ed, corporal, continued my uncle Toby, rising
up in his sentry-box, as he began to warm in this part of his
discourse--how Marlborough could have marched his army from the banks of
the Maes to Belburg; from Belburg to Kerpenord--(here the corporal
could sit no longer) from Kerpenord, Trim, to Kalsaken; from Kalsaken
to Newdorf; from Newdorf to Landenbourg; from Landenbourg to Mildenheim;
from Mildenheim to Elchingen; from Elchingen to Gingen; from Gingen to
Balmerchoffen; from Balmerchoffen to Skellenburg, where he broke in
upon the enemy's works; forced his passage over the Danube; cross'd the
Lech--push'd on his troops into the heart of the empire, marching at the
head of them through Fribourg, Hokenwert, and Schonevelt, to the plains
of Blenheim and Hochstet?--Great as he was, corporal, he could not have
advanced a step, or made one single day's march without the aids of
Geography.--As for Chronology, I own, Trim, continued my uncle Toby,
sitting down again coolly in his sentry-box, that of all others, it
seems a science which the soldier might best spare, was it not for the
lights which that science must one day give him, in determining the
invention of powder; the furious execution of which, renversing every
thing like thunder before it, has become a new aera to us of military
improvements, changing so totally the nature of attacks and defences
both by sea and land, and awakening so much art and skill in doing it,
that the world cannot be too exact in ascertaining the precise time
of its discovery, or too inquisitive in knowing what great man was the
discoverer, and what occasions gave birth to it.

I am far from controverting, continued my uncle Toby, what historians
agree in, that in the year of our Lord 1380, under the reign of
Wencelaus, son of Charles the Fourth--a certain priest, whose name
was Schwartz, shew'd the use of powder to the Venetians, in their wars
against the Genoese; but 'tis certain he was not the first; because if
we are to believe Don Pedro, the bishop of Leon--How came priests and
bishops, an' please your honour, to trouble their heads so much about
gun-powder? God knows, said my uncle Toby--his providence brings good
out of every thing--and he avers, in his chronicle of King Alphonsus,
who reduced Toledo, That in the year 1343, which was full thirty-seven
years before that time, the secret of powder was well known, and
employed with success, both by Moors and Christians, not only in their
s