Now, by the right use and application of these, continued my father, in which a child’s memory should be exercised, there is no one idea can enter his brain, how barren soever, but a magazine of conceptions and conclusions may be drawn forth from it.——Didst thou ever see a white bear? cried my father, turning his head round to _Trim_, who stood at the back of his chair:—No, an’ please your honour, replied the corporal.——But thou couldst discourse about one, _Trim_, said my father, in case of need?——How is it possible, brother, quoth my uncle _Toby_, if the corporal never saw one?——’Tis the fact I want, replied my father,—and the possibility of it is as follows. A WHITE BEAR! Very well. Have I ever seen one? Might I ever have seen one? Am I ever to see one? Ought I ever to have seen one? Or can I ever see one? Would I had seen a white bear! (for how can I imagine it?) If I should see a white bear, what should I say? If I should never see a white bear, what then? If I never have, can, must, or shall see a white bear alive; have I ever seen the skin of one? Did I ever see one painted?—described? Have I never dreamed of one? Did my father, mother, uncle, aunt, brothers or sisters, ever see a white bear? What would they give? How would they behave? How would the white bear have behaved? Is he wild? Tame? Terrible? Rough? Smooth? —Is the white bear worth seeing?— —Is there no sin in it?— Is it better than a BLACK ONE? C H A P. XLIV ——WE’LL not stop two moments, my dear Sir,—only, as we have got through these five volumes[29], (do, Sir, sit down upon a set——they are better than nothing) let us just look back upon the country we have pass’d through.—— ——What a wilderness has it been! and what a mercy that we have not both of us been lost, or devoured by wild beasts in it! Did you think the world itself, Sir, had contained such a number of Jack Asses?——How they view’d and review’d us as we passed over the rivulet at the bottom of that little valley!——and when we climbed over that hill, and were just getting out of sight—good God! what a braying did they all set up together! ——Prithee, shepherd! who keeps all those Jack Asses? * * * ——Heaven be their comforter——What! are they never curried?——Are they never taken in in winter?——Bray bray—bray. Bray on,—the world is deeply your debtor;——louder still—that’s nothing:—in good sooth, you are ill-used:——Was I a Jack Asse, I solemnly declare, I would bray in G-sol-re-ut from morning, even unto night. [29] In the first edition, the sixth volume began with this chapter. C H A P. XLV