Sterne. The English are as capable of it as any other people, as several successful efforts have shown; the general taste, however, is bad, and it is on that account that my countrymen have never excelled in the raillery of which you speak: they have little encouragement to pursue it in their writings.

Rab. Could they divest themselves entirely of the gross and intemperate satire of which they are so fond, it would, in my opinion, redound considerably to their honour.

Cerv. Is it Rabelais who speaks?-Rabelais, whose wit, though great, was rude and indelicate to a great degree.

Rab. I lived in a rude and indelicate age: in the eighteenth century, perhaps, I should have borne away the palm from every competitor; for my wit, if polished, might show to advantage.

Sterne. I am of another opinion. It was once proposed, I remember, to cover that venerable pile, the Abbey of Westminster, with Italian stucco, in order, as the schemer insinuated, to give it beauty: an attempt at refinement in the writings of Rabelais would be equally absurd; it were better that any exceptionable passages should be expunged from the book.

Cerv. A just and proper remark; the wit of Rabelais is exquisite, nearly equal to that of Lucian.

Sterne. And, in true humour, Cervantes surpasses them both.

Cerv. You are surely much too partial to me: could I, indeed, have been relieved from the miseries of a dependent state, that terrible and destructive enemy to the man of genius, I had possibly accomplished greater things.

Sterne. A prison is undoubtedly much more likely to check the natural ardour of genius than to increase it; you, however, rose superior to the frowns of fortune, and to the cabals which were artfully formed against you.

Rab. A proof of greatness and nobleness of mind: an

ordinary man would have sunk beneath the calamities that awaited Cervantes.

Sterne. Right: and it is finely observed by the great Lord Bacon, that " Prosperity doth best discover vice; but that adversity doth best discover virtue."

Rab. Nothing can be more true of mankind in general: it must, however, be admitted, with some exception;prosperity will frequently set in motion that virtue, which before was locked in " stony fetters;"-virtue willing, but unable, to act.

Cerv. Yes; and adversity will sometimes call forth the latent and hidden seeds of vice. As necessity is, on some occasions, the mother of arts, so is she likewise the parent of crimes.

Rab. Very true: but, my dear associates and fellows in gaiety, into what a strange discourse have we fallen! If, in publishing my book, I could say to the readers of it

Voyant le deuil qui vous mine et consomme,
Mieux est de ris que de larmes escrire,

Parceque rire est le propre de l'homme.*

Since such, I say, was formerly my language, let me not become a moralizer,-let me not appear a whiner in these days of mirth.

Sterne. Is Rabelais then unable to distinguish between the moralizer and the whiner;-between the man who delivers lessons in virtue and morality, and him who rails at vices in a peevish and querulous strain?

Rab. I stand reproved: but, 'faith, I have been so little accustomed to moralizing; that is, to talk about the cardinal virtues,-though, by the way, I have not forgot to practise them on necessary occasions, that I may well be fearful of engaging in the matter now: in a word, my system of ethics might be enclosed in a nutshell, the quintessence is all I have to boast.

• Verses prefixed to the Euvres de Rabelais, and addressed "aux lecteurs."

Sterne. And that is surely sufficient: it has frequently been said of me (you may remember) that moral goodness was only in my mouth; I have many times been charged with the vice of hypocrisy.

Cerv. To which charge your good and virtuous deeds have given the lie?

Sterne. Alas! not so: I never had the means; I never had the power of calling my inclinations into action.An eminent British poet has said, "If our virtues go not forth of us, it is as though we had them not:" from that opinion, however, I must beg leave to dissent; negative virtue is not to be contemned; a principle of honour will at least deter a man from the commission of crimes.

:

Rab. Certainly and it has been finely observed, in speaking of the excellency of moral rectitude, that laws were only made to bind the villains of society.

Cerv. Right: and yet it is a melancholy truth, that the villains of society prosper most. Not, indeed, that their malefactions are generally known,-no, although they appear like the innocent flower, they are the serpent lurking under it.

Rab. Once more, a truce with moralizing; it is only in a perpetual gaiété de cœur that Rabelais can be truly happy.

Sterne. Were you ever an enemy to sober sadness,— ever lively and enjouée, when on earth?

Rab. Uniformly so: you may remember the motto to my book; hence I gathered the sentiment which served me as a rule in life: "A moi," said I, "n'est qu' honneur et gloire d'être dit et réputé bon gautier et bon compagnon, c'est pourquoi buvez frais, si faire se peut."

Cerv. Vive Paris pour la bonne chère, said Rabelais; Rabelais, la coqueluche, le tou-tu, des femmes. Was it

not so?

You

Rab. Certainly: "Madame, ce serait un bien fort utile à toute la république, délectable à vousremember the rest.

Sterne. Perfectly: but, to confess the truth, it savours too much of ribaldry.

Rab. Ha! ha! But it is, no doubt, highly proper that the immaculate Mr. Shandy should become a reprover.

Sterne. My performances are certainly far from spotless; but I was never actually lewd.

Rab. It is scarcely worth contending about: the fact, however, is this, my personages are represented in a state of nature, yours were covered with gauze; but the veil was easily seen through, or as easily drawn aside.

Sterne. Ah! my dear Rabelais, had we but blotted Rab. I would not blot a line: they who are squeamish may throw away my book

Un livre vous déplaît; qui vous force à le lire ?-BOILEAU.

Cerv. A truly pertinent remark: 'till obliged to read a book, we have certainly no right to complain of its contents; a page or two will at once determine whether it be worthy of an entire perusal or not.

Sterne. Still I say of Rabelais, as has been remarked of Shakspeare, who is reported to have never blotted a line," I sincerely wish he had blotted a thousand;" the wish extends, at the same time, to my own performances; for I am now sufficiently sensible of their faults.

Rab. You must console yourself with the reflection, that there are many excellent writers who may apply the observation with propriety to themselves.

Cerv. Doubtless you are right; but where is the author to be found who is sensible of his failings, or, at least, ingenuous and modest enough to acknowledge them like Sterne?

Rab. But yet in praising him we seem to forget that he is no longer on earth; when an inhabitant of that dim spot, he had, perhaps, as great a portion of vanity and self-conceit as any of the irritable tribe.

Sterne. Come, come, no more of vanity and self

conceit; I knew my own consequence, as every able writer does: I only wish that all were equally willing to confess their faults.

Rab. A propos of faults: a charge has lately been brought against you of plagiarism:* what have you to reply to that?

Sterne. Should I not be rather styled an imitator than a plagiary? I believe the passages selected from my writings, and which are brought in support of the charge you speak of, will, when duly considered, appear to be improvements on my several originals rather than thefts; which originals, by the way, are certainly far from being mean.

Cerv. A countryman of Sterne's has, I remember, very justly remarked, that "while the literary world can boast of such imitators as Virgil and Tasso, Boileau and Pope, it has no great reason to lament the scarcity of original writers." Things intrinsically good are frequently to be met with, however rude and unfashioned they may come from nature's mint.-These the judicious observer seizes on with avidity, dresses them to advantage,‡ and thence derives, perhaps, his honour and his fame.

Sterne. Virgil is said to have been accused, even during his lifetime, of borrowing all that is valuable in his Eneid from Homer: the answer that was made by him to such his accusers is preserved by Donatus, and is conceived in terms that must assuredly silence the fastidious critic of every age. We should remember, too, that the ablest critics, both ancient and modern, have entertained nearly the same sentiments respecting imitators as the ingenious author whom Cervantes has thought proper to instance in the matter, particularly Aristotle, Longinus, Warburton, and Hurd.-The last mentioned, I should

* See an Essay in the Transactions of the Society at Manchester. † See BEATTIE on " Poetry."

True wit is nature to advantage dress'd,

What oft was thought, but ne'er so well express'd.—POPE.