Sterne, Laurence (1713-1768) [attrib.]

Yorick's Meditations: Upon Various Interesting and Important Subjects

London

Printed for R. Stevens

1760

"Digressions too take place in philosophy; and oft we find the mind of a philosopher turns aside in a curve, flies off in a tangent, or springs up in a spiral line."

PEACE be with the manes of that charitable author, who to the great relief of his brethren, first invented that admirable expedient of digressing from the matter in hand--nothing can be more convenient to a writer, who is hereby enabled to quit his subject, when it excites any disagreeable idea in him--when he has said so much of it that he begins to grow weary of it, or has so little to say of it, that he cannot fill the quantity of paper proposed by any other method--but who amongst the critical tribe shall be so audacious as to wagg his tongue against digressions, which have been enobled by the practice of the ancients, whose authority is of so much greater weight in critical matters, than that of the fathers in religion. The satires and epistles of the excellent Horace may be looked upon as a collection of digressions, and oft with a truely poetical licence, the bard digresses in a digression. Oh! the agreeable, desultory manner of digressions to the reader, no less agreeable than the writer, since neither the former or the latter care to be at the trouble of a continued attention. Talk not then you pedants of your method, cite not the stagerite in praise of lucid order--The rambling Montagne, who wrote from the ebullitions of his heart, will be read and admired, when all the dry didactic dissertations of the schools shall be forgotten. Oh, happy methodists! (though your sect derives its name from method) your discourses consist entirely of digressions, and those so unconnected, that at the end of the sermon 'tis impossible to tell what it turned upon. Digressions too take place in philosophy; and oft we find the mind of a philosopher turns aside in a curve, flies off in a tangent, or springs up in a spiral line. Nature itself delights in digressions, and so little is she pleased with a sameness in things, that no two objects exactly alike can be seen.
(pp. 60-3)

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Yorick's Meditations: Upon Various Interesting and Important Subjects. Viz. Upon Nothing. Upon Something. Upon the Thing. (London: Printed for R. Stevens, 1760). <Link to ECCO-TCP>

10/26/2013