第62章 Chapter XLII.(8)

I should have read it ten times better, Sir, answered Trim, but that my heart was so full.--that was the very reason, Trim, replied my father, which has made thee read the sermon as well as thou hast done; and if the clergy of our church, continued my father, addressing himself to Dr. Slop, would take part in what they deliver as deeply as this poor fellow has done,--as their compositions are fine;--(I deny it, quoth Dr. Slop)--Imaintain it,--that the eloquence of our pulpits, with such subjects to enflame it, would be a model for the whole world:--But alas! continued my father, and I own it, Sir, with sorrow, that, like French politicians in this respect, what they gain in the cabinet they lose in the field.--'Twere a pity, quoth my uncle, that has should be lost. I like the sermon well, replied my father,--'tis dramatick,--and there is something in that way of writing, when skilfully managed, which catches the attention.--We preach much in that way with us, said Dr. Slop.--I know that very well, said my father,--but in a tone and manner which disgusted Dr. Slop, full as much as his assent, simply, could have pleased him.--But in this, added Dr. Slop, a little piqued,--our sermons have greatly the advantage, that we never introduce any character into them below a patriarch or a patriarch's wife, or a martyr or a saint.--There are some very bad characters in this, however, said my father, and I do not think the sermon a jot the worse for 'em.--But pray, quoth my uncle Toby,--who's can this be?--How could it get into my Stevinus? A man must be as great a conjurer as Stevinus, said my father, to resolve the second question:--The first, I think, is not so difficult;--for unless my judgment greatly deceives me,--I know the author, for 'tis wrote, certainly, by the parson of the parish.

The similitude of the stile and manner of it, with those my father constantly had heard preached in his parish-church, was the ground of his conjecture,--proving it as strongly, as an argument a priori could prove such a thing to a philosophic mind, That it was Yorick's and no one's else:--It was proved to be so, a posteriori, the day after, when Yorick sent a servant to my uncle Toby's house to enquire after it.

It seems that Yorick, who was inquisitive after all kinds of knowledge, had borrowed Stevinus of my uncle Toby, and had carelesly popped his sermon, as soon as he had made it, into the middle of Stevinus; and by an act of forgetfulness, to which he was ever subject, he had sent Stevinus home, and his sermon to keep him company.

Ill-fated sermon! Thou wast lost, after this recovery of thee, a second time, dropped thru' an unsuspected fissure in thy master's pocket, down into a treacherous and a tattered lining,--trod deep into the dirt by the left hind-foot of his Rosinante inhumanly stepping upon thee as thou falledst;--buried ten days in the mire,--raised up out of it by a beggar,--sold for a halfpenny to a parish-clerk,--transferred to his parson,--lost for ever to thy own, the remainder of his days,--nor restored to his restless Manes till this very moment, that I tell the world the story.

Can the reader believe, that this sermon of Yorick's was preached at an assize, in the cathedral of York, before a thousand witnesses, ready to give oath of it, by a certain prebendary of that church, and actually printed by him when he had done,--and within so short a space as two years and three months after Yorick's death?--Yorick indeed, was never better served in his life;--but it was a little hard to maltreat him after, and plunder him after he was laid in his grave.

However, as the gentleman who did it was in perfect charity with Yorick,--and, in conscious justice, printed but a few copies to give away;--and that I am told he could moreover have made as good a one himself, had he thought fit,--I declare I would not have published this anecdote to the world;--nor do I publish it with an intent to hurt his character and advancement in the church;--I leave that to others;--but I find myself impelled by two reasons, which I cannot withstand.

The first is, That in doing justice, I may give rest to Yorick's ghost;--which--as the country-people, and some others believe,--still walks.

The second reason is, That, by laying open this story to the world, I gain an opportunity of informing it,--That in case the character of parson Yorick, and this sample of his sermons, is liked,--there are now in the possession of the Shandy family, as many as will make a handsome volume, at the world's service,--and much good may they do it.