered in the hardest natures. гу Many a man will do a cruel act, who at the fame time will blufh to look you in the face, and is forced to turn afide before he can have a heart to execute his purpose, Inçonfiftent creature that a man is! who at that inftant that he does what is wrong, is not able to withhold his teftimony to what is good and praife-worthy. SERMON III. P. 56. 1 |