nine years old, or fooner, and went on reafoning without them;-others went through their claffics at feven;-wrote tragedies at eight ;-Ferdinand de Cordouè was fo wife at nine,'twas thought the Devil was in him;and at Venice gave fuch proofs of his knowlege and goodness, that the monks imagined he was Antichrift, or nothing.

-Others

were mafters of fourteen languages at ten, finished the course of their rhetoric, poetry, logic, and ethics at eleven, -put forth their commentaries upon Servius and Martianus Capella at twelve,

and at thirteen received their degrees in philofophy, laws, and divinity :But you forget the great Lipfius, quoth Yorick, who composed a work * the day

he

*Nous aurions quelque interêt, fays Baillet, de montrer qu'il n'a rien de ridicule f'il étoit vérita B 4

ble,

he was born ;

-They fhould have

wiped it up, faid my uncle Toby, and

faid no more about it.

W

CHA P. III.

HEN the cataplafm was ready, a fcruple of decorum had unseasonably rofe up in Sufannah's confcience, about holding the candle, whilft Slop tied it on; Slop had not treated Sufannah's diftemper with anodines, and fo a quarrel had enfued betwixt them.

ble, au moins dans le fens énigmatique que Nicius Erythræus a tâché de lui donner. Cet auteur dit que pour comprendre comme Lipfe, a pû compofer un ouvrage le premier jour de fa vie, il faut f'imaginer, que ce premier jour n'eft pas celui de fa naiffance charnelle, mais celui au quel il a com- į mencé d'ufer de la raifon; il veut que ç'ait été a l'age de neuf ans; et il nous veut perfuader que ce fut en cet âge, que Lipfe fit un poem. eft ingenieux, &c, &c.

-Le tour

Oh!

Oh! oh!-faid Slop, cafting

a glance of undue freedom in Sufannab's face, as fhe declined the office;-then, I think I know you, madam

You

know me, Sir! cried Sufannab faftidioufly, and with a tofs of her head, levelled evidently, not at his profeffion, but at the doctor himself,

-you know me! cried Susannah again.-Doctor Slop clapped his finger and his thumb inftantly upon his noftrils;- -Sufannah's spleen was ready to burft at it ;'Tis falfe, faid Sufannah.-Come, come, Mrs. Modefty, faid Slop, not a little elated with the fuccefs of his last thrust, you won't hold the candle, and look-you may hold it and fhut your

if

eyes:-That's one of

your popifh fhifts, cried Susannah:-'Tis better, faid Slop,

with a nod, than no fhift at all, young

woman;

woman; defy you, Sir, cried Sufannah, pulling her fhift fleeve below her elbow.

It was almost impoffible for two perfons to affift each other in a furgical cafe with a more fplenetic cordiality.

Slop fnatched up the cataplafm, Susannab fnatched up the candle; A little this way, faid Slop; Sufannab looking one way, and rowing another, inftantly fet fire to Slop's wig, which being fomewhat bushy and unctuous withal, was burnt out before it was well kindled. You impudent whore! cried Slop, for what is paffion, but a wild beaft)-you impudent whore, cried Slop, getting upright, with the cataplafm in his hand;-I never was the destruction of any body's nofe, faid Sufannab,--which is more than you can say:

Is it? cried Slop, throwing the cataplafm in her face ;- -Yes, it is, cried Sufannah, returning the compliment with what was left in the pan.

CHA P. IV.

DOCTOR

CTOR Slop and Susannab filed cross-bills against each other in the parlour; which done, as the cataplasm had failed, they retired into the kitchen to prepare a fomentation for me;-and whilft that was doing, my father determined the point as you will read.

YOU

CHA P. V.

OU fee 'tis high time, faid my father, addreffing himself equally to my uncle Toby and Yorick, to take this young. creature out of thefe women's hands, and put him into thofe of a private governor. Marcus Antoninus provided four

teen