this, with all other evils and uncertainties of life, will end for the best. I send all compliments to your firesides this Sunday night: Miss Ascough the wise, Miss Pigot the witty, your daughter the pretty, and so on. If Lord O- is with you, I beg my dear Mrs. J will present the inclosed to him; 'twill add to the millions of obligations I already owe you. I am sorry that I am no subscriber to Soho this season; it deprives me of a pleasure worth twice the subscription; but I am just going to send about this quarter of the town, to see if it is not too late to procure a ticket, undisposed of, from some of my Soho friends, and if I can succeed, I will either send or wait upon you with it by half an hour after three to-morrow: if not, my friend will do me the justice to believe me truly miserable. I am half engaged, or more, for dinner on Sunday next; but will try to get disengaged, in order to be with my friends. If I cannot, I will glide like a shadow uninvited to Gerrard-street some day this week, that we may eat our bread and meat in love and peace together. God bless you both! I am, with the most sincere regard,

I HAVE never been a moment at rest since I wrote yesterday about this Soho ticket. I have been at the Secretary of State to get one; have been upon one knee to my friends Sir GM- Mr. Lascelles, and Mr. Fitzmaurice; without mentioning five more. I believe I could as soon get you a place at court, for every body is going: but I will go out and try a new circle; and if you do not hear from me by a quarter after three, you may conclude I have been unfortunate in my supplications. I send you this state of the affair, lest my silence should make you think I had neglected what I promised; but no; Mrs. J knows me better, and would never suppose it would be out of the head of one who is with so much truth,

Her faithful friend,

L. STERNE.

LETTER CXXII.

To the Same.

Thursday, OLD Bond Street. A THOUSAND thanks, and as many excuses, my dear friends, for the trouble my blunder has given you. By a second note, I am astonished I could read Saturday for Sunday, or make any mistake in a card wrote by Mrs. J- -s, in which my friend is as unrivalled as in a hundred greater excellences.

I am now tied down neck and heels (twice over) by engagements every day this week, or most joyfully would have trod the old pleasing road from Bond to Gerrard street. My books will be to be had on Thursday, but possibly on Wednesday in the afternoon. I am quite well, but exhausted with a room full of company every morning till dinner. How do I lament I cannot eat my morsel (which is always sweet) with such kind friends. The Sunday following I will assuredly wait upon you both, and will come a quarter before four, that I may have both a little time and a little daylight, to see Mrs. J's picture. I beg leave to assure my friends of my gratitude for all their favors, with my sentimental thanks for every token of their good-will. Adieu, my dear friends.

I am truly yours,

L. STERNE.

LETTER CXXIII.

To Dr. Eustace, in America.

LONDON, Feb. 9, 1768.

SIR: I THIS moment received your obliging letter, and Shandean piece of sculpture along with it: of both which testimonies of your regard I have the justest sense, and return you, dear Sir, my best thanks and acknowledgment. Your walking-stick is in no sense more Shandaic than in that of its having more handles than one; the parallel breaks only in this, that in using the stick, every one will

take the handle which suits his convenience. In Tristram Shandy, the handle is taken which suits the passions, their ignorance, or their sensibility. There is so little true feeling in the herd of the world, that I wish I could have got an act of parliament, when the books first appeared, that none but wise men should look into them. It is too much to write books, and find heads to understand them: the world, however, seems to come into a better temper about them, the people of genius here being to a man on its side; and the reception it has met with in France, Italy, and Germany, has engaged one part of the world to give it a second reading. The other, in order to be on the strongest side, has at length agreed to speak well of it too. A few hypocrites and Tartuffes, whose approbation could do it nothing but dishonor, remain unconverted.

I am very proud, Sir, to have had a man like you on my side from the beginning; but it is not in the power of every one to taste humor, however he may wish it; it is the gift of God; and, besides, a true feeler always brings half the entertainment along with him; his own ideas are only called forth by what he reads; and the vibrations within him entirely correspond with those excited. 'Tis like reading himself, and not the book.

In a week's time I shall be delivered of two volumes of the Sentimental Travels of Mr. Yorick through France and Italy; but alas! the ship sails three days too soon, and I have but to lament it deprives me of the pleasure of presenting them to you.

Believe, dear Sir, with great thanks for the honor you have done me, with true esteem,

LETTER CXXIV.

To L. S

-n, Esq,

DEAR SIR:

OLD BOND STREET, Wednesday.

YOUR commendations are very flattering; I know no one whose judgment I think more highly of; but your partiality for me is the only instance in which I can call it in question. Thanks, my good Sir, for the prints; I am much your debtor for them. If I recover from my ill state of health, and live to revisit Coxwould this summer, I will decorate my study with them, along with six beautiful pictures I have already of the sculptures on poor Ovid's tomb, which were executed on marble at Rome. It grieves one to think such a man should have died in exile, who wrote so well on the art of love. Do not think me encroaching if I solicit a favor; 'tis either to borrow, or beg (to beg, if you please) some of those touched with chalk which you brought from Italy. I believe you have three sets, and if you can spare the imperfect one of cattle on colored paper, 'twill answer my purpose, which is namely this, to give a friend of ours. You may be ignorant she has a genius for drawing; and whatever she excels in she conceals; and her humility adds lustre to her accomplishments. I presented her last year with colors, and an apparatus for painting, and gave her several lessons before I left town. I wish her to follow this art, to be a complete mistress of it; and it is singular enough, but not more singular than true, that she does not know how to make a cow or a sheep, though she draws figures and lands capes perfectly well; which makes me wish her to copy from good prints. If you come to town next week, and dine where I am engaged next Sunday, call upon me and take me with you. I breakfast with Mr. Beauclerc, and am engaged for an hour afterwards with Lord O ; so let our meeting be either at your house or my lodgings do not be late, for we will go half an hour before dinner, to see a picture executed by West, most admirably; he has caught the character of our friend: such goodness is painted in that face, that when one looks at it, let the soul be ever so much unharmonized, it is impossible it should remain so. I will send you a set of my books;

they will take with the generality: the women will read this book in the parlor, and Tristram in the bed-chamber. Good night, dear Sir; I am going to take my whey, and then to bed. Believe me,

Yours most truly,

L. STERNE.

LETTER OXXV.

To Miss Sterne.

Feb. 20, OLD BOND STREET.

MY DEAREST LYDIA : My Sentimental Journey, you say, is admired in York by every one and 'tis not vanity in me to tell you that it is no less admired here: but what is the gratification of my feelings on this occasion? The want of health bows me down, and vanity harbors not in thy father's breast. This vile influenza! be not alarmed! I think I shall get the better of it; and I shall be with you both the first of May; and, if I escape, 'twill not be for a long period, thy child, unless a quiet retreat and peace of mind can restore me. The subject of thy letter has astonished me. She could but know little of my feelings, to tell thee that, under the supposition I should survive my mother, I should bequeath thee as a legacy to - No, my Lydia! 'tis a lady, whose virtues I wish thee to imitate, that I shall intrust my girl to; I mean that friend whom I have so often talked and wrote about. From her you will learn to be an affectionate wife, a tender mother, and a sincere friend; and you cannot be intimate with her without her pouring some part of the milk of human kindness into your breast, which will serve to check the heat of your own temper, which you partake in a small degree of. Nor will that amiable woman put my Lydia under the painful neccssity to fly to India for protection whilst it is in her power to grant her a more powerful one in England. But I think, my Lydia, that thy mother will survive me. Do not deject her spirits with thy apprehensions on my account. I have sent you a necklace, buckles, and the same to your mother. My girl cannot form a wish that is in the power of her father, that he will not gratify her in; and I cannot, in justice, be less to thy mother. I am never alone. The kindness of my friends is ever the