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morrow:

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uncle Toby, for God only knows who is a hypocrite, and who is not: 1. At the great and general review of us all, corporal, at the day of judgment, (and not till then) it will be seen who has done his dutics in this world and who bas not; and we shall be advanced, Trim, dingly. I hope we shall, said Trim It is in the scripture, said my uncle Toby; and I will shew it thee to

In the mean time we may depend upon it, Trim, for our comfort, said my uncle Toby, that God Almighty is 80 good and just a governor of the world, that if we have bat done our duties in it, it will never be enquired into, whether we have done them in a red coat or a black one: I hope not, said the corporal. - But go on, Trim, said my ' uncle Toby, with thy story.

When I went up, continued the corporal, 'into the lieutenant's room, which I did not do till the expiration of the ten minutes he was lying in his bed with his head raised upon his hand, with his elbow upon the pillow, and a clean white cambric handkerchief beside it; the youth was just stooping down to take up the cushion, upon which I suppose he had been kneeling, the book was laid upon the bed, and as he rose, in taking up the cushion with one hand, he reached out his other to take it away at the same time.. Let it remain there, my dear, said the lieutenant.

He did 'not offer to speak to me, till I had walked up close to his bedside: - If you are captain Shandy's servant, said he, you must present my thanks to your master, with my little boy's thanks along with them, for his courtesy to me;'if he was of Leven's *) said the lieutenant. I told him your

honour was Then, said he, I served three campaigns with him in Flanders, and remember him but 'tis most likely, as I had not the honour of any acquaintance with him, that he knows nothing of me. You will tell him, however, that the person his good-nature has laid under obligations to him, is one Le Fevre, a lieutenant in Angus's — bat he knows me not said he, a second time, musing; possibly he may my story

- added he pray tell the captain, I was, the ensign at Breda, whose wife was most infortunately killed with a musket shot, as she lay in my arms in

I remember the story, an't please your honour,

my tent.

*) Nämlich regiment; s. auch im folgenden: of Angus's.

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said I, very well, Do you so? said he, wiping his eyes with his handkerchief, then well may I. In saying this, he drew a little ring out of his boson, which seemed lied with a black ribband about his neck, and kissed it twice; here, Billy, said he, the boy flew across the room to the bedside, and falling down upon his knee, took the ring in his hand, and kissed it too, then kissed his father, and sat down upon the bed and wept.

I wish, said my uncle Toby, with a deep sigh, - I wish, Trim I was asleep.

Your honour, replied the corporal, is too much concerned; shall I pour your honour out a glass of sack to your pipe? — Do, Trim, said my uncle Toby,

I remember, said my uncle Toby, sighing again, the story of the ensiga and his wife, with a circumstance his modesty. omitted; and particularly' well that be, , as well as she, apon some account or other (I forget what) was universally pitied by the whole regiment; -- but finish the story thou art upon : – Tis finish'd already, said the corporal, for I could stay no longer, $0 wished his honour a good night; young Le Fevre rose from off the bed, and saw me to the bottom of the stairs; and as we went down together, told me, they had come from Ireland, and were on their route to join the regiment in Flanders. But alas! said the corporal, - the lieutenant's last day's march is over.

Then what is to become of his poor boy? cried

uncle Toby It was to my uncle Toby's eternal honour, though I tell it only for the sake of those, who, when cooped in betwixt a natural and a positive law, know not for their souls, which

way in the world to turn themselves that notwithstanding my uncle Toby was warmly engaged at that time in carrying on the siege of Dendermond, parallel with the allies, who pressed theirs on so vigorously, that they, scarce allowed him time to get his dinner

that nevertheless he gave up Dendermond, though he had already made a lodgement upon the counterscarp; and bent his whole thoughts towards the private distresses at the inn; and except that he ordered the garden - gale to be bolted up by which he might be said to have turned the siege of Dendermond into a blockade, he left Dendermond to itself, to be relieved or not by the French king, as the French king thought good; and only considered huw he himself should relieve the poor lieutenant

1

and bis son. That kind Being, who is a friend to the friendless, shall recompense thee for t.bis.

Thou hast' left this matter short, said my uocle Toby to the corporal, as be was putting him to bed, and I will tell thee in 'what, Trim. In the first place, when thou madest an offer of my services to 'Le Fevre, as sickness and travelling are both expensive, and thou · knowest he was, but a poor lieutenant, with a son to subsist as well as himself, out of his pay, that thou didst not make an offer to him of my parse; because, bad he stood in need, thou knowest, Trim, he had been as welcome to it as myself. Your honour knows, said the corporal, I had no orders; True, quoth my uncle Toby, thou didst very right, Triin, as a soldier, but certainly very wrong as a man.

In the second place, for which indeed, thou hast the same excuse, continued my uncle Toby, when thou ofteredst him whatever was in my house, thou shouldst have offered him my house too: A sick brother-officer*) should have the best quarters, Trim; and if we had him with us, we could tend and look to bim: Thou art an excellent nurse, thyself, Trim, and what with thy care of him, and the old woman's, and his boy's, and mine togeiber, we might recruit him again at once, and set him upon his legs.

In à fortnight or three weeks, added my uncle Toby, smiling, he might march. He will never march, an please your honour, in this world, said the corporal: - He will march; said my uncle Toby, rising up from the side of the bed, with one shoe off: An' please your honour, said the corporal, he will never march but to his grave: He shall - march, cried my uncle Toby, marching the foot which had a shoe on, though without advancing an inch, be shall march to his regiment. He cannot stand it **), said the corporal. He shall be supported, said my uncle Toby; He'll drop at last, said the corporal; and what will become of his boy? He shall not drop, said my uicle Toby, firmly. - A-well-o day, do what we can for him said Trim, maintaining his point; the poor soul will die He shall not die, by Ġ , cried my uncle Toby.

a

*) brother - officer. Brother druckt die Mitgenossenschaft in allerlei Verhälinissen aus. So sagt man: a brother - student, a brother-author, u. s. w. **) So viel als: he cannot bear it, er kann es nicht aushalten.

The Accusing Spirit which flew up to heaven's chancery with the oath, blush'd as he gave it in and the Recording Angel as he wrote it down, dropp'd a tear upon the word, and blotted it out for ever.

My uncle Toby went to his bureau, put his purse into his breeches- pocket, and having ordered the corporal to go early in the morning for a physician, he went to bed and fell asleep.

The sun looked bright the morning after, to every eye in the village, but Le Fevre's and his afflicted son's; the hand of dead press'd heavy upon his eye-lids, and hardly could the wheel at the cistern turn round its circle *), when my uncle Toby, who had rose up an hour before his wonted time, entered the lieutenant's room, and without preface or apology, sat himself down upon the chair by the bed - side, and independent of all modes and customs, opened the curtain in the manner an old friend and brother-officer would have done it, and asked him how he did, how he had rested in the night, what was his complaint,

where was his pain,

ms, and what he could do to help him? and without giving him time to answer any one of the inquiries, went on and told him of the little plan which he had been concerting with the corporal the night before før him.

You shall go home directly, Le Fevre, said my uncle Toby, to my house, and we'll send for a doctor to see what's the matter,

and we'll have an apothecary, and the corporal shall be your nurse; and I'll be your servant, Le Fevre. There was

a frankness in my uncle Toby, not the effect of familiarity, but the cause of it, at once into his soul, and shewed you the goodness of his nature; to this, there was something in his looks, and voice, and manner, superadded, which eternally beckoned to the unfortunate to come and take shelter under him; so that before my uncle' Toby had half finished the kind offers he was quaking to the father, had the son insensibly pressed up close to his knees and had taken hold of the breast-of his coat, and was pulling it towards him. The blood and spirits of Le Fevre, which were waxing cold and slow within him, and were retreating to their last citadel, the heart

which let you

*) Vielleicht eine Anspielung auf Prediger Salomonis, Kap. 12,6.

rallied back, the film forsook his eyes for a moment

he looked up wishfully in my uncle Toby's face,

then cast a look upon his boy, and that ligament, fine as it was, was never broken..

Nature instantly ebb'd again, the film returned to its place, the pulse fluttered : --- stopp'd went on throbb'd stopp'd again moved stopp'd on?

No.

shall I go

f

The

3) INQUIRY AFTER HAPPINESS*). There be many that say, who will shew us any good ? Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us.

Psalm IV. 6.**) he great pursuit of man is after happiness: it is the first and strongest desire of his nature; in every stage of his life, he searches for it, as for hid treasure; courts it under a thousand different shapes, and thougb perpetually disappointed, still persists, runs after and enquires for it afresh asks every passenger that comes in his way: Who will shew him any good? who will assist him in the attainment of it, or direct him to the discoyery of this great end of all his wishes ?

He is told by one, to search for it among the more gay and youthful pleasures of life, in scenes of mirth and sprightliness, where happiness ever presides, and is ever to be known by the joy and laughter which he will see at once painted in her looks.

A second, with a graver aspect, points out to the costly dwellings which pride and extravagance have erected: tells the enquirer that the object he is in search of inhabits there; that happiness lives only in company with the great, in the midst of much pomp and outward state. That he will easily find her out by the coat of many colours she has on, and the great luxury and expence of equipage and furniture with which she always sits surrounded.

The miser blesses God! wonders how any one would mislead, and wilfully put him upon so wrong a scent vinces him that happiness and extravagance never inhabited under the same roof; :

that if he would not be disappointed

*) Yorick's Scrmons. **) Nach Luthers Uebersetzung v.7.