"in

"of Perfeus, among the reft, O Cu"pid, prince of gods and men, &c. "that every man almoft, a good, "while after, fpake pure iambics, "and raved ftill on Perfeus's fpeech, "O Cupid, prince of gods and men. "As car-men, boys, and prentices, "when a new fong is published with us, go finging that new tune ftill the treets, they continua ly "acted that tragical part of Perfeus, "and in every man's mouth was, O "Cupid, in every ftreet, O Cupid, in "every houfe almoft, O Cupid, "prince of gods and men; pronoun. "cing ftill, like ftage-players, O Cu"pid. They were fo poffeffed all with that rapture, and thought of "that pathetical love fpeech, they "could not, a long time after, for get, or drive it out of their minds, "but, O Cupid, prince of gods and men, was ever in their mouths." Why Sterne fhould have called this a fragment, I cannot imagine; unless, as Burton forgot to quote his author, Stene was not aware that the ftory was taken from the introduction to Lucian's Effay on the Method of writing Hiftory.

46

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Button has fpoiled this paffage by an u. faithful tranflation. Sterne has worked it up to a beautiful picture, but very different from the original in Lucian, with which, I am perfuaded, he was unacquainted.

That part of Mr Shandy's letter to Uncle Toby, which confits of obfolete medical practices, is taken from one of Burton's chapters on the cure of Love melancholyt.

Gordonius's prescription of a fevere beating for the cure of love, feems to have entertained Sterne - greatly. This remedy was once a favourite with phyficians, in the cure of many diseases: there was then good reafon for giving birch a place in the difpenfatories. To fay nothing of

Luther's practice in the cafe of his maid-fervant, which I fhall have occafion to mention afterwards, we find in the Appendix to Wepfer's Hiftoria Apoplecticorum, an account of a foldier, who prevented an attack of the apoplexy, by flogging himself, till blood ran freely from his back and notrils. Oribafius, one of the vir tuofi of that time, wrote to recommend whipping in tevers. Dr. Musgrave quotes a German phyfician, who cured two of his patients of dyfentery, by drubbing them as much as was fufficient.

The practice of these terrible doctors among unfortunate lunatics, is too notorious. One of them directs the application for love melancholy in this elegant manner, in his book fi juvenis eft, flagelletur ejus culus cum verberibu §, et fi non fistit, ponatur in fundo turris cum pane et aqua, &c.

;

Campanello telis a curious story of an Italian prince, an excellent mufician, qui alvam deponere non poterat, nifi verberatus a fervo ad id adfetto ||1 omit many other prefcriptions of the fame kind. Thefe inftances are fufficient to establish the predilection of the faculty for this practice, which Butler has fo highly celebrated for its moral tendency:

"Whipping that's virtue's governefs,
Tut'refs of arts and fciences;
That mends the grofs miftakes of nature,
And puts new life into duli matter;
That lays foundation for renown,
And all the honours of the gown.

Peter I. of Ruffia feems to have adopted this philofophy, for we are affured that he was accustomed to cane his minifters and courtiers, for high mifdemeanours, with his own imperial hands.

Sterne has made frequent references to Montaigne: the beft cominentary on the fifth chapter of Triftram Shandy

Meibomius, p. 5, et feq.”

Shandy, vol. VIII. is Montaigne's effay on the fubject of that chapter. Charges of plagiarifin in his Ser. mons have been brought against

the poor widow out of her doors, oppreffed with forrow †.'

"The prophet follows the call of his God; the fame hand that brought

ous to investigate, as in that fpecies of compofition the principal matter muft confit of repetitions. But it has long been my opinion, that the manner, the ftyle, and the selection of fubjects for thofe fermons, were derived from the excellent Contemplations of Bishop Hall. There is a delicacy of thought, and tenderness of expreffion in the good Bishop's compofitions, from the transfufion of which Sterne looked for immortality. Sterne's twelfth Sermon, on the Forgiveness of Injuries, is merely a dilated commentary on the beautiful conclufion of the Contemplation of 'Jofeph.'

this poor widow out of her doors ‡." The fucceeding paffages which correfpond are too long for infertion.

Sterne has acknowledged his acquaintance with this book, by the difingenuity of two ludicrous quotations in Triftram Shandy §.

The ufe which Sterne made of Burton and Hall, and his great familiarity with their works, had confiderable influence on his ftyle; it was rendered, by affimilation with theirs, more easy, more natural, and more expreffive. Every writer of tafte and feeling muft indeed be iuvigorated, by drinking at the pure 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 ftrive to appropriate them.

There is one paffage in the feventh volume, which the circumftances of Sterne's death render pathetic. A believer in the doctrine of pre-fentiment would think it a prop to his theory. It is as ftriking as Swift's digreffion on madness, in the Tale of a Tub.

• Was I in a condition to flipulate with death-I fhould certainly declare againft fubmitting to it before my friends; and therefore I never feriously think upon the mode and manner of this great catastrophe, which generally takes up and torments my thoughts as much as the catastrophe itfelf; but I conftantly draw the curtain acrofs it with this wifh, that the Difpofer of all things may fo order it, that it happen not to me in my own houfe-but rather in fome decent inn-At home,I know it,the concern of my 6 friends,

Bishop Hall, p. 13235"

'friends, and the last services of wiping my brows and fmoothing my pillow, will fo crucify my foul, that I fhall die of a diftemper which my phyfician is not aware of: but in < an inn, the few cold offices I wanted, would be purchafed with a few guineas, and paid me with an undif turbed but punctual attention.' It is known that Sterne died in hired lodgings, and I have been told, that his attendants robbed him even of his gold fleeve-buttons, while he was expiring.

Yet a paragraph in Burnet's Hiftory of his owu Times has been pointed out in a periodical work *, from which both the fentiments and expreffions of Sterne, in this paffage, were certainly taken. This appears

to me one of the most curious detections of his imitations; but I fhall not be furprifed if many others, equally unexpected, fhould be noticed hereafter. The extract from Burnet follows:

He (Archbishop Leighton) ufed often to say, that if he were to choose a place to die in, it fhould be an inn; it looking like a pilgrim's going home, to whom this world was all as an inn, and who was weary of the noife and confufion in it. He added, that the officious • tenderness and care of friends was 'an entanglement to a dying man;

and that the unconcerned attend'ance of thofe that could be procured in fuch a place would give lefs difturbancet.'

from Brantome's sketch of it.

• Et

entre autres il en fit une d'elle fur un traduction en Italien; car il le 'parloit et Pentendoit bien, qui com

The affair of Chaftelard, of which the fame writer gives us an account, fhows her affability to men of genius; though it must be confeffed, that she exhibited at laft, a degree of prudery, perhaps too auftere,

Chaftelard was a young man of family and talents, who had embark-` ed in the fuite of Mary, when the returned from France, to take poffeffion of a difgufting fovereignty. He paid his court to the queen by compofing feveral pieces of poetry, during the voyage, and one among the reft, which I have been tempted to imitate

ni, &c. Qui eft un fonnet très 'bien fait, dont la fubftance eft telle: De quoi fert poffeder tant de royaumes, citez, villes, provinces ; commander a tant de peuples; fe faire respecter, craindre et admirer, et voir d'un chacun; et dormir vefve, fcule et froide comme glace?

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And

we forgot the numerous prophecies delivered during the prefent war, and the search in old books of the last century for fomething like prophecies, and did we observe no impreffion amidft the gloom of the times even upon men who were not fools?

Wonders.

If travellers are abfurd in relating wonders, the world is equally abfurd in disbelieving them in the grofs. I knew a very worthy gentleman who never was believed, and yet never told a falsehood. rie had given himself a habit of relating every thing extraordinary which his obfervant mind had collected in a long life, and never mentioned any ordinary occurrence. Such is often the fate of travellers. When Mr Bruce spoke of a camera obfcrua which would hold a large company, it appeared apocryphal, till a common fhowman exhibited the very fame thing in our streets. When he talked to me of pyramidal mountains inverted, I thought it fabulous, till, in common defcriptions of Auvergne, I found accounts of montag nes efcarpées of a fhape not entirely diffimilar; and I own fome discoveries of this nature so far altered my opin ion, that when he talked to me of carving from live animals, I only fufpended my affent, without decided dfbelief*. The wonderful ftory of the Upas, to be found in the notes to the poem of the Botanic Garden, feems only an exaggeration of the qualities of the poifon tree, well known in fome parts of America, or of the marfh miafma, which Townfendt fearched for in Spain; and the fifh whofe fi

militude to the human form gave rife to the fable of the mermaid, is common on the coaft of Africa ‡. The unicorn is evidently the rhinoceros, and the griffin a mere picture drawn by terror, in defcribing fome tremendous fnake. I feel therefore a tendency different from the greater part of the world, and am rather inclined to believe than difbelieve, that is, to look for fome foundation of truth at least, though perhaps magnified or diftorted.

Manners and Customs.

Dr. Henry, and many others, have given us defcriptions of the manners of the centuries before the laft, but I want a sketch of thofe of the laft and prefent centuries. It furely would make an amufing work, and the materials are abundant for the man who has leifure. I would begin with the Restoration, and mark the dreffes, the fafhions, the hours, the reigning tafte, the favourite trifles, the places of amusement. For inftance, when Clarendon tells me, that Lord Stafford came down to the Houfe the day he was impeached, at three o'clock in the afternoon, and was surprised to hear that the House was fitting fo late, it marks amufingly the wonderful change of hours of business; when he mentious, that Mr Hyde met the Earl of Bedford at a place called Piccadilly, which was a fair houfe for entertainment and gaming, with handfome gravel walks, with fhade, and where were an upper and lower bowling-green, whither very many of the nobility and gentry of the beft quality reforted

See Townsend's Travels in Spain.

See Aftley's Collection of Voyages.