not help thinking, that the first chapter or two of the Memoirs of Scriblerus whetted Sterne's invention, in this, as well as in other instances of Mr. Shandy's peculiarities.

The forced introduction of the sneer at the term non-naturals,* used in medicine, leads us back to Burton, who has insisted largely and repeatedly, on the abuse of the functions so denominated.

It is very singular, that in the introduction to the Fragment on Whiskers, which contains an evident copy, Sterne should take occasion to abuse plagiarists. "Shall we for ever make new books, as apothecaries make new mixtures, by pouring only out of one vessel into another? Are we for ever to be twisting and untwisting the same rope?

vendum, sayeth Cardan. Tris. Shandy, vol. vi. ch. 33.

* Tris. Shandy, vol. i. chap. 23.—“Why the most natural actions of a man's life should be called his non-naturals, is another question." See Burton, p. 39. The solution might be easily given, if it were worth repeating.

for ever in the same track-for ever at the same pace?" And it is more singular that all this declamation should be taken, word for word, from Burton's introduction.

"As apothecaries, we make new mixtures every day, pour out of one vessel into another ; and as those old Romans robbed all the cities of the world, to set out their bad-sited Rome, we skim off the cream of other men's wits, pick the choice flowers of their tilled gardens, to set out our own sterile plots.*" Again, "We weave the same web still, twist the same rope again and again."+

"Who made MAN, with powers which dart him from earth to heaven in a moment -that great, that most excellent, and most noble creature of the world-the miracle of nature,as Zoroaster in his book περὶ φύσεως called him-the SHEKINAH of the Divine presence, as Chrysostom-the image of God, as Moses-the ray of Divinity, as

* Burton, p. 4.

+ Ib. p. 5.

Plato-the marvel of marvels, as Aristotle -to go sneaking on at this pitiful, pimping, pettyfogging rate?" *

Who would suspect this heroic strain to be a plagiarism? yet such it is undoubtedly; and from the very first paragraph of the Anatomy of Melancholy. +

Man, says Burton, the most excellent and noble creature of the world, the principal and mighty work of God, wonder of nature, as Zoroastes calls him; audacis naturæ miraculum; the marvel of marvels, as Plato; the abridgment and epitome of the world, as Pliny; microcosmus, a little world, a model of the world, sovereign lord of the earth, viceroy of the world, sole commander and governor of all the creatures in it *****, created of God's own image, to that immortal and incorporeal substance, with all the faculties and powers belonging to it, was at first pure, divine, perfect, happy, &c.

* Tristram Shandy, vol. v. chap. i,

+ Page 1.

"One denier, cried the order of mercyone single denier, in behalf of a thousand patient captives, whose eyes look towards heaven and you for their redemption.

"The Lady Baussiere rode on.

Pity the unhappy, said a devout, venerable, hoary-headed man, meekly holding up a box, begirt with iron, in his withered hands-I beg for the unfortunate-good, my lady, 't is for a prison-for an hospital—'t is for an old man-a poor man undone by shipwreck, by suretyship, by fire - I call God and all his angels to witness-'t is to clothe the naked to feed the hungry t' is to comfort the sick and the brokenhearted.

66

The Lady Baussiere rode on. "A decayed kinsman bowed himself to

the ground.

66

The Lady Baussiere rode on. "He ran begging bare-headed on one side of her palfrey, conjuring her by the former bonds of friendship, alliance, consanguinity, &c.-cousin, aunt, sister, mo

ther-for virtue's sake, for your own, for mine, for Christ's sake, remember me-pity

me.

66

The Lady Baussiere rode on." The citation of the original passage from Burton will confirm all I have said of his style.

"A poor decayed kinsman of his sets upon him by the way in all his jollity, and runs begging bare-headed by him, conjuring him by those former bonds of friendship, alliance, consanguinity, &c. uncle, cousin, brother, father, -shew some pity for Christ's sake, pity a sick man, an old man, &c. he cares not, ride on : pretend sickness, inevitable loss of limbs, plead suretyship, or shipwreck, fires, common calamities, shew thy wants and imperfections,

swear, protest, take God and all his angels to witness, quære peregrinum, thou art a counterfeit crank, a cheater, he is not touched with it, pauper ubique jacet, ride on, he takes no notice of it. Put up a supplication to him in

Tristram Shandy, vol. v. chap. i.