er was not intellectual, though he sometimes
showed fine emotional feeling.

Under the head of acoustic humour we may place that abruptness of style
which he managed so adroitly, and that dramatic punctuation, which he
may be said to have invented, and of which no one ever else made so much
use. No doubt he was an accomplished speaker; and we know that he had a
good ear for music.

There is something in Sterne which reminds us of a conjurer exhibiting
tricks on the stage; in one place indeed, he speaks of his cap and
bells, and no doubt many would have thought them more suitable to him
than a cap and gown. He was a versatile man; fond of light and artistic
pursuits, occupying, as he tells us, his leisure time with books,
painting, fiddling, and shooting. In his nature there was much emotion
and exuberance of mind, being that of an accomplished rather than of a
thoughtful man; and we can believe when he avers that he "said a
thousand things he never dreamed of." He had not sufficient foundation
for humour of the highest kind; but in form and diction he was
unrivalled. Perhaps this was why Thackeray said "he was a great jester,
not a great humorist." But he had a dashing style, and the quick
succession of ideas necessary for a successful author. Not only was he
master of writing, but of the kindred art of rhetoric. He makes a
correction in the accentuation of Corporal Trim, who begins to read a
sermon with the text,--

"_For we trust we have a good conscience._ Heb. xiii., 8.
'TRUST! Trust we have a good conscience!!' 'Certainly,'
Trim, quoth my father, interrupting him, 'you give that sentence a
very improper accent, for you curl up your nose, man, and read it
with such a sneering tone, as if the parson was going to abuse the
apostle.'"

The same kind of discrimination is shown in the following--

"'And how did Garrick speak the soliloquy last night?' 'Oh, against
all rule, my lord--most ungrammatically. Betwixt the substantive
and the adjective, which should agree together in number, case, and
gender, he made a breach thus, stopping, as if the point wanted
settling; and betwixt the nominative case, which your lordship
knows should govern the verb, he suspended his voice in the
epilogue a dozen times, three seconds and three-fifths by a stop
watch, my lord, each time.' 'Admirable grammarism!' 'But in
suspending his voice, was the sense suspe