wife meant separation from his daughter; it was this, of course, which
was the really painful parting, and it is to the credit of Sterne's
disinterestedness of affection for Lydia, that in his then state
of health he brought himself to consent to her leaving him. But he
recognized that it was for the advantage of her prospect of settling
herself in life that she should go with her mother, who seemed
"inclined to establish her in France, where she has had many
advantageous offers." Nevertheless "his heart bled," as he wrote to
Lee, when he thought of parting with his child. "'Twill be like the
separation of soul and body, and equal to nothing but what passes at
that tremendous moment; and like it in one respect, for she will be in
one kingdom while I am in another." Thus was this matter settled, and
by the 1st of January Sterne had arrived in London for the last time,
with the two volumes of the _Sentimental Journey_. He took up his
quarters at the lodgings in Bond Street (No. 41), which he had
occupied during his stay in town the previous year, and entered at
once upon the arrangements for publication. These occupied two full
months, and on the 27th of February the last work, as it was destined
to be, of the Rev. Mr. Yorick was issued to the world.

Its success would seem to have been immediate, and was certainly great
and lasting. In one sense, indeed, it was far greater than had been,
or than has since been, attained by _Tristram Shandy_. The compliments
which courteous Frenchmen had paid the author upon his former work,
and which his simple vanity had swallowed whole and unseasoned,
without the much-needed grain of salt, might, no doubt, have been
repeated to him with far greater sincerity as regards the _Sentimental
Journey_, had he lived to receive them. Had any Frenchman told him a
year or two afterwards that the latter work was "almost as much known
in Paris as in London, at least among men of condition and learning,"