I desire M. J- to be my advocate but I know I don't want one. With what pleasure shall I embrace your dear little pledge - whom I hope to see every hour increasing in stature, and in favour, both with God and man! I kiss all your hands with a most devout and friendly heart. No man can wish you more good than your meagre friend does - few so much, for I am, with infinite cordiality, gratitude, and honest affection, My dear Mrs. J-, Your ever faithful L. STERNE. P. S. My Sentimental Journey will please Mrs. J-, and my Lydia, I can answer for those two. It is a subject which works well, and suits the frame of mind I have been in for some time past - I told you my design in it was to teach us to love the world and our fellow creatures better than we do so it runs most upon those gentler passions and affections which aid so much to it. Adieu, and may you and my worthy friend Mr. J- continue examples of the doctrine I teach. Now be a good dear woman, my H-, and execute these commissions well and when I see you I will give you a kiss - there's for you! But I have something else for you which I am fabricating at a great rate, and that is my Sentimental Journey, which shall make you cry as much as it has affected me or I will give up the business of sentimental writing and write to the body - that is, H., what I am doing in writing to you but you are a good body, which is worth a half a score mean souls. I am yours, &c. &c. L. SHANDY. CXV. TO A. LE, ESQ. Coxwould, November 19, 1767. You make yourself unhappy, dear L-e, by imaginary ills which you might shun instead of putting yourself in the way of. Would not any man in his senses fly from the object he adores, and not waste his time and his health in increasing his misery by so vain a pursuit? - The idol of your heart is one of ten thousand. - The Duke of has long sighed in vain Her and can you suppose a woman will listen to you that is proof against titles, stars, and red ribands? heart (believe me, L-e) will not be taken in by fine men, or fine speeches - if it should ever feel a preference, it will choose an object for itself, and it must be a singular character that can make an impression on such a being - she has a platonic way of thinking, and knows love only by name - the natural reserve of her character, which you complain of, proceeds not from pride, but from a superiority of understanding, which makes her despise every man that turns himself into a fool Take my advice and pay your addresses to Miss; she esteems you, and time will wear off an attachment which has taken so deep a root in your heart. I pity you from my soul but we areall born with passions which ebb and flow (else they would play the devil with us) to different objects - and the best advice I can give you, L-e, is to turn the tide of yours another way. I know not whether I shall write again Sentimental Journey, etc. 21 while I stay at Coxwould. I am in earnest at my and intend being in town soon Let me Yours, &c. L. STERNE. CXVI. TO THE EARL OF MY LORD, Coxwould, November 28, 1767. "Tis with the greatest pleasure I take my pen to thank your Lordship for your letter of inquiry about Yorick he has worn out both his spirits and body with the Sentimental Journey - 'tis true, that an author must feel himself, or his reader will not - but I have torn my whole frame into pieces by my feelings. I believe the brain stands as much in need of recruiting as the body - therefore I shall set out for town the twentieth of next month, after having recruited myself a week at York. I might, indeed, solace myself with my wife (who is come from France), but in fact I have long been a sentimental being - whatever your Lordship may think to the contrary. The world has imagined, because I wrote Tristram Shandy, that I was myself more Shandean than I really ever was 'tis a good-natured world we live in, and we are often painted in divers colours according to the ideas each one frames in his head. A very agreeable lady arrived three years ago at York, in her road to Scarborough - I had the honour of being acquainted with her, and was her chaperon - all the females were very inquisitive to know who she was "Do not tell, ladies; 'tis a mistress my wife has recommended to me nay, moreover, has sent me from France." I hope my book will please you, my Lord, and then my labour will not be totally in vain. If it is not thought a chaste book, mercy on them that read it, for they must have warm imaginations indeed! Can your Lordship forgive my not making this a longer epistle? In short I can but add this, which you already know that I am, with gratitude and friendMy Lord, ship, Your obedient faithful, L. STERNE. If your Lordship is in town in Spring, I should be happy if you became acquainted with my friends in Gerrard-street you would esteem the husband and honour the wife she is the reverse of most of her sex they have various pursuits - she but one that of pleasing her husband. CXVII. - TO HIS EXCELLENCY SIR G. M. MY DEAR FRIEND, Coxwould, Dec. 3, 1767. For though you are his Excellency, and I still but Parson Yorick I still must call you so and were you to be next Emperor of Russia, I could not write to you, or speak of you under any other relation felicitate you, I don't say how much, because I can't I I always had something like a kind of revelation within me, which pointed out this track for you in which you are so happily advanced it was not only my wishes for you, which were ever ardent enough to impose upon a visionary brain, but I thought I actually saw you just where you now are and that is just, my dear Macartney, where you should be. I should long, long ago, have acknowledged the kindness of a letter of yours from Petersburgh, but hearing that is, the daily accounts you was leaving it this is the first time I knew well where my thanks would find you how they will find you I know well same I ever knew you. In three weeks I shall kiss your hand, - and sooner, if I can finish my Sentimental Journey. The deuce take all sentiments! I wish there was not one in the world! My wife is come to pay me a sentimental visit as far as from Avignon - and the politesse arising from such a proof of her urbanity has robbed me of a month's writing, or I had been in town now. I am going to lye-in; being at Christmas at my full reckoning - and unless what I shall bring forth is not press'd to death by these devils of printers, I shall have the honour of presenting to you a couple of as clean brats as ever chaste brain conceived they are frolicksome too, mais cela n'empeche pas I put your name down with many wrong and right honourables, knowing you would take it not well if I did not make myself happy with it. Adieu, my dear friend. Believe me, yours, &c. L. STERNE. P. S. If you see Mr. Crawfurd, tell him I greet him kindly. CXVIII. DEAR L., TO A. LE, ESQ. Coxwould, December 7, 1767. I SAID I would not perhaps write any more, but it would be unkind not to reply to so interesting a letter as yours. I am certain you may depend upon Lord -'s promises, he will take care of you in the best manner he can, and your knowledge of the world, and of languages in particular, will make you useful in |