this very hypothesis, namely, that were your son called Judas,--the sordid and treacherous idea, so inseparable from the name, would have accompanied him through life like his shadow, and in the end made a miser and a rascal of him, in spite, Sir, of your example." (Vol. i. c. 19.) 6. There is great physiognomic tact in Sterne. See it particularly displayed in his description of Dr. Slop, accompanied with all that happiest use of drapery and attitude, which at once give reality by individualizing and vividness by unusual, yet probable, combinations:-- Imagine to yourself a little squat, uncourtly figure of a Doctor Slop, of about four feet and a half perpendicular height, with a breadth of back, and a sesquipedality of belly, which might have done honour to a serjeant in the horseguards. ... Imagine such a one;--for such I say, were the outlines of Dr. Slop's figure, coming slowly along, foot by foot, waddling through the dirt upon the 'vertebræ' of a little diminutive pony, of a pretty colour--but of strength,--alack! scarce able to have made an amble of it, under such a fardel, had the roads been in an ambling condition;--they were not. Imagine to yourself Obadiah mounted upon a strong monster of a coach-horse, pricked into a full gallop, and making all practicable speed the adverse way. (Vol. ii. c. 9.) 7. I think there is more humour in the single remark, which I have quoted before--"Learned men, brother Toby, don't write dialogues upon long noses for nothing!"--than in the whole Slawkenburghian tale that follows, which is mere oddity interspersed with drollery. 8. Note Sterne's assertion of, and faith in, a moral good in the characters of Trim, Toby, &c. as contrasted with the cold scepticism of motives which is the stamp of the Jacobin spirit. Vol. v. c. 9. 9. You must bear in mind, in order to do justice to Rabelais and Sterne, that by right of humoristic universality each part is essentially a whole in itself. Hence the digressive spirit is not mere wantonness, but in fact the very form and vehicle of their genius. The connection, such as was needed, is given by the continuity of the characters. Instances of different forms of wit, taken largely: 1. "Why are you reading romances at your age?"--"Why, I used to be fond of history, but I have given it up,--it was so grossly improbable." 2. "Pray, sir, do it!--although you have promised me." 3. The Spartan mother's-- "Return with, or on, thy shield." "My sword is too short!"--"Take a step forwarder." 4. The Gasconade:-- "I believe you, Sir! but you will excuse my repeating it on account of my provincial accent." 5. Pasquil on Pope Urban, who had employed a committee to rip up the old errors of his predecessors. Some one placed a pair of spurs on the heels of the statue of St. Peter, and a label from the opposite statue of St. Paul, on the same bridge;-- 'St. Paul.' "Whither then are you bound?"