Comments on Sterne. 59 
*¢ infomuch that as Fernelius truly faith, it is the 
*¢ ereateft part of our felicity to be well-born, and 
- * it were happy for human kind,* if only .fuch 
** parents as are found of body and mind, fhould be 
“ fuffered to marry. Quanto id diligentius in 
‘* procreandis liberis obfervandum.”f 1 cannot help 
thinking, that the firft chapter or two of the 
Memoirs of Scriblerus whetted Sterne’s invention, 
in this, as well as in other inftances of Mr. Shandy’s 
peculiarities. 
The forced introdu@tion of the fneer at the term 
non-naturals,f ufed in medicine, leads us back to 
Burton, who has infifted largely and repeatediy, 
on the abufe of th functions fo denominated. 
It is very fingular, that in the introduction to 
the Fragment on Whifkers, which. contains an evi- 
dent Copy, Sterne fhould take occafion to abufe 
Plagiarifts. ‘‘ Shall we for ever make new books, 
‘‘ as Apothecaries make new mixtures, by pouring 
** only out of one veffel into another?” Ex ore 
H 2 tuo 
* See Triftram Shandy, Vol. viii. Chap. 33. 
+ Anat. of Melanch, p. 37. Edit. 1676. 
Quanto id diligentius in liberis procreandis cavendum, 
fayeth Cardan. Trif. Shandy, Vol. vi.wCh. 39. 
¢ Tr. Sh. Vol. i. Chap. 23.— Why the moft natural 
ations of a Man’s Jife fhould be called his non-naturals, is 
another queftion.”—See Burton, p. 39. The {olution might 
be cafily given, if it were worth repeating. 
