culous enough--yet at the very same
time he did it, he collected every book and treatise which had been
systematically wrote upon noses, with as much care as my honest uncle
Toby had done those upon military architecture.--'Tis true, a much less
table would have held them--but that was not thy transgression, my dear
uncle.--

Here--but why here--rather than in any other part of my story--I am not
able to tell:--but here it is--my heart stops me to pay to thee, my dear
uncle Toby, once for all, the tribute I owe thy goodness.--Here let
me thrust my chair aside, and kneel down upon the ground, whilst I am
pouring forth the warmest sentiment of love for thee, and veneration for
the excellency of thy character, that ever virtue and nature kindled
in a nephew's bosom.--Peace and comfort rest for evermore upon
thy head!--Thou enviedst no man's comforts--insultedst no man's
opinions--Thou blackenedst no man's character--devouredst no man's
bread: gently, with faithful Trim behind thee, didst thou amble
round the little circle of thy pleasures, jostling no creature in thy
way:--for each one's sorrows, thou hadst a tear,--for each man's need,
thou hadst a shilling.

Whilst I am worth one, to pay a weeder--thy path from thy door to thy
bowling-green shall never be grown up.--Whilst there is a rood and a
half of land in the Shandy family, thy fortifications, my dear uncle
Toby, shall never be demolish'd.

Chapter 2.XXVIII.

My father's collection was not great, but to make amends, it was
curious; and consequently he was some time in making it; he had the
great good fortune hewever, to set off well, in getting Bruscambille's
prologue upon long noses, almost for nothing--for he gave no more for
Bruscambille than three half-crowns; owing indeed to the strong fancy
which the stall-man saw my father had for the book the moment he
laid his hands upon it.--There are not three Bruscambilles in
Christendom--said the stall-man, except what are chain'd up in the
libraries of the curious. My father flung down the money as quick as
lightning--took Bruscambille into his bosom--hied home from Piccadilly
to Coleman-street with it, as he would have hied home with a treasure,
without taking his hand once off from Bruscambille all the way.

To those who do not yet know of which gender Bruscambille is--inasmuch
as a prologue upon long noses might easily be done by either--'twill be
no objection against the simile--to say, That when my fathe