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you can serve him well in fo doing you may fecure to yourfelf many bleffings in this world, as well as a fure expectation in the next.

There is one thing which I perceive you have not yet thoroughly purged yourfelf from, which is flattery: you have bestowed fo much of that upon me in your letter, that I hope you have no more left, and that you meant it only to take your leave of fuch flights of fancy; which, however well meant, oftner put a man out of countenance than oblige him.

You are now become a fearcher after truth I fhall hereafter take it more kindly to be justly reproved by you, than to be undefervedly complimented.

I would not have you understand me, as if I recommended to you a four feverity, that is yet more to be avoided. Advice, like phyfic, should be fo fweetened and prepared as to be made palatable, or nature may be apt to revolt against it. Be always fincere, but at the fame time always polite: be humble, without defcending from your character: reprove and correct, without offending good-manners: to be a cynic is as bad as to be a fycophant. You are not to lay aside the gentleman with your fword, nor to put on the gown to hide your birth and good-breeding, but to adorn it.

Such has been the malice of the world from the beginning, that pride, avarice, and ambition, have been charg. ed upon the priesthood in all ages, in all countries, and in all religions; what they are most obliged to combat against in their pulpits, they are moft accufed of encouraging in their conduct. It behoves you therefore to be more upon your guard in this, than in any other profeffion. Let your example confirm your doctrine; and let no man ever have it in his power to reproach you with practising contrary to what you preach.

You had an uncle, Dr. Dennis Granville, dean of Durham, whofe memory I fhall ever revere, make him your example. Sanctity fat fo eafy, fo unaffected, and fo graceful upon him, that in him we beheld the very beauty of holiness he was as chearful, as fami

liar, and condefcending in his conver fation, as he was ftrict, regular, and exemplary in his piety: as well bred and accomplished as a courtier, as reverend and venerable as an apostle: he was indeed in every thing apoftolical, for he abandoned all to follow his Lord and Master.

May you resemble him! may he revive in you! may his fpirit defcend upon you, as Elijah's upon Elisha! And may the great God of Heaven, in guiding, directing, and ftrengthening your pious refolutions, pour down his beft and choiceft bleffings upon you You shall ever find me, dear nephew, Your affectionate uncle, Lanfdowne.

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§ 147. A Letter from the Marquis DB MONTESQUIEU to a young Gentleman, on reading Hiftory.

Sir,

I have learnt with much pleasure, that you have refolved to exercise a regular courfe of ftudy in the country, and to continue it even at Paris, and with the army, in proportion as you hall have time. But you do me too much honour, to confult me about the reading you should make choice of, being fo capable of making that choice yourself. Nevertheless, fince you abfolutely require that Ifhould explain myself thereupon, I fhall not hesitate to tell you, that I fhould prefer the reading of hiftory to all other. It is an opinion of which I have given a public teftimony, and that I shall never change. Inftead of quoting the paffage where I fpeak advantageously of history, I had rather write it in this letter, for your eafe and my own. You will not have the trouble to look for the book, and I fhall not have that of recollecting the arguments I then advanced. That hiftory inftructs us in an engaging and agreeable manner; that the greater part of the other fciences give precepts which our mind usually flights, because it loves freedom, and because it takes pleasure in oppofing every thing that favours of command. I added, that inftead of thofe imperious maxims, history gives us only reflections to make upon

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the events that the difplays before our eyes, and that those events are so many examples which we have to follow or avoid. She makes us attend the councils of fovereigns, and enables us to diftinguish flattery from good advice. She defcribes fieges and battles to us, and makes us take notice of the faults or good conduct of the generals. In a word, the gives us, in a few years, an experience that many years cannot give, without her affiftance. Will you permit me, Sir, to improve upon what I have faid, and to take from a better fund than my own? A moft eloquent prelate will fupply me with two or three periods which you will be very glad to know. He fpeaks of a great and ingenious princefs, which we have juft loft, and fays, that the refolution of profe. cuting the ftudy of wisdom, kept her engaged to the reading of which we fpeak. That hiftory is rightly called the wife counsellor of princes. It is there, continued he, that the greatest kings have no more rank than by their virtues; and that, degraded for ever by the hands of death, they undergo, without court, and without retinue, the judgment of all people, and of all ages. It is there we difcover that the glofs of flattery is fuperficial, and that falfe colours will not laft, how ingeniously foever they be laid on. There our admirable princes ftudied the duties of those whofe lives compofe hiftory, &c. You fee, Sir, that I have kept my word, what I have borrowed is better than what is my own; and that I have thought of nothing but fatisfying you, without

confidering that I was going to destroy the good opinion you might have of my writings. I will even tell you what hiftorian I fhould prefer for pleasure and for inftruction: it is Plutarch, whom the too fevere critics will hardly acknowledge to be an hiftorian. I must allow, indeed, that he has not made any body of hiftory, and that he has left none but particular and unconnected lives: but what hiftories can be found which please and instruct like these lives? At leaft, what perfon can read them without relishing a thoufand beauties, and remarking every moment maxims of morality and politics? Plutarch introduces them naturally; he gathers none but flowers that grow under his feet, and does not go out of his way to gather others. He paints the man whofe life he relates: he makes him known, fuch as he was at the head of the armies, in the government of the people, in his own family, and in his pleasures. In fine, Sir, I fhould be of the opinion of an author, who faid, that if he was constrained to fling all the books of the ancients into the fea, Plutarch should be the laft drowned. We will fay more of this when we go to ** * with the M. of M****. If you would entertain your friends with lefs ceremony, we fhould already have made you this vifit, but you treat at your house as fumptuoufly as if the fuperintendancy was still in your family.

I am most abfolutely, Sir,

Your most humble, and most obedient fervant.

END OF THE THIRD

BOOK.

ELEGANT

ELEGANT EXTRACTS.

воок THE FOURT H.

NARRATIVES, DIALOGUES, AND LETTERS;

WITH OTHER

HUMOROUS, FACETIOUS, AND ENTERTAINING PIECES.

IT

§1. The Story of LE FEVRE.

T was fome time in the fummer of that year in which Dendermond was taken by the allies,-which was about feven years before my father came into the country, and about as many after the time that my uncle Toby and Trim had privately decamped from my father's houfe in town, in order to lay fome of the finest fieges to fome of the fineft fortified cities in Europe-When my uncle Toby was one evening getting his fupper, with Trim fitting behind him at a sma'l fideboard;-The Jandlord of a little inn in the village came into the parlour with an empty phial in his hand to beg a glafs or two of fack; 'tis for a poor gentleman, think, of the army, faid the landlord, who has been taken ill at my houfe four days ago, and has never held up his head fince, or had a defire to tafte any thing, 'till just now, that he has a fancy for a glafs of fack and a thin toaft.-I think, fays he, taking his hand from his forehead, it would comfort me.

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-If I could neither beg, borrow, nor buy such a thing,-added the landlord, I would almost teal it for the gentleman, he is fo ill.I hope poor in God he will still mend, continued he -we are all of us concerned for him. Thou art a good-natured foul, I will anfwer for thee, cried my uncle Toby; and thou shalt drink the poor ger le.

man's health in a glass of fack thyself,and take a couple of bottles, with my fervice, and tell him he is heartily wel come to them, and to a dozen more, if they will do him good.

Though I am perfuaded, faid my uncle Toby, as the landlord fhut the door, he is a very compaffionate fellow-Trim,

yet I cannot help entertaining an high opinion of his gueft too; there must be fomething more than common in him, that in fo fhort a time fhould win fo much upon the affections of his hoft ; —— And of his whole family, added the corporal, for they are all concerned for him.Step after him, faid my uncle Toby,-do Trim,-ind ask if he knows his name.

I have quite forgot it, truly, faid the landlord, coming back into the parlour with the corporal,-but I can afk his fon again :-Has he a fon with him then? faid my uncle Toby.A boy, replied the landlord, of about elever or twelve years of age;-but the poor creature has tafted almoft as little as his father; he does nothing but mourn and lament for him night and day;-he has not stirred from the bed-fide thefe two days.

My uncle Toby laid down his knife and fork, and thruft his plate from behim the gave fore him, as the landlord account; and Trim, without being ordered, took away without faying one word, and in a few minutes after brought him his pipe and tobacco.

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-Stay in the room a little, fays my uncle Toby.

Trim-faid my uncle Toby, after he had lighted his pipe, and fmoked about a dozen whiffs Trim came in front of his mafter, and made his bow; my uncle Toby smoked on, and faid no more.Corporal! faid my uncle Toby the corporal made his bow. My uncle Toby proceeded no farther, but finished his pipe.

Trim!faid my uncle Toby, I have a project in my head, as it is a bad night, of wrapping myself up warm in my roquelaure, and paying a vifit to this poor gentleman. Your honour's roquelaure, replied the corporal, has not once been had on, fince the night before your honour received your wound, when we mounted guard in the trenches before the gate of St. Nicholas ;-and befides, it is fo cold and rainy a night, that what with the roquelaure, and what with the weather, 'twill be enough to give your honour your death, and bring on your honour's torment in your groin. I fear fo, replyed my uncle Toby; but I am not at reft in my mind, Trim, fince the account the landlord has given me.-I wish I had not known fo much of this affair, added my uncle Toby,-or that I had known more of it: How fhall we manage it?-Leave it, an't please your honour, to me, quoth the corporal;I'll take my hat and stick, and go to the houfe and reconnoitre, and act accordingly; and I will bring your honour a full account in an hour. Thou shalt go, Trim, faid my uncle Toby, and here's a Thilling for thee to drink with his fervant. I fhall get it all out of him, faid the corporal, fhutting the door.

My uncle Toby filled his fecond pipe; and had it not been, that he now and then wandered from the point, with confidering whether it was not full as well to have the curtain of the ten naile a ftraight line, as a crooked one, he might be faid to have thought of nothing elfe but poor Le Fevre and his boy the whole time he fmoked it.

It was not till my uncle Toby had knocked the ashes out of his third pipe, that corporal Trim returned from the inn, and gave him the following ac

count.

I defpaired at årft, faid the corporal of being able to bring back your ho nour any kind of intelligence concern ing the poor fick lieutenant-Is he in the army then? faid my uncle Toby-He is, faid the corporal-And in what regiment? faid my uncle Toby-I'll tell your honour, replied the corporal, every thing ftraight forwards, as I learnt it. Then, Trim, I'll fill another pipe, faid my uncle Toby, and not interrupt thee till thou haft done; fo fit down at thy eafe, Trim, in the window-feat, and begin thy ftory again. The corporal made his old bow, which generally spoke, as plain as a bow could fpeak it Your honour is good:"And having done that, he fat down, as he was ordered,and begun the story to my uncle Toby over again in pretty near the fame words.

I despaired at first, faid the corporal, of being able to bring back any intelligence to your honour about the lieutenant and his fon; for when I asked where his fervant was, from whom I made myfelf fure of knowing every thing which was proper to be asked. That's a right diftinction, Trim, faid my uncle Toby-I was answered, an' please your honour, that he had no fervant with him ;-that he had come to the inn with hired horfes, which, upon finding himself unable to proceed, (to join, I fuppofe the regiment) he had difmiffed the morning after he came.If I get better, my dear, faid he, as he gave his purfe to his fon to pay the man,

we can hire horfes from hence.-But alas! the poor gentleman will never get from hence, faid the landlady to me, for I heard the death-watch all night long;--and when he dies, the youth, his fon, will certainly die with him; for he is broken-hearted already.

I was hearing this account, continued the corporal, when the youth came into the kitchen, to order the thin toaft the landlord fpoke of ;-but I will do it for my father myfelf, faid the youth.-Pray let me fave you the trouble, young gentleman, faid I, taking up a fork for the purpose, and offering him my chair to fit down upon by the fire, whilft I did it.

I believe, fir, faid he, very modeftly, I can please him beft myself.-I am fure

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faid I, his honour will not like the toaft the worse for being toafted by an old foldier. The youth took hold of my hand, and inftantly burst into tears. Poor youth! faid my uncle Toby,-he has been bred up from an infant in the army, and the name of a foldier, Trim, founded in his ears like the name of a friend;-I wish I had him here.

I never in the longest march, said the corporal, had fo great a mind to my dinner, as I had to cry with him for company-What could be the matter with me, an' please your honour?-Nothing in the world, Trim, faid my uncle Toby, blowing his nofe,-but that thou art a good-natured fellow.

When I gave him the toast, continued the corporal, I thought it was proper to tell him I was Captain Shandy's fervant, and that your honour (though a tranger) was extremely concerned for his father; and that if there was any thing in your houfe or cellar-(and thou might'ft have added my purfe too, faid my uncle Toby)-he was heartily welcome to it :-he made a very low bow, (which was meant to your honour) but no anfwer,-for his heart was full-fo he went up ftairs with the toaft;-I warrant you, my dear, faid I, as I opened the kitchen-door, your father will be well again. Mr. Yorick's curate was fmoking a pipe by the kitchen fire, -but faid not a word good or bad to 'comfort the youth.-I thought it was wrong, added the corporal-I think fo too, faid my uncle Toby.

When the lieutenant had taken his glafs of fack and toast, he felt himself a little revived, and fent down into the kitchen, to let me know, that in about ten minutes he should be glad if I would ftep up ftairs. I believe, faid the landlord, he is going to fay his prayers,-for there was a book laid upon the chair by his bed-fide, and as I fhut the door, I saw his fon take up a cushion.-

I thought, faid the curate, that you gentlemen of the army, Mr. Trim, never faid your prayers at all.I heard the poor gentleman fay his prayers laft night, faid the landlady, very devoutly, and with my own ears, or I could not have believed it.-Are you fure of it? replied the curate: A foldier, an'

please your reverence, faid I, prays as often (of his own accord) as a parfon ;and when he is fighting for his king, and for his own life, and for his honour too, he has the most reason to pray to God of any one in the whole world. 'Twas well faid of thee, Trim, said my uncle Toby.-But when a foldier, faid I, an' please your reverence, has been standing for twelve hours together in the trenches, up to his knees in cold water,

or engaged, faid I, for months together in long and dangerous marches ;harraffed, perhaps, in his rear to-day;harraffing others to-morrow;-detached here;countermanded there;-resting this night upon his arms;-beat up in his fhirt the next;-ben umbed in his joints ;-perhaps without ftraw in his tent to kneel on;-he muft fay his prayers how and when he can.-I believe, faid I,-for I was piqued, quoth the cor poral, for the reputation of the army,I believe, an't please your reverence, said I, that when a foldier gets time to pray, he prays as heartily as a parfon→→→ though not with all his fufs and hypocrify.Thou should'st not have faid that, Trim, faid my uncle Toby,-for God only knows who is a hypocrite, and who is not :-At the great and general review of us all, corporal, at the day of judgment, (and not till then)→→→ it will be feen who has done their duties in this world,-and who has not; and we fhall be advanced, Trim, accordingly-I hope we fhall, faid Trim.—It is in the Scripture, faid my uncle Toby; and I will fhew it thee to-morrow :-In the mean time we may depend upon it, Trim, for our comfort, faid my uncle Toby, that God Almighty is fo good and just a governor of the world, that if we have but done our duties in it,it will never be enquired into, whether we have done them in a red coat or a black one:-I hope not, faid the corporal. But go on, Trim, faid my uncle Toby, with thy ftory.

When I went up, continued the cor. poral, into the lieutenant's room, which I did not do till the expiration of the ten minutes, he was lying in his bed with his head raised upon his hand, with his elbow upon the pillow, and a clean white cambric handkerchief befide it :

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