lead, he might naturally suppose it to be a great
Engine brought there on purpose to exercise the Peine fort et dure upon
him.--But to be serious; if Mr. Ricard told you, That this Enquiry was
most formidable, He was much to blame;--and if you have said it, without
his express Information, then You are much to blame.

This is all, I think, in your Reply, which concerns me to answer:--As
for the many coarse and unchristian Insinuations scatter'd throughout
your Reply,--as it is my Duty to beg God to forgive you, so I do from my
Heart: Believe me, Dr. Topham, they hurt yourself more than the Person
they are aimed at; and when the first Transport of Rage is a little
over, they will grieve you more too.

--prima est haec Ultio.

But these I hold to be no answerable Part of a Controversy;--and for the
little that remains unanswered in yours,--I believe I could, in another
half Hour, set it right in the Eyes of the World: But this is not my
Business.--And is it is thought worth the while, which I hope it never
will, I know no one more able to do it than the very Reverend and Worthy
Gentleman whom you have so unhandsomely insulted upon that Score.

As for the supposed Compilers, whom you have been so wrath and so
unmerciful against, I'll be answerable for it, as they are Creatures of
your own Fancy, they will bear you no Malice. However, I think the more
positively any Charge is made, let it be against whom it will, the
better it should be supported; and therefore I should be sorry, for your
own Honour, if you have not some better Grounds for all you have thrown
out about them, than the mere Heat of your Imagination or Anger. To tell
you truly, your Suppositions on this Head oft put me in Mind of Trim's
twelve Men in Buckram, which his disordered Fancy represented as laying
in Ambush in John the Clerk's House, and letting drive at him all
together. I am,

SIR, Your most obedient And most humble Servant, LAWRENCE STERNE
Sutton on the Forest, Jan. 20, 1759

P.S. I beg Pardon for clapping this upon the Back of the Romance,--which
is done out of no Disrespect to you.--But the Vehicle stood ready at the
Door,--and as I was to pay the whole Fare, and there was Room enough
behind it,--it was the cheapest and readiest Conveyance I could think
of.

FINIS.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of A Political Romance, by Laurence Sterne

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