rf at the theatre in the _Sentimental
Journey_, an incident which, it must be owned, he vastly improved in
the taking. All this, however, does not amount to very much, and it
is only when we come to Dr. Ferriar's collations of _Tristram Shandy_
with the _Anatomy of Melancholy_ that we begin to understand what
feats Sterne was capable of as a plagiarist. He must, to begin with,
have relied with cynical confidence on the conviction that famous
writers are talked about and not read, for he sets to work with the
scissors upon Burton's first page:

"Man, the most excellent and noble creature of the world, the
principal and mighty work of God; wonder of nature, as Zoroaster calls
him; _audacis naturae miraculum_, the marvel of marvels, as Plato; the
abridgment and epitome of the world, as Pliny," &c. Thus Burton; and,
with a few additions of his own, and the substitution of Aristotle for
Plato as the author of one of the descriptions, thus Sterne: "Who made
MAN with powers which dart him from heaven to earth in a moment--that
great, that most excellent and noble creature of the world, the
miracle of nature, as Zoroaster, in his book [Greek: peri phuseos],
called him--the Shekinah of the Divine Presence, as Chrysostom--the
image of God, as Moses--the ray of Divinity, as Plato--the marvel
of marvels, as Aristotle," &c.[1] And in the same chapter, in the
"Fragment upon Whiskers," Sterne relates how a "decayed kinsman"
of the Lady Baussiere "ran begging, bareheaded, on one side of her
palfrey, conjuring her by the former bonds of friendship, alliance,
consanguinity, &c.--cousin, aunt, sister, mother--for virtue's sake,
for your own sake, for mine, for Christ's sake, remember me! pity me!"
And again he tells how a "devout, venerable, hoary-headed man" thus
beseeched her: "'I beg for the unfortunate. Good my lady, 'tis for
a prison--for an hospital; 'tis for an old man--a poor man undone by
shipwreck, by suretyship, by fire. I call God and all His angels to
witness, 'tis to clothe the naked, to feed the hungry--'tis to comfort
the sick and the brokenhearted.' The Lady Baussiere rode on.[2]"

[Footnote 1: _Tristram Shandy_, vol. v.c. 1.]

[Footnote 2: _Ibid._]

But now compare this passage from the _Anatomy of Melancholy_:

"A poor decayed kinsman of his sets upon him by the way, in all
his jollity, and runs begging, bareheaded, by him, conjuring him by
those former bonds of friendship, alliance, consanguinity, &c., 'uncl