BRIEF MEMOIRS OF THE REV. LAURENCE STERNE. MAN is the representative of man-hence enquiring minds are solicitous to trace all those evanescent circumstances, which, in the lives of some men, have in the aggregate led on to fortune or to fame. D Some characters attain, celebrity, by personal endowments; another class by mental energy, under the depression of poverty, abstracted likewise from personal recommendation and patronage. งา Biography, therefore, from the perpetually varying incidents of life, engages attention, and seldom fails to be instructive. Human life thus always supplying ample materials for this species of information, it cannot (as has been suggested by some) ever become dull, or wear itself out; and the teeming press will perpetually present ample subjects of rational enquiry, of prominent instruction, and of dignified amusement. Literary characters, indeed, of all others, perhaps teem less with the marvellous, or supply that fund of striking event which rouses curiosity. Sudden reverses of fortune are seldom their lot; martyrs to the midnight lamp, they often appear only in the world by their works, and thus pursuing the noiseless tenor of their way, are neglected or rewarded as chance or fashion may influence their course. Mr. Sterne was one of those fortunate writers whose works were received with avidity, for which, perhaps, they were not a little indebted to their eccentricity and incomprehensibility. Mr. Sterne's father was an officer in the army; Laurence, his son, was born in Ireland in 1713; and after going through a regular school education, went to the university to complete his studies; during his residence at college he was remarked for the lively turn of his disposition, for those poignant sallies of wit, which, if they do not tend to conciliate friendship and esteem, mark out that lucid path which the eye observes with admiration and delight: this, however, was tempered in our author by that sweet pliability. of temper, which is the theme of his unbounded eulogium --and he continued encreasing his friendships during his residence at Cambridge. In 1745 we fal him vicar of Sutton, and being.made prebend of York, held with it the vicarage of Stillington, about twelve miles from York, where he performed service in the afternoon. In this situation Mr. Sterne might have probably lived and died in that calm repose which spreads its lap to shelter him from the vicissitudes of life; but the animated spark, that attic wit, which influenced and pervaded his mind, could not permit a genius like his to be secluded from the giddy bustle of the world. Here he published his Sermons, which attracted then little notice: he appears to have been * With these Mr. Sterne held Coxwold, near Stillington, held at present (1803) by the Rev. Mr. Newton, an intimate friend of Mr. Sterne's. The present vicar of Stillington is the Rev. William Oddie, to whom the Editor begs leave to testify his obligations for many friendly letters. |