The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman Part 68

-I never could make them an inch the wider-

Then by changing my system, and trying what could be made of it upon the body, by temperance, soberness, and chast.i.ty: These are good, quoth I, in themselves-they are good, absolutely;-they are good, relatively;-they are good for health-they are good for happiness in this world-they are good for happiness in the next-

In short, they were good for every thing but the thing wanted; and there they were good for nothing, but to leave the soul just as heaven made it: as for the theological virtues of faith and hope, they give it courage; but then that snivelling virtue of Meekness (as my father would always call it) takes it quite away again, so you are exactly where you started.

Now in all common and ordinary cases, there is nothing which I have found to answer so well as this-

-Certainly, if there is any dependence upon Logic, and that I am not blinded by self-love, there must be something of true genius about me, merely upon this symptom of it, that I do not know what envy is: for never do I hit upon any invention or device which tendeth to the furtherance of good writing, but I instantly make it public; willing that all mankind should write as well as myself.

-Which they certainly will, when they think as little.

Chapter 4.LXXII.

Now in ordinary cases, that is, when I am only stupid, and the thoughts rise heavily and pa.s.s gummous through my pen-

Or that I am got, I know not how, into a cold unmetaphorical vein of infamous writing, and cannot take a plumb-lift out of it for my soul; so must be obliged to go on writing like a Dutch commentator to the end of the chapter, unless something be done-

-I never stand conferring with pen and ink one moment; for if a pinch of snuff, or a stride or two across the room will not do the business for me-I take a razor at once; and having tried the edge of it upon the palm of my hand, without further ceremony, except that of first lathering my beard, I shave it off; taking care only if I do leave a hair, that it be not a grey one: this done, I change my s.h.i.+rt-put on a better coat-send for my last wig-put my topaz ring upon my finger; and in a word, dress myself from one end to the other of me, after my best fas.h.i.+on.

Now the devil in h.e.l.l must be in it, if this does not do: for consider, Sir, as every man chuses to be present at the shaving of his own beard (though there is no rule without an exception), and unavoidably sits over-against himself the whole time it is doing, in case he has a hand in it-the Situation, like all others, has notions of her own to put into the brain.-

-I maintain it, the conceits of a rough-bearded man, are seven years more terse and juvenile for one single operation; and if they did not run a risk of being quite shaved away, might be carried up by continual shavings, to the highest pitch of sublimity-How Homer could write with so long a beard, I don't know-and as it makes against my hypothesis, I as little care-But let us return to the Toilet.

Ludovicus Sorbonensis makes this entirely an affair of the body (Greek) as he calls it-but he is deceived: the soul and body are joint-sharers in every thing they get: A man cannot dress, but his ideas get cloth'd at the same time; and if he dresses like a gentleman, every one of them stands presented to his imagination, genteelized along with him-so that he has nothing to do, but take his pen, and write like himself.

For this cause, when your honours and reverences would know whether I writ clean and fit to be read, you will be able to judge full as well by looking into my Laundress's bill, as my book: there is one single month in which I can make it appear, that I dirtied one and thirty s.h.i.+rts with clean writing; and after all, was more abus'd, cursed, criticis'd, and confounded, and had more mystic heads shaken at me, for what I had wrote in that one month, than in all the other months of that year put together.

-But their honours and reverences had not seen my bills.

Chapter 4.LXXIII.

As I never had any intention of beginning the Digression, I am making all this preparation for, till I come to the 74th chapter-I have this chapter to put to whatever use I think proper-I have twenty this moment ready for it-I could write my chapter of b.u.t.ton-holes in it-

Or my chapter of Pishes, which should follow them-

Or my chapter of Knots, in case their reverences have done with them-they might lead me into mischief: the safest way is to follow the track of the learned, and raise objections against what I have been writing, tho' I declare before-hand, I know no more than my heels how to answer them.

And first, it may be said, there is a pelting kind of thersitical satire, as black as the very ink 'tis wrote with-(and by the bye, whoever says so, is indebted to the muster-master general of the Grecian army, for suffering the name of so ugly and foul-mouth'd a man as Thersites to continue upon his roll-for it has furnish'd him with an epithet)-in these productions he will urge, all the personal was.h.i.+ngs and scrubbings upon earth do a sinking genius no sort of good-but just the contrary, inasmuch as the dirtier the fellow is, the better generally he succeeds in it.

To this, I have no other answer-at least ready-but that the Archbishop of Benevento wrote his nasty Romance of the Galatea, as all the world knows, in a purple coat, waistcoat, and purple pair of breeches; and that the penance set him of writing a commentary upon the book of the Revelations, as severe as it was look'd upon by one part of the world, was far from being deem'd so, by the other, upon the single account of that Investment.

Another objection, to all this remedy, is its want of universality; forasmuch as the shaving part of it, upon which so much stress is laid, by an unalterable law of nature excludes one half of the species entirely from its use: all I can say is, that female writers, whether of England, or of France, must e'en go without it-

As for the Spanish ladies-I am in no sort of distress-

Chapter 4.LXXIV.

The seventy-fourth chapter is come at last; and brings nothing with it but a sad signature of 'How our pleasures slip from under us in this world!'

For in talking of my digression-I declare before heaven I have made it! What a strange creature is mortal man! said she.

'Tis very true, said I-but 'twere better to get all these things out of our heads, and return to my uncle Toby.

Chapter 4.LXXV.

When my uncle Toby and the corporal had marched down to the bottom of the avenue, they recollected their business lay the other way; so they faced about and marched up straight to Mrs. Wadman's door.

I warrant your honour; said the corporal, touching his Montero-cap with his hand, as he pa.s.sed him in order to give a knock at the door-My uncle Toby, contrary to his invariable way of treating his faithful servant, said nothing good or bad: the truth was, he had not altogether marshal'd his ideas; he wish'd for another conference, and as the corporal was mounting up the three steps before the door-he hem'd twice-a portion of my uncle Toby's most modest spirits fled, at each expulsion, towards the corporal; he stood with the rapper of the door suspended for a full minute in his hand, he scarce knew why. Bridget stood perdue within, with her finger and her thumb upon the latch, benumb'd with expectation; and Mrs. Wadman, with an eye ready to be deflowered again, sat breathless behind the window-curtain of her bed-chamber, watching their approach.

Trim! said my uncle Toby-but as he articulated the word, the minute expired, and Trim let fall the rapper.

My uncle Toby perceiving that all hopes of a conference were knock'd on the head by it-whistled Lillabullero.

Chapter 4.LXXVI.

As Mrs. Bridget's finger and thumb were upon the latch, the corporal did not knock as often as perchance your honour's taylor-I might have taken my example something nearer home; for I owe mine, some five and twenty pounds at least, and wonder at the man's patience-

-But this is nothing at all to the world: only 'tis a cursed thing to be in debt; and there seems to be a fatality in the exchequers of some poor princes, particularly those of our house, which no Economy can bind down in irons: for my own part, I'm persuaded there is not any one prince, prelate, pope, or potentate, great or small upon earth, more desirous in his heart of keeping straight with the world than I am-or who takes more likely means for it. I never give above half a guinea-or walk with boots-or cheapen tooth-picks-or lay out a s.h.i.+lling upon a band-box the year round; and for the six months I'm in the country, I'm upon so small a scale, that with all the good temper in the world, I outdo Rousseau, a bar length-for I keep neither man or boy, or horse, or cow, or dog, or cat, or any thing that can eat or drink, except a thin poor piece of a Vestal (to keep my fire in), and who has generally as bad an appet.i.te as myself-but if you think this makes a philosopher of me-I would not, my good people! give a rush for your judgments.

True philosophy-but there is no treating the subject whilst my uncle is whistling Lillabullero.

-Let us go into the house.

Chapter 4.LXXVII.