——If it be but right done, quoth he:—only tell us, cried my mother, interrupting him, what herbs?——For that, replied my father, you must send for Dr. _Slop._ My mother went down, and my father went on, reading the section as follows, * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *—Very well,—said my father, * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *—nay, if it has that convenience——and so without stopping a moment to settle it first in his mind, whether the _Jews_ had it from the _Egyptians_, or the _Egyptians_ from the _Jews_,—he rose up, and rubbing his forehead two or three times across with the palm of his hand, in the manner we rub out the footsteps of care, when evil has trod lighter upon us than we foreboded,—he shut the book, and walked down stairs.—Nay, said he, mentioning the name of a different great nation upon every step as he set his foot upon it—if the EGYPTIANS,—the SYRIANS,—the PHOENICIANS,—the ARABIANS,—the CAPPADOCIANS,——if the COLCHI, and TROGLODYTES did it——if SOLON and PYTHAGORAS submitted,—what is TRISTRAM?——Who am I, that I should fret or fume one moment about the matter? C H A P. XXVIII DEAR _Yorick_, said my father smiling (for _Yorick_ had broke his rank with my uncle _Toby_ in coming through the narrow entry, and so had stept first into the parlour)—this _Tristram_ of ours, I find, comes very hardly by all his religious rites.—Never was the son of _Jew, Christian, Turk_, or _Infidel_ initiated into them in so oblique and slovenly a manner.—But he is no worse, I trust, said _Yorick._—There has been certainly, continued my father, the deuce and all to do in some part or other of the ecliptic, when this offspring of mine was formed.—That, you are a better judge of than I, replied _Yorick._—Astrologers, quoth my father, know better than us both:—the trine and sextil aspects have jumped awry,—or the opposite of their ascendents have not hit it, as they should,—or the lords of the genitures (as they call them) have been at _bo-peep_,—or something has been wrong above, or below with us. ’Tis possible, answered _Yorick._—But is the child, cried my uncle _Toby_, the worse?—The _Troglodytes_ say not, replied my father. And your theologists, _Yorick_, tell us—Theologically? said _Yorick_,—or speaking after the manner of apothecaries?[25]—statesmen?[26]—or washer-women?[27] ——I’m not sure, replied my father,—but they tell us, brother _Toby_, he’s the better for it.——Provided, said _Yorick_, you travel him into _Egypt._—Of that, answered my father, he will have the advantage, when he sees the _Pyramids._—— Now every word of this, quoth my uncle _Toby_, is _Arabic_ to me.——I wish, said _Yorick_, ’twas so, to half the world.