pit at all.[1]
Throughout all of them, however, Sterne's new-found literary power
displays itself in a vigour of expression and vivacity of illustration
which at least serve to make the sermons of 1766 considerably more
entertaining reading than those of 1761. In the first of the latter
series, for instance--the sermon on Shimei--a discourse in which there
are no very noticeable sallies of unclerical humour, the quality of
liveliness is very conspicuously present. The preacher's view of the
character of Shimei, and of his behaviour to David, is hardly that,
perhaps, of a competent historical critic, and in treating of the
Benjamite's insults to the King of Israel he appears to take no
account of the blood-feud between the house of David and the clan
to which the railer belonged; just as in commenting on Shimei's
subsequent and most abject submission to the victorious monarch,
Sterne lays altogether too much stress upon conduct which is
indicative, not so much of any exceptional meanness of disposition,
as of the ordinary suppleness of the Oriental put in fear of his life.
However, it makes a more piquant and dramatic picture to represent
Shimei as a type of the wretch of insolence and servility compact,
with a tongue ever ready to be loosed against the unfortunate, and a
knee ever ready to be bent to the strong. And thus he moralizes on his
conception:

[Footnote 1: Mr. Fitzgerald, indeed, asserts as a fact that some
at least of these sermons were actually composed in the capacity
of _litterateur_ and not of divine--for the press and not for the
pulpit.]

"There is not a character in the world which has so bad an influence
upon it as this of Shimei. While power meets with honest
checks, and the evils of life with honest refuge, the world will never
be undone; but thou, Shimei, hast sapped it at both extremes: for
thou corruptest prosperity, and 'tis thou who hast broken the heart
of poverty. And so long as worthless spirits can be ambitious ones
'tis a character we never shall want. Oh! it infests the court, the
camp, the cabinet; it infests the Church. Go where you will, in
every quarter, in every profession, you see a Shimei following the
wheels of the fortunate through thick mire and clay. Haste, Shimei,
haste! or thou wilt be undone forever. Shimei girdeth up his loins
and speedeth after him. Behold the hand which governs everything
takes the wheel from his chariot, so that he who drivet