Comments on Sterne. 37 
e 
© not’ happened -- &e. I verily bélievé I had 
‘ put by my father, and left hing drawing a fun- : 
«« dial, for no better purpofe than to be buried 
* under ground.”* 
Donne concludes his poem entitled The Will, 
with this very thought : 
o 
al 
And all your Graces no more ufe fhall have 
Than a Sun-dial in a Grave. 
There is a ftrange coincidence between Sterne 
ahd a myftie writer, in the infertion of a black page. 
in each of their works. I cannot confider it as an 
imitation, for it muft appear by this time, that 
Sterne poffeffed no great ftore of curious reading. 
‘Every one knows the black pages in Triftram: 
Shandy; that of prior date is to be found in Dr. 
Fludd’s Urriufque cofmi Hiftoria,~ and is emblematic 
of the Chaos. Fludd was a man of éxtenfive eru- 
dit.on, and confiderable obfervdtion, but his fancy, 
naturally vigorous, was fermented and depraved, 
by aftrological and Cabbaliftic refearches. It will 
afford a proof of his ftrange fancies, and at the fame 
' time do away all fufpicion of Sterne in this inftance, 
to quote the ludicrous coincidence mentioned by 
Morhoff, between himfelf and this Author. ‘* Co- 
gitandi modum in nobis et fpeculationes illas 
rationum, mirificé quodam in loco, videlicet in 
libro 
* Tr, Shandy, vol v. chap. 16, 
+ Page 26, | 
