STERNE, for whose sake I plod thro' miry ways Owns thy true mast'ry; and Le Fevre's woes, ILLUSTRATIONS, &c. CHAPTER I. Probable origin of Sterne's ludicrous writings.-General account of the nature of the ludicrous. Why the sixteenth century produced many authors of this class. It sometimes happens, in literary pursuits, as in the conduct of life, that par ticular attachments grow upon us by imperceptible degrees, and by a succession of attentions, trifling in themselves, though important in their consequences. When I published some desultory remarks on the writings of Sterne, many years ago, having told all that I knew, I had no intention to resume the subject. But after an enquiry has been successfully begun, facts appear to offer themselves of their own accord to the investigator. Materials have encreased on my hands, from a few casual notes and references, to the size of a formal treatise: I trust it will be found, however, that I have had sufficient discretion not to bestow all my tediousness on the public. When the first volumes of Tristram Shandy appeared, they excited almost as much perplexity as admiration. The feeling, the wit, and reading which they displayed were sufficiently relished, but the wild digressions, the abruptness of the narratives and discussions, and the perpetual recurrence to obsolete notions in philosophy, gave them more the air of a collection of fragments, than of a regular work. Most of the writers from whom Sterne drew the general ideas, and many of the peculiarities of his book, were then forgotten. Rabelais was the only French wit of the sixteenth century, who was |