he could teach a young
gentleman to discourse with plausibility upon any subject, pro and con,
and to say and write all that could be spoken or written concerning it,
without blotting a word, to the admiration of all who beheld him.--I
should be glad, said Yorick, interrupting my father, to be made to
comprehend this matter. You shall, said my father.

The highest stretch of improvement a single word is capable of, is a
high metaphor,--for which, in my opinion, the idea is generally the
worse, and not the better;--but be that as it may,--when the mind
has done that with it--there is an end,--the mind and the idea are at
rest,--until a second idea enters;--and so on.

Now the use of the Auxiliaries is, at once to set the soul a-going
by herself upon the materials as they are brought her; and by the
versability of this great engine, round which they are twisted, to open
new tracts of enquiry, and make every idea engender millions.

You excite my curiosity greatly, said Yorick.

For my own part, quoth my uncle Toby, I have given it up.--The Danes,
an' please your honour, quoth the corporal, who were on the left at the
siege of Limerick, were all auxiliaries.--And very good ones, said my
uncle Toby.--But the auxiliaries, Trim, my brother is talking about,--I
conceive to be different things.--

--You do? said my father, rising up.

Chapter 3.XLIII.

My father took a single turn across the room, then sat down, and
finished the chapter.

The verbs auxiliary we are concerned in here, continued my father, are,
am; was; have; had; do; did; make; made; suffer; shall; should; will;
would; can; could; owe; ought; used; or is wont.--And these varied with
tenses, present, past, future, and conjugated with the verb see,--or
with these questions added to them;--Is it? Was it? Will it be? Would it
be? May it be? Might it be? And these again put negatively, Is it not?
Was it not? Ought it not?--Or affirmatively,--It is; It was; It ought to
be. Or chronologically,--Has it been always? Lately? How long ago?--Or
hypothetically,--If it was? If it was not? What would follow?--If the
French should beat the English? If the Sun go out of the Zodiac?

Now, by the right use and application of these, continued my father,
in which a child's memory should be exercised, there is no one idea can
enter his brain, how barren soever, but a magazine of conceptions and
conclusions may be drawn forth from it.--Didst thou ever see a white
bear?