"Its mamma has black eyes," said Miss Margaret: "it takes after its
mamma; it has not the fair beauty of the Chillinglys, but it is not
ugly."

"Sweet infant!" sighed Sibyl; "and so good; does not cry."

"It has neither cried nor crowed since it was born," said the nurse;
"bless its little heart."

She took the Baby from the Parson's arms, and smoothed back the frill of
its cap, which had got ruffled.

"You may go now, Nurse," said Sir Peter.

CHAPTER IV.

"I AGREE with Mr. Shandy," said Sir Peter, resuming his stand on the
hearthstone, "that among the responsibilities of a parent the choice of
the name which his child is to bear for life is one of the gravest. And
this is especially so with those who belong to the order of baronets.
In the case of a peer his Christian name, fused into his titular
designation, disappears. In the case of a Mister, if his baptismal
be cacophonous or provocative of ridicule, he need not ostentatiously
parade it: he may drop it altogether on his visiting cards, and may be
imprinted as Mr. Jones instead of Mr. Ebenezer Jones. In his signature,
save where the forms of the law demand Ebenezer in full, he may only
use an initial and be your obedient servant E. Jones, leaving it to be
conjectured that E. stands for Edward or Ernest,--names inoffensive, and
not suggestive of a Dissenting Chapel, like Ebenezer. If a man called
Edward or Ernest be detected in some youthful indiscretion, there is
no indelible stain on his moral character: but if an Ebenezer be so
detected he is set down as a hypocrite; it produces that shock on the
public mind which is felt when a professed saint is proved to be a
bit of a sinner. But a baronet never can escape from his baptismal: it
cannot lie _perdu_; it cannot shrink into an initial, it stands forth
glaringly in the light of day; christen him Ebenezer, and he is Sir
Ebenezer in full, with all its perilous consequences if he ever succumb
to those temptations to which even baronets are exposed. But, my
friends, it is not only the effect that the sound of a name has upon
others which is to be thoughtfully considered: the effect that his name
produces on the man himself is perhaps still more important. Some names
stimulate and encourage the owner; others deject and paralyze him: I
am a melancholy instance of that truth. Peter has been for many
generations, as you are aware, the baptismal to which the eldest-born
of our family has been devoted. On the al