was made to Augustus by
a young man from the country.

Sydney Smith's reply when it was proposed to pave the approach to St.
Paul's with blocks of wood, "The canons have only to put their heads
together and it will be done," was not original; Rochester had made a
similar remark to Charles II. when he noticed a construction near
Shoreditch: and the story of the man who complained that the chicken
brought up for his dinner had only one leg, and was told to go and look
into the roost-house, is to be found in an old Turkish jest-book of the
fifteenth century. When Byron said of Southey's poems that "they would
be read when Homer and Virgil were forgotten--but not till then," he was
no doubt repeating what Porson said of Sir Richard Blackmore's. "Most
literary stories," observes Mr. Willmott, "seem to be shadows, brighter
or fainter, of others told before."

CHAPTER VI.

Sterne--His Versatility--Dramatic Form--Indelicacy--Sentiment and
Geniality--Letters to his Wife--Extracts from his Sermons--Dr.
Johnson.

Sterne exceeded Smollett[10] in indelicacy as much as in humorous
talent. He calls him Smelfungus, because he had written a fastidious
book of travels. But he profited by his works, and the character of
Uncle Toby reminds us considerably of Commodore Trunnion. But Sterne is
more immediately associated in our minds with Swift, for both were
clergymen, and both Irishmen by birth, though neither by parentage.
Sterne's great-grandfather had been Archbishop of York, and his mother
heiress of Sir Roger Jacques, of Elvington in Yorkshire. Through family
interest Sterne became a Prebendary of York, and obtained two livings;
at one of which he spent his time in quiet obscurity until his
forty-seventh year, when the production of "Tristram Shandy" made him
famous. He did not long enjoy his laurels, dying nine years afterwards
in 1768.

In both Sterne and Swift, as well as Congreve, we see the fertile
erratic fancy of Ireland improved by the labour and reflection of
England. Sterne's humour was inferior to Swift's, narrower and smaller;
it was a sparkling wine, but light-bodied, and often bad in colour. His
pleasantry had no depth or general bearing. He appealed to the senses,
referred entirely to some particular and trivial coincidence, and often
put amatory weaknesses under contribution to give it force. The current
of his thoughts glided naturally and imperceptibly into poetry and
humour, but his subject matt