Yet what tho' keenest knowledge of mankind By fools insulted, and by prudes accus'd !— This monumental stone was erected by two brother masons; for, though he did not live to be a member of their society, yet, as his all-in-comparable performances evidently prove him to have acted by rule and square, they rejoice in this opportunity of prepetuating his high and irreproachable character to after-ages. W. & S.* IN MEMORY OF MR. STERNE, Author of the Sentimental Journey. WITH wit, and genuine humour, to dispel, Of hapless love or filial grief to flow From the full syınpathising heart, were thine; But the sad tribute of a heart-felt sigh: With olive foliage, at the close of day, Shall chant her plaintive vespers at thy grave. SENTIMENTAL JOURNEY THROUGH FRANCE AND ITALY France. THEY order, said I, this matter better in -You have been in France? said my gentleman, turning quick upon me, with the most civil triumph in the world,-Strange! quoth I, debating the matter with myself, that one-and-twenty miles sailing, for 'tis absolutely no further from Dover to Calais, should give a man these rights-I'll look into them: so giving up the argument, I went straight to my lodgings, put up half a dozen shirts, and a black pair of silk breeches-the coat I have on, said I, looking at the sleeve, will do-took a place in the Dover stage; and the packet sailing at nine the next morning by three. I had got sat down to my dinner upon a fricasseed chicken, so incon B testably in France, that had I died that night of an indigestion, the whole world could not have suspended the effects of the droits d'aubaine *—my shirts, and black pair of silk breeches-portmanteau and all, must have gone to the king of Franceeven the little picture which I have so long worn, and so often told thee, Eliza, I would carry with me into my grave, would have been torn from my neck.-Ungenerous! to seize upon the wreck of an unwary passenger, whom your subjects had beckoned to their coast-by heaven! Sire, it is not well done; and much does it grieve me 'tis the monarch of a people so civilized and courteous, and so renowned for sentiment and fine feelings, that I have to reason with CALAIS. WHEN I had finished my dinner, and drank the king of France's health, to satisfy my mind that I bore him no spleen, but, on the contrary, high honour for the humanity of his temper-I rose up an inch taller for the accommodation. • All the effects of strangers, (Swiss and Scotch excepted) dying in France, were seized by virtue of this law though the heir was upon the spot-the profits of these contingencies being farmed there was no redress. -No-said I-the Bourbon is by no means a cruel race; they may be misled, like other people, but there is a mildness in their blood. As I acknowledged this, I felt a suffusion of a finer kind upon my cheek-more warm and friendly to man, than what Burgundy (at least of two livres a bottle, which was such as I had been drinking) could have produced. -Just God! said I, kicking my portmanteau aside, what is there in this world's goods which should sharpen our spirits, and make so many kindhearted brethren of us fall out so cruelly as we do by the way? When man is at peace with man, how much lighter than a feather is the heaviest of metals in his hand! He pulls out his purse, and, holding it airily and uncompressed, looks round him, as if he sought for an object to share it with -In doing this, I felt every vessel in my frame dilate-the arteries beat all cheerily together, and every power which sustained life, performed it with so little friction, that 'twould have confounded the most physical precieuse in France: with all her materialism, she could scarce have called me a machine I'm confident, said I to myself, I should have overset her creed. The accession of that idea carried nature, at that time, as high as she could go-I was at peace with the world before, and this finished the treaty with myself |