Gomments on Sterne. 49 
time when Sterne wrote, it was not forgotten in- 
deed, that the phyfiognomy of the Nofe had been 
a kind of fathionable fubjec& among Philofephers ; 
but little was written, and little remains on the con- 
troverfy, and what Sterne gives us, is founded on 
the following paflage of Rabelais: « Pourquoy, 
“dit Gargantua, eft ce que frere Jean a fi beau 
“nez? Par ce (repondit. Grangoufier) gu'ainfi 
** Dieu T’a voulu, lequel nous fait en telle forme, 
& telle fin, felon fon divin arbitre, que fait ‘un 
** potier fes vaiffeaux. Par ce (dit Ponocrates) 
** qwil fut des premiers ala foire des nez. Tl 
print de plus beaux & des plus grands, = ‘Trut 
avant (dit le moine) felon la vraye Philofophie 
** Monaftique, ceft, par ce que ma Nourrice avoit 
“les tetins molets, en Yallai@ant, mon nez y 
enfondroit comme en beurre, et la seflevoit et 
croiffoit: comme la pafte dedans la mets. Les 
durs tetins des Nourrices font les enfans camus: 
Mais gay, gay, ad formam nafi cognofcitur ad 
** te levavi.”* 
ce6 
ee 
“ec 
ac 
te 
oe 
a 
G — & Now 
* He” (Mr. Shandy) «* would often declare, in {peak- 
ing his thoughts upon the fubjeé, that he did not con- 
ceive how the greateft family in England could fland 
it out againft an uninterrupted fucceflion of fix or 
* feven fhort nofes.”—Trif, Shandy, vol. 3. chap. 93. 
This is a curious coincidence; I pretend to call it no 
more.—But it muft be added, that Marville’s Mifcellanies 
appear to have been much read, about the time when 
Sterne wrote, 
* Liv. 1, Chap, xli, 
