ment, laid his hand
upon his breast, and made his bow at the same time.--The company smiled.
Trim, quoth my father, has paid the full price for staying out
the entertainment.--He did not seem to relish the play, replied
Yorick.--'Twas a Tom-fool-battle, an' please your reverence, of captain
Tripet's and that other officer, making so many summersets, as they
advanced;--the French come on capering now and then in that way,--but
not quite so much.

My uncle Toby never felt the consciousness of his existence with more
complacency than what the corporal's, and his own reflections, made him
do at that moment;--he lighted his pipe,--Yorick drew his chair closer
to the table,--Trim snuff'd the candle,--my father stirr'd up the
fire,--took up the book,--cough'd twice, and begun.

Chapter 3.XXXI.

The first thirty pages, said my father, turning over the leaves,--are a
little dry; and as they are not closely connected with the subject,--for
the present we'll pass them by: 'tis a prefatory introduction, continued
my father, or an introductory preface (for I am not determined which
name to give it) upon political or civil government; the foundation of
which being laid in the first conjunction betwixt male and female,
for procreation of the species--I was insensibly led into it.--'Twas
natural, said Yorick.

The original of society, continued my father, I'm satisfied is, what
Politian tells us, i. e. merely conjugal; and nothing more than the
getting together of one man and one woman;--to which, (according to
Hesiod) the philosopher adds a servant:--but supposing in the first
beginning there were no men servants born--he lays the foundation of
it, in a man,--a woman--and a bull.--I believe 'tis an ox, quoth Yorick,
quoting the passage (Greek)--A bull must have given more trouble than
his head was worth.--But there is a better reason still, said my father
(dipping his pen into his ink); for the ox being the most patient of
animals, and the most useful withal in tilling the ground for their
nourishment,--was the properest instrument, and emblem too, for the new
joined couple, that the creation could have associated with them.--And
there is a stronger reason, added my uncle Toby, than them all for the
ox.--My father had not power to take his pen out of his ink-horn, till
he had heard my uncle Toby's reason.--For when the ground was tilled,
said my uncle Toby, and made worth inclosing, then they began to secure
it by walls and d