XXII
We live in a world beset on all sides with mysteries and riddlesвБ†вАФand so вАЩtis no matterвБ†вЄЇвБ†else it seems strange, that Nature, who makes everything so well to answer its destination, and seldom or never errs, unless for pastime, in giving such forms and aptitudes to whatever passes through her hands, that whether she designs for the plough, the caravan, the cartвБ†вАФor whatever other creature she models, be it but an asseвАЩs foal, you are sure to have the thing you wanted; and yet at the same time should so eternally bungle it as she does, in making so simple a thing as a married man.
Whether it is in the choice of the clayвБ†вЄЇвБ†or that it is frequently spoiled in the baking; by an excess of which a husband may turn out too crusty (you know) on one handвБ†вЄЇвБ†or not enough so, through defect of heat, on the otherвБ†вЄЇвБ†or whether this great Artificer is not so attentive to the little Platonic exigences of that part of the species, for whose use she is fabricating thisвБ†вЄЇвБ†or that her Ladyship sometimes scarce knows what sort of a husband will doвБ†вЄЇвБ†I know not: we will discourse about it after supper.
It is enough, that neither the observation itself, or the reasoning upon it, are at all to the purposeвБ†вЄЇвБ†but rather against it; since with regard to my uncle TobyвАЩs fitness for the marriage state, nothing was ever better: she had formed him of the best and kindliest clayвБ†вЄЇвБ†had temperвАЩd it with her own milk, and breathed into it the sweetest spiritвБ†вЄЇвБ†she had made him all gentle, generous, and humaneвБ†вЄЇвБ†she had filled his heart with trust and confidence, and disposed every passage which led to it, for the communication of the tenderest officesвБ†вЄЇвБ†she had moreover considered the other causes for which matrimony was ordainedвБ†вЄЇвБ†
And accordingly * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
The donation was not defeated by my uncle TobyвАЩs wound.
Now this last article was somewhat apocryphal; and the Devil, who is the great disturber of our faiths in this world, had raised scruples in Mrs.¬†WadmanвАЩs brain about it; and like a true devil as he was, had done his own work at the same time, by turning my uncle TobyвАЩs Virtue thereupon into nothing but empty bottles, tripes, trunk-hose, and pantofles.