My uncle _Toby_’s opinion, Madam, “that there could be no harm in _Cornelius Gallus_, the _Roman_ prætor’s lying with his wife;”——or rather the last word of that opinion,—(for it was all my mother heard of it) caught hold of her by the weak part of the whole sex:——You shall not mistake me,—I mean her curiosity,—she instantly concluded herself the subject of the conversation, and with that prepossession upon her fancy, you will readily conceive every word my father said, was accommodated either to herself, or her family concerns. ——Pray, Madam, in what street does the lady live, who would not have done the same? From the strange mode of _Cornelius_’s death, my father had made a transition to that of _Socrates_, and was giving my uncle _Toby_ an abstract of his pleading before his judges;——’twas irresistible:——not the oration of _Socrates_,—but my father’s temptation to it.——He had wrote the Life of _Socrates_[23] himself the year before he left off trade, which, I fear, was the means of hastening him out of it;——so that no one was able to set out with so full a sail, and in so swelling a tide of heroic loftiness upon the occasion, as my father was. Not a period in _Socrates_’s oration, which closed with a shorter word than _transmigration_, or _annihilation_,—or a worse thought in the middle of it than _to be—or not to be_,—the entering upon a new and untried state of things,—or, upon a long, a profound and peaceful sleep, without dreams, without disturbance?——_That we and our children were born to die,—but neither of us born to be slaves._——No—there I mistake; that was part of _Eleazer_’s oration, as recorded by _Josephus (de Bell. Judaic)_——_Eleazer_ owns he had it from the philosophers of _India;_ in all likelihood _Alexander_ the Great, in his irruption into _India_, after he had over-run _Persia_, amongst the many things he stole,—stole that sentiment also; by which means it was carried, if not all the way by himself (for we all know he died at _Babylon_), at least by some of his maroders, into _Greece_,—from _Greece_ it got to _Rome_,—from _Rome_ to _France_,—and from _France_ to _England:_——So things come round.—— By land carriage, I can conceive no other way.—— By water the sentiment might easily have come down the _Ganges_ into the _Sinus Gangeticus_, or _Bay of Bengal_, and so into the _Indian Sea;_ and following the course of trade (the way from _India_ by the _Cape of Good Hope_ being then unknown), might be carried with other drugs and spices up the _Red Sea_ to _Joddah_, the port of _Mekka_, or else to _Tor_ or _Sues_, towns at the bottom of the gulf; and from thence by karrawans to _Coptos_, but three days journey distant, so down the _Nile_ directly to _Alexandria_, where the SENTIMENT would be landed at the very foot of the great stair-case of the _Alexandrian_ library,——and from that store-house it would be fetched.——Bless me! what a trade was driven by the learned in those days!