The necessity of this precise angle of 85 degrees and a half to a
mathematical exactness,——does it not shew us, by the way, how the arts
and sciences mutually befriend each other?
How the duce Corporal _Trim_, who knew not so much as an acute angle
from an obtuse one, came to hit it so exactly;——or whether it was
chance or nature, or good sense or imitation, &c. shall be commented
upon in that part of the cyclopædia of arts and sciences, where the
instrumental parts of the eloquence of the senate, the pulpit, and the
bar, the coffee-house, the bed-chamber, and fire-side, fall under
consideration.
He stood,——for I repeat it, to take the picture of him in at one view,
with his body swayed, and somewhat bent forwards,—his right leg from
under him, sustaining seven-eighths of his whole weight,——the foot of
his left leg, the defect of which was no disadvantage to his attitude,
advanced a little,—not laterally, nor forwards, but in a line betwixt
them;—his knee bent, but that not violently,—but so as to fall within
the limits of the line of beauty;—and I add, of the line of science
too;—for consider, it had one eighth part of his body to bear up;—so
that in this case the position of the leg is determined,—because the
foot could be no farther advanced, or the knee more bent, than what
would allow him, mechanically to receive an eighth part of his whole
weight under it, and to carry it too.
=> This I recommend to painters;—need I add,—to orators!—I think not;
for unless they practise it,——they must fall upon their noses.
So much for Corporal _Trim_’s body and legs.——He held the sermon
loosely, not carelessly, in his left hand, raised something above his
stomach, and detached a little from his breast;——his right arm falling
negligently by his side, as nature and the laws of gravity ordered
it,——but with the palm of it open and turned towards his audience,
ready to aid the sentiment in case it stood in need.
Corporal _Trim_’s eyes and the muscles of his face were in full harmony
with the other parts of him;—he looked frank,—unconstrained,—something
assured,—but not bordering upon assurance.
Let not the critic ask how Corporal _Trim_ could come by all
this.——I’ve told him it should be explained;—but so he stood before my
father, my uncle _Toby_, and Dr. _Slop_,—so swayed his body, so
contrasted his limbs, and with such an oratorical sweep throughout the
whole figure,——a statuary might have modelled from it;——nay, I doubt
whether the oldest Fellow of a College,—or the _Hebrew_ Professor
himself, could have much mended it.
_Trim_ made a bow, and read as follows:
The S E R M O N.
HEBREWS xiii. 18.
———_For we_ trust _we have a
good Conscience._
“TRUST!——Trust we have a good conscience!”
[Certainly, _Trim_, quoth my father, interrupting him, you give that
sentence a very improper accent; for you curl up your nose, man, and
read it with such a sneering tone, as if the Parson was going to abuse
the Apostle.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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