That fhe is not a woman of fcience, my father would fay-is her miffortune-but she might ask a question.

My mother never did.In short, fhe went out of the world at last without knowing whether it turned round, or ftood still. My father had officiously told her above a thousand times which way it was, but fhe always forgot.

For these reafons a difcourfe feldom went on much further betwixt them, than a proposition,-a reply, and a rejoinder; at the end of which, it generally took breath for a few minutes, (as in the affair of the breeches) and then went on again.

If he marries, 'twill be the worse for us, quoth my mother.

Not a cherry-ftone, faid my father,he may as well batter away his means upon that, as any thing else.

To be fure, faid my mother: fo here ended the propofition,-the reply, -and the rejoinder, I told you of.

It will be fome amusement to him, -faid my father.

too,

A very great one, anfwered my mo ther, if he fhould have children.

Lord have mercy upon me,

faid my father to himfelf

CHAP.

I

CHA P. XL.

Am now beginning to get fairly into

my work; and by the help of a vegitable diet, with a few of the cold feeds, I make no doubt but I fhall be able to go on with my uncle Toby's ftory, and my own, in a tolerable straight line. Now,

Inv.T.S

SculTS

These

These were the four lines I moved in through my firft, fecond, third, and fourth volumes.In the fifth volume I have been very good, the precife line I have described in it being this:

A B

D

By which it appears, that except at the curve, marked A. where I took a trip to Navarre, and the indented curve B. which is the fhort airing when I was there with the Lady Bauffiere and her page,-I have not taken the least frisk of a digreffion, till John de la Caffe's devils led me the round you fee marked D.-for as for ccccc they are nothing but parentheses, and the common ins and outs incident to the lives of the greateft minifters of state; and when compared

pared with what men have done,—or with my own tranfgreffions at the letters A B D they vanish into nothing..

In this laft volume I have done better ftill-for from the end of Le Fever's episode, to the beginning of my uncle Toby's campaigns, I have scarce stepped a yard out of my way.

If I mend at this rate, it is not impoffible by the good leave of his grace of Benevento's devils-but I may arrive hereafter at the excellency of going on even thus;

which is a line drawn as ftraight as I could draw it, by a writing-master's ruler, (borrowed for that purpose) turning neither to the right hand or to the left.