both of them; their mutual desire to share each other's ideas and
tastes is too strong; and each time that the philosopher shows his
impatience with the soldier's fortification-hobby, or the soldier
breaks his honest shins over one of the philosopher's crotchets, the
regret and remorse on either side is equally acute and sincere. It
must be admitted, however, that Captain Shandy is the one who the more
frequently subjects himself to pangs of this sort, and who is the more
innocent sufferer of the two.

From the broad and deep humour of this central conception of contrast
flow as from a head-water innumerable rills of comedy through many and
many a page of dialogue; but not, of course, from this source alone.
Uncle Toby is ever delightful, even when his brother is not near him
as his foil; the faithful Corporal brings out another side of his
character, upon which we linger with equal pleasure of contemplation;
the allurements of the Widow Wadman reveal him to us in yet
another--but always in a captivating aspect. There is, too, one need
hardly say, an abundance of humour, of a high, though not the highest,
order in the minor characters of the story--in Mrs. Shandy, in the
fascinating widow, and even, under the coarse lines of the physical
caricature, in the keen little Catholic, Slop himself. But it is in
Toby Shandy alone that humour reaches that supreme level which it is
only capable of attaining when the collision of contrasted qualities
in a human character produces a corresponding conflict of the emotions
of mirth and tenderness in the minds of those who contemplate it.

This, however, belongs more rightfully to the consideration of the
creative and dramatic element in Sterne's genius; and an earlier place
in the analysis is claimed by that power over the emotion of pity upon
which Sterne, beyond question, prided himself more highly than upon