uncharitable thought. They are essentially amiable: and the same may
be said of all the minor characters and of the author's disquisitions.
Sterne has given us a thousand occasions to laugh, but never an
occasion to laugh on the wrong side of the mouth. For savagery or
bitterness you will search his books in vain. He is obscene, to be
sure. But who, pray, was ever the worse for having read him? Alas,
poor Yorick! He had his obvious and deplorable failings. I never
heard that he communicated them. Good-humor he has been communicating
now for a hundred and fifty years.

FOOTNOTES:

[A] But why "elder"?

[B] "Pan might _indeed_ be proud if ever he begot
Such an Allibone ..."
_Spenser (revised)._




SCOTT AND BURNS


Dec. 9, 1893. Scott's Letters.

"_All Balzac's novels occupy one shelf. The new edition fifty
volumes long"_

--says Bishop Blougram. But for Scott the student will soon have to