Here----but why here----rather than in any other part of my story ----I
am not able to tell: ------but here it is------my heart stops me to pay
to thee, my dear uncle _Toby_, once for all, the tribute I owe thy
goodness. ----Here let me thrust my chair aside, and kneel down upon the
ground, whilst I am pouring forth the warmest sentiment of love for
thee, and veneration for the excellency of thy character, that ever
virtue and nature kindled in a nephew’s bosom. ----Peace and comfort
rest for evermore upon thy head! --Thou enviedst no man’s
comforts----insultedst no man’s opinions ----Thou blackenedst no man’s
character--devouredst no man’s bread: gently, with faithful _Trim_
behind thee, didst thou amble round the little circle of thy pleasures,
jostling no creature in thy way: --for each one’s sorrow thou hadst a
tear, --for each man’s need, thou hadst a shilling.
Whilst I am worth one, to pay a weeder--thy path from thy door to thy
bowling-green shall never be grown up. ----Whilst there is a rood and a
half of land in the _Shandy_ family, thy fortifications, my dear uncle
_Toby_, shall never be demolish’d.
CHAPTER XXXV
My father’s collection was not great, but to make amends, it was
curious; and consequently he was some time in making it; he had the
great good fortune however, to set off well, in getting _Bruscambille’s_
prologue upon long noses, almost for nothing--for he gave no more for
_Bruscambille_ than three half-crowns; owing indeed to the strong fancy
which the stall-man saw my father had for the book the moment he laid
his hands upon it. ----There are not three _Bruscambilles_ in
_Christendom_--said the stall-man, except what are chain’d up in the
libraries of the curious. My father flung down the money as quick as
lightning----took _Bruscambille_ into his bosom----hied home from
_Piccadilly_ to _Coleman_-street with it, as he would have hied home
with a treasure, without taking his hand once off from _Bruscambille_
all the way.
To those who do not yet know of which gender _Bruscambille_
is------inasmuch as a prologue upon long noses might easily be done by
either------’twill be no objection against the simile--to say, That when
my father got home, he solaced himself with _Bruscambille_ after the
manner in which, ’tis ten to one, your worship solaced yourself with
your first mistress------that is, from morning even unto night: which,
by the bye, how delightful soever it may prove to the inamorato--is of
little or no entertainment at all to by-standers. ----Take notice, I go
no farther with the simile--my father’s eye was greater than his
appetite--his zeal greater than his knowledge--he cool’d--his affections
became divided----he got hold of _Prignitz_--purchased _Scroderus_,
_Andrea Paræus_, _Bouchet’s_ Evening Conferences, and above all, the
great and learned _Hafen Slawkenbergius_; of which, as I shall have much
to say by and by --I will say nothing now.
CHAPTER XXXVI
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