which purpose, resting his elbow upon
the table, and reclining the right side of his head upon the palm of his
hand--but looking first stedfastly in the fire--he began to commune with
himself, and philosophize about it: but his spirits being wore out with
the fatigues of investigating new tracts, and the constant exertion of
his faculties upon that variety of subjects which had taken their turn
in the discourse--the idea of the smoke jack soon turned all his ideas
upside down--so that he fell asleep almost before he knew what he was
about.

As for my uncle Toby, his smoke-jack had not made a dozen revolutions,
before he fell asleep also.--Peace be with them both!--Dr. Slop is
engaged with the midwife and my mother above stairs.--Trim is busy
in turning an old pair of jack-boots into a couple of mortars, to be
employed in the siege of Messina next summer--and is this instant boring
the touch-holes with the point of a hot poker.--All my heroes are off my
hands;--'tis the first time I have had a moment to spare--and I'll make
use of it, and write my preface.

The Author's Preface

No, I'll not say a word about it--here it is;--in publishing it--I have
appealed to the world--and to the world I leave it;--it must speak for
itself.

All I know of the matter is--when I sat down, my intent was to write
a good book; and as far as the tenuity of my understanding would hold
out--a wise, aye, and a discreet--taking care only, as I went along, to
put into it all the wit and the judgment (be it more or less) which the
great Author and Bestower of them had thought fit originally to give
me--so that, as your worships see--'tis just as God pleases.

Now, Agalastes (speaking dispraisingly) sayeth, That there may be some
wit in it, for aught he knows--but no judgment at all. And Triptolemus
and Phutatorius agreeing thereto, ask, How is it possible there should?
for that wit and judgment in this world never go together; inasmuch as
they are two operations differing from each other as wide as east from
west--So, says Locke--so are farting and hickuping, say I. But in answer
to this, Didius the great church lawyer, in his code de fartendi et
illustrandi fallaciis, doth maintain and make fully appear, That
an illustration is no argument--nor do I maintain the wiping of a
looking-glass clean to be a syllogism;--but you all, may it please your
worships, see the better for it--so that the main good these things do
is only to clarify the