The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman Part 15

No more than my horse, replied my uncle Toby.

Gracious heaven! cried my father, looking upwards, and clasping his two hands together-there is a worth in thy honest ignorance, brother Toby-'twere almost a pity to exchange it for a knowledge.-But I'll tell thee.-

To understand what time is aright, without which we never can comprehend infinity, insomuch as one is a portion of the other-we ought seriously to sit down and consider what idea it is we have of duration, so as to give a satisfactory account how we came by it.-What is that to any body? quoth my uncle Toby. (Vide Locke.) For if you will turn your eyes inwards upon your mind, continued my father, and observe attentively, you will perceive, brother, that whilst you and I are talking together, and thinking, and smoking our pipes, or whilst we receive successively ideas in our minds, we know that we do exist, and so we estimate the existence, or the continuation of the existence of ourselves, or any thing else, commensurate to the succession of any ideas in our minds, the duration of ourselves, or any such other thing co-existing with our thinking-and so according to that preconceived-You puzzle me to death, cried my uncle Toby.

-'Tis owing to this, replied my father, that in our computations of time, we are so used to minutes, hours, weeks, and months-and of clocks (I wish there was not a clock in the kingdom) to measure out their several portions to us, and to those who belong to us-that 'twill be well, if in time to come, the succession of our ideas be of any use or service to us at all.

Now, whether we observe it or no, continued my father, in every sound man's head, there is a regular succession of ideas of one sort or other, which follow each other in train just like-A train of artillery? said my uncle Toby-A train of a fiddle-stick!-quoth my father-which follow and succeed one another in our minds at certain distances, just like the images in the inside of a lanthorn turned round by the heat of a candle.-I declare, quoth my uncle Toby, mine are more like a smoke-jack,-Then, brother Toby, I have nothing more to say to you upon that subject, said my father.

Chapter 2.XII.

-What a conjuncture was here lost!-My father in one of his best explanatory moods-in eager pursuit of a metaphysical point into the very regions, where clouds and thick darkness would soon have encompa.s.sed it about;-my uncle Toby in one of the finest dispositions for it in the world;-his head like a smoke-jack;-the funnel unswept, and the ideas whirling round and round about in it, all obfuscated and darkened over with fuliginous matter!-By the tomb-stone of Lucian-if it is in being-if not, why then by his ashes! by the ashes of my dear Rabelais, and dearer Cervantes!-my father and my uncle Toby's discourse upon Time and Eternity-was a discourse devoutly to be wished for! and the petulancy of my father's humour, in putting a stop to it as he did, was a robbery of the Ontologic Treasury of such a jewel, as no coalition of great occasions and great men are ever likely to restore to it again.

Chapter 2.XIII.

Tho' my father persisted in not going on with the discourse-yet he could not get my uncle Toby's smoke-jack out of his head-piqued as he was at first with it;-there was something in the comparison at the bottom, which hit his fancy; for which purpose, resting his elbow upon the table, and reclining the right side of his head upon the palm of his hand-but looking first stedfastly in the fire-he began to commune with himself, and philosophize about it: but his spirits being wore out with the fatigues of investigating new tracts, and the constant exertion of his faculties upon that variety of subjects which had taken their turn in the discourse-the idea of the smoke jack soon turned all his ideas upside down-so that he fell asleep almost before he knew what he was about.

As for my uncle Toby, his smoke-jack had not made a dozen revolutions, before he fell asleep also.-Peace be with them both!-Dr. Slop is engaged with the midwife and my mother above stairs.-Trim is busy in turning an old pair of jack-boots into a couple of mortars, to be employed in the siege of Messina next summer-and is this instant boring the touch-holes with the point of a hot poker.-All my heroes are off my hands;-'tis the first time I have had a moment to spare-and I'll make use of it, and write my preface.

The Author's Preface

No, I'll not say a word about it-here it is;-in publishing it-I have appealed to the world-and to the world I leave it;-it must speak for itself.

All I know of the matter is-when I sat down, my intent was to write a good book; and as far as the tenuity of my understanding would hold out-a wise, aye, and a discreet-taking care only, as I went along, to put into it all the wit and the judgment (be it more or less) which the great Author and Bestower of them had thought fit originally to give me-so that, as your worships see-'tis just as G.o.d pleases.

Now, Agalastes (speaking dispraisingly) sayeth, That there may be some wit in it, for aught he knows-but no judgment at all. And Triptolemus and Phutatorius agreeing thereto, ask, How is it possible there should? for that wit and judgment in this world never go together; inasmuch as they are two operations differing from each other as wide as east from west-So, says Locke-so are farting and hickuping, say I. But in answer to this, Didius the great church lawyer, in his code de fartendi et ill.u.s.trandi fallaciis, doth maintain and make fully appear, That an ill.u.s.tration is no argument-nor do I maintain the wiping of a looking-gla.s.s clean to be a syllogism;-but you all, may it please your worships, see the better for it-so that the main good these things do is only to clarify the understanding, previous to the application of the argument itself, in order to free it from any little motes, or specks of opacular matter, which, if left swimming therein, might hinder a conception and spoil all.

Now, my dear anti-Shandeans, and thrice able criticks, and fellow-labourers (for to you I write this Preface)-and to you, most subtle statesmen and discreet doctors (do-pull off your beards) renowned for gravity and wisdom;-Monopolus, my politician-Didius, my counsel; Kysarcius, my friend;-Phutatorius, my guide;-Gastripheres, the preserver of my life; Somnolentius, the balm and repose of it-not forgetting all others, as well sleeping as waking, ecclesiastical as civil, whom for brevity, but out of no resentment to you, I lump all together.-Believe me, right worthy,

My most zealous wish and fervent prayer in your behalf, and in my own too, in case the thing is not done already for us-is, that the great gifts and endowments both of wit and judgment, with every thing which usually goes along with them-such as memory, fancy, genius, eloquence, quick parts, and what not, may this precious moment, without stint or measure, let or hindrance, be poured down warm as each of us could bear it-sc.u.m and sediment and all (for I would not have a drop lost) into the several receptacles, cells, cellules, domiciles, dormitories, refectories, and spare places of our brains-in such sort, that they might continue to be injected and tunn'd into, according to the true intent and meaning of my wish, until every vessel of them, both great and small, be so replenish'd, saturated, and filled up therewith, that no more, would it save a man's life, could possibly be got either in or out.

Bless us!-what n.o.ble work we should make!-how should I tickle it off!-and what spirits should I find myself in, to be writing away for such readers!-and you-just heaven!-with what raptures would you sit and read-but oh!-'tis too much-I am sick-I faint away deliciously at the thoughts of it-'tis more than nature can bear!-lay hold of me-I am giddy-I am stone blind-I'm dying-I am gone.-Help! Help! Help!-But hold-I grow something better again, for I am beginning to foresee, when this is over, that as we shall all of us continue to be great wits-we should never agree amongst ourselves, one day to an end:-there would be so much satire and sarcasm-scoffing and flouting, with raillying and reparteeing of it-thrusting and parrying in one corner or another-there would be nothing but mischief among us-Chaste stars! what biting and scratching, and what a racket and a clatter we should make, what with breaking of heads, rapping of knuckles, and hitting of sore places-there would be no such thing as living for us.

But then again, as we should all of us be men of great judgment, we should make up matters as fast as ever they went wrong; and though we should abominate each other ten times worse than so many devils or devilesses, we should nevertheless, my dear creatures, be all courtesy and kindness, milk and honey-'twould be a second land of promise-a paradise upon earth, if there was such a thing to be had-so that upon the whole we should have done well enough.

All I fret and fume at, and what most distresses my invention at present, is how to bring the point itself to bear; for as your worships well know, that of these heavenly emanations of wit and judgment, which I have so bountifully wished both for your worships and myself-there is but a certain quantum stored up for us all, for the use and behoof of the whole race of mankind; and such small modic.u.ms of 'em are only sent forth into this wide world, circulating here and there in one bye corner or another-and in such narrow streams, and at such prodigious intervals from each other, that one would wonder how it holds out, or could be sufficient for the wants and emergencies of so many great estates, and populous empires.

Indeed there is one thing to be considered, that in Nova Zembla, North Lapland, and in all those cold and dreary tracks of the globe, which lie more directly under the arctick and antartick circles, where the whole province of a man's concernments lies for near nine months together within the narrow compa.s.s of his cave-where the spirits are compressed almost to nothing-and where the pa.s.sions of a man, with every thing which belongs to them, are as frigid as the zone itself-there the least quant.i.ty of judgment imaginable does the business-and of wit-there is a total and an absolute saving-for as not one spark is wanted-so not one spark is given. Angels and ministers of grace defend us! what a dismal thing would it have been to have governed a kingdom, to have fought a battle, or made a treaty, or run a match, or wrote a book, or got a child, or held a provincial chapter there, with so plentiful a lack of wit and judgment about us! For mercy's sake, let us think no more about it, but travel on as fast as we can southwards into Norway-crossing over Swedeland, if you please, through the small triangular province of Angermania to the lake of Bothmia; coasting along it through east and west Bothnia, down to Carelia, and so on, through all those states and provinces which border upon the far side of the Gulf of Finland, and the north-east of the Baltick, up to Petersbourg, and just stepping into Ingria;-then stretching over directly from thence through the north parts of the Russian empire-leaving Siberia a little upon the left hand, till we got into the very heart of Russian and Asiatick Tartary.

Now through this long tour which I have led you, you observe the good people are better off by far, than in the polar countries which we have just left:-for if you hold your hand over your eyes, and look very attentively, you may perceive some small glimmerings (as it were) of wit, with a comfortable provision of good plain houshold judgment, which, taking the quality and quant.i.ty of it together, they make a very good shift with-and had they more of either the one or the other, it would destroy the proper balance betwixt them, and I am satisfied moreover they would want occasions to put them to use.

Now, Sir, if I conduct you home again into this warmer and more luxuriant island, where you perceive the spring-tide of our blood and humours runs high-where we have more ambition, and pride, and envy, and lechery, and other wh.o.r.eson pa.s.sions upon our hands to govern and subject to reason-the height of our wit, and the depth of our judgment, you see, are exactly proportioned to the length and breadth of our necessities-and accordingly we have them sent down amongst us in such a flowing kind of decent and creditable plenty, that no one thinks he has any cause to complain.

It must however be confessed on this head, that, as our air blows hot and cold-wet and dry, ten times in a day, we have them in no regular and settled way;-so that sometimes for near half a century together, there shall be very little wit or judgment either to be seen or heard of amongst us:-the small channels of them shall seem quite dried up-then all of a sudden the sluices shall break out, and take a fit of running again like fury-you would think they would never stop:-and then it is, that in writing, and fighting, and twenty other gallant things, we drive all the world before us.

It is by these observations, and a wary reasoning by a.n.a.logy in that kind of argumentative process, which Suidas calls dialectick induction-that I draw and set up this position as most true and veritable;

That of these two luminaries so much of their irradiations are suffered from time to time to shine down upon us, as he, whose infinite wisdom which dispenses every thing in exact weight and measure, knows will just serve to light us on our way in this night of our obscurity; so that your reverences and worships now find out, nor is it a moment longer in my power to conceal it from you, That the fervent wish in your behalf with which I set out, was no more than the first insinuating How d'ye of a caressing prefacer, stifling his reader, as a lover sometimes does a coy mistress, into silence. For alas! could this effusion of light have been as easily procured, as the exordium wished it-I tremble to think how many thousands for it, of benighted travellers (in the learned sciences at least) must have groped and blundered on in the dark, all the nights of their lives-running their heads against posts, and knocking out their brains without ever getting to their journies end;-some falling with their noses perpendicularly into sinks-others horizontally with their tails into kennels. Here one half of a learned profession tilting full but against the other half of it, and then tumbling and rolling one over the other in the dirt like hogs.-Here the brethren of another profession, who should have run in opposition to each other, flying on the contrary like a flock of wild geese, all in a row the same way.-What confusion!-what mistakes!-fiddlers and painters judging by their eyes and ears-admirable!-trusting to the pa.s.sions excited-in an air sung, or a story painted to the heart-instead of measuring them by a quadrant.

In the fore-ground of this picture, a statesman turning the political wheel, like a brute, the wrong way round-against the stream of corruption-by Heaven!-instead of with it.

In this corner, a son of the divine Esculapius, writing a book against predestination; perhaps worse-feeling his patient's pulse, instead of his apothecary's-a brother of the Faculty in the back-ground upon his knees in tears-drawing the curtains of a mangled victim to beg his forgiveness;-offering a fee-instead of taking one.

In that s.p.a.cious Hall, a coalition of the gown, from all the bars of it, driving a d.a.m.n'd, dirty, vexatious cause before them, with all their might and main, the wrong way!-kicking it out of the great doors, instead of, in-and with such fury in their looks, and such a degree of inveteracy in their manner of kicking it, as if the laws had been originally made for the peace and preservation of mankind:-perhaps a more enormous mistake committed by them still-a litigated point fairly hung up;-for instance, Whether John o'Nokes his nose could stand in Tom o'Stiles his face, without a trespa.s.s, or not-rashly determined by them in five-and-twenty minutes, which, with the cautious pros and cons required in so intricate a proceeding, might have taken up as many months-and if carried on upon a military plan, as your honours know an Action should be, with all the stratagems practicable therein,-such as feints,-forced marches,-surprizes-ambuscades-mask-batteries, and a thousand other strokes of generalship, which consist in catching at all advantages on both sides-might reasonably have lasted them as many years, finding food and raiment all that term for a centumvirate of the profession.

As for the Clergy-No-if I say a word against them, I'll be shot.-I have no desire; and besides, if I had-I durst not for my soul touch upon the subject-with such weak nerves and spirits, and in the condition I am in at present, 'twould be as much as my life was worth, to deject and contrist myself with so bad and melancholy an account-and therefore 'tis safer to draw a curtain across, and hasten from it, as fast as I can, to the main and princ.i.p.al point I have undertaken to clear up-and that is, How it comes to pa.s.s, that your men of least wit are reported to be men of most judgment.-But mark-I say, reported to be-for it is no more, my dear Sirs, than a report, and which, like twenty others taken up every day upon trust, I maintain to be a vile and a malicious report into the bargain.

This by the help of the observation already premised, and I hope already weighed and perpended by your reverences and worships, I shall forthwith make appear.

I hate set dissertations-and above all things in the world, 'tis one of the silliest things in one of them, to darken your hypothesis by placing a number of tall, opake words, one before another, in a right line, betwixt your own and your reader's conception-when in all likelihood, if you had looked about, you might have seen something standing, or hanging up, which would have cleared the point at once-'for what hindrance, hurt, or harm doth the laudable desire of knowledge bring to any man, if even from a sot, a pot, a fool, a stool, a winter-mittain, a truckle for a pully, the lid of a goldsmith's crucible, an oil bottle, an old slipper, or a cane chair?'-I am this moment sitting upon one. Will you give me leave to ill.u.s.trate this affair of wit and judgment, by the two k.n.o.bs on the top of the back of it?-they are fastened on, you see, with two pegs stuck slightly into two gimlet-holes, and will place what I have to say in so clear a light, as to let you see through the drift and meaning of my whole preface, as plainly as if every point and particle of it was made up of sun-beams.

I enter now directly upon the point.

-Here stands wit-and there stands judgment, close beside it, just like the two k.n.o.bs I'm speaking of, upon the back of this self-same chair on which I am sitting.

-You see, they are the highest and most ornamental parts of its frame-as wit and judgment are of ours-and like them too, indubitably both made and fitted to go together, in order, as we say in all such cases of duplicated embellishments-to answer one another.

Now for the sake of an experiment, and for the clearer ill.u.s.trating this matter-let us for a moment take off one of these two curious ornaments (I care not which) from the point or pinnacle of the chair it now stands on-nay, don't laugh at it,-but did you ever see, in the whole course of your lives, such a ridiculous business as this has made of it?-Why, 'tis as miserable a sight as a sow with one ear; and there is just as much sense and symmetry in the one as in the other:-do-pray, get off your seats only to take a view of it,-Now would any man who valued his character a straw, have turned a piece of work out of his hand in such a condition?-nay, lay your hands upon your hearts, and answer this plain question, Whether this one single k.n.o.b, which now stands here like a blockhead by itself, can serve any purpose upon earth, but to put one in mind of the want of the other?-and let me farther ask, in case the chair was your own, if you would not in your consciences think, rather than be as it is, that it would be ten times better without any k.n.o.b at all?

Now these two k.n.o.bs-or top ornaments of the mind of man, which crown the whole entablature-being, as I said, wit and judgment, which of all others, as I have proved it, are the most needful-the most priz'd-the most calamitous to be without, and consequently the hardest to come at-for all these reasons put together, there is not a mortal among us, so dest.i.tute of a love of good fame or feeding-or so ignorant of what will do him good therein-who does not wish and stedfastly resolve in his own mind, to be, or to be thought at least, master of the one or the other, and indeed of both of them, if the thing seems any way feasible, or likely to be brought to pa.s.s.

Now your graver gentry having little or no kind of chance in aiming at the one-unless they laid hold of the other,-pray what do you think would become of them?-Why, Sirs, in spite of all their gravities, they must e'en have been contented to have gone with their insides naked-this was not to be borne, but by an effort of philosophy not to be supposed in the case we are upon-so that no one could well have been angry with them, had they been satisfied with what little they could have s.n.a.t.c.hed up and secreted under their cloaks and great perriwigs, had they not raised a hue and cry at the same time against the lawful owners.

I need not tell your worships, that this was done with so much cunning and artifice-that the great Locke, who was seldom outwitted by false sounds-was nevertheless bubbled here. The cry, it seems, was so deep and solemn a one, and what with the help of great wigs, grave faces, and other implements of deceit, was rendered so general a one against the poor wits in this matter, that the philosopher himself was deceived by it-it was his glory to free the world from the lumber of a thousand vulgar errors;-but this was not of the number; so that instead of sitting down coolly, as such a philosopher should have done, to have examined the matter of fact before he philosophised upon it-on the contrary he took the fact for granted, and so joined in with the cry, and halloo'd it as boisterously as the rest.

This has been made the Magna Charta of stupidity ever since-but your reverences plainly see, it has been obtained in such a manner, that the t.i.tle to it is not worth a groat:-which by-the-bye is one of the many and vile impositions which gravity and grave folks have to answer for hereafter.

As for great wigs, upon which I may be thought to have spoken my mind too freely-I beg leave to qualify whatever has been unguardedly said to their dispraise or prejudice, by one general declaration-That I have no abhorrence whatever, nor do I detest and abjure either great wigs or long beards, any farther than when I see they are bespoke and let grow on purpose to carry on this self-same imposture-for any purpose-peace be with them!-> mark only-I write not for them.

Chapter 2.XIV.

Every day for at least ten years together did my father resolve to have it mended-'tis not mended yet;-no family but ours would have borne with it an hour-and what is most astonishing, there was not a subject in the world upon which my father was so eloquent, as upon that of door-hinges.-And yet at the same time, he was certainly one of the greatest bubbles to them, I think, that history can produce: his rhetorick and conduct were at perpetual handy-cuffs.-Never did the parlour-door open-but his philosophy or his principles fell a victim to it;-three drops of oil with a feather, and a smart stroke of a hammer, had saved his honour for ever.

-Inconsistent soul that man is!-languishing under wounds, which he has the power to heal!-his whole life a contradiction to his knowledge!-his reason, that precious gift of G.o.d to him-(instead of pouring in oil) serving but to sharpen his sensibilities-to multiply his pains, and render him more melancholy and uneasy under them!-Poor unhappy creature, that he should do so!-Are not the necessary causes of misery in this life enow, but he must add voluntary ones to his stock of sorrow;-struggle against evils which cannot be avoided, and submit to others, which a tenth part of the trouble they create him would remove from his heart for ever?

By all that is good and virtuous, if there are three drops of oil to be got, and a hammer to be found within ten miles of Shandy Hall-the parlour door hinge shall be mended this reign.