people
in company--in less than half an hour he was sure to have every one of
'em against him.

What did not a little contribute to leave him thus without an ally, was,
that if there was any one post more untenable than the rest, he would be
sure to throw himself into it; and to do him justice, when he was
once there, he would defend it so gallantly, that 'twould have been a
concern, either to a brave man or a good-natured one, to have seen him
driven out.

Yorick, for this reason, though he would often attack him--yet could
never bear to do it with all his force.

Doctor Slop's Virginity, in the close of the last chapter, had got him
for once on the right side of the rampart; and he was beginning to blow
up all the convents in Christendom about Slop's ears, when corporal Trim
came into the parlour to inform my uncle Toby, that his thin scarlet
breeches, in which the attack was to be made upon Mrs. Wadman, would not
do; for that the taylor, in ripping them up, in order to turn them, had
found they had been turn'd before--Then turn them again, brother, said
my father, rapidly, for there will be many a turning of 'em yet
before all's done in the affair--They are as rotten as dirt, said
the corporal--Then by all means, said my father, bespeak a new pair,
brother--for though I know, continued my father, turning himself to the
company, that widow Wadman has been deeply in love with my brother Toby
for many years, and has used every art and circumvention of woman to
outwit him into the same passion, yet now that she has caught him--her
fever will be pass'd its height--

--She has gained her point.

In this case, continued my father, which Plato, I am persuaded, never
thought of--Love, you see, is not so much a Sentiment as a Situation,
into which a man enters, as my brother Toby would do, into a corps--no
matter whether he loves the service or no--being once in it--he acts as
if he did; and takes every step to shew himself a man of prowesse.

The hypothesis, like the rest of my father's, was plausible enough, and
my uncle Toby had but a single word to object to it--in which Trim stood
ready to second him--but my father had not drawn his conclusion--

For this reason, continued my father (stating the case over
again)--notwithstanding all the world knows, that Mrs. Wadman affects my
brother Toby--and my brother Toby contrariwise affects Mrs. Wadman, and
no obstacle in nature to forbid the music striking up this very nig