This being once discovered, I no more thought of resisting the will of my aunt, backed by a proverb, than a stone, when left to the influence of gravity, thinks of hesitating to descend. I spoke, thought, wept, laughed; and moreover refrained from speech, thought, weeping, laughter-all at her mighty bidding. Rachel, indeed, often whispered, nodded, sighed, or quoted, but generally in vain. I really loved her the best of the two; but all her dumb-shew, sighs, whispers, and nods, had no point-bad not the sanction of a proverb-and, moreover, had never the singular good fortune to be backed by a crown piece; and, therefore, had little or no authority for me.

Thus have I discharged the duty of introducing my two aunts to the public-a duty, indeed, from which I might have easily delivered myself, by suffering them, in good time, to introduce themselves. But had I so done, it is very possible that some, at least, of my readers

might have mistaken their real characters: for each of them wore a veil--one of confidence, and the other of bashfulness; neither of which is it easy to penetrate. Besides, in this philosophical age, when every man who sees an effect is looking for a cause, I thought I should be yielding much gratification to the thinking part of the community, by developing the secret springs of my own character. There is many a strange creature at large in society, of whose follies and infirmities it is almost impossible to give even a plausible account. We look at him

as we do at the stones conjectured, by some naturalists, to fall from the moon.

Now I was

precisely one of those anomalous personages; and lest any philosopher, for want of a better hypothesis, should be betrayed into so rash a conjecture, as that I also came from the moon, I think it just and charitable to state the truth in the succeeding pages.

There is one observation which it is desirable

to premise. My readers may feel alarmed lest it should be my intention to detail to them many of the wise sayings of my aunt Winifred. Now, however worthy multitudes might think them of record, I certainly do not design to force them upon the rest of a thankless world, I shall therefore state only such as both gave the peculiar complexion to my own life, and are likely to influence the life of others. All her other maxims may be found in the works of Cervantes, or of Poor Richard, or in any other repertory for those sayings of which no one knows the author, but nine-tenths of the world acknowledge the indisputable authority and boundless value.

CHAP. III.

PREPARATION FOR SCHOOL.

I WAS born in the year 1735, in the manorhouse of a sweet little country village, almost every cottage of which might be seen reflected in a small lake that spread itself over the valley beneath. I seem at this moment to see my aunt Winifred, as she used to stand, as sad as one of the willows which wept over the water, and, pointing to the shadowy mansion beneath, say, "Aye, child, all is not gold that glitters."

But though I perfectly remember the mansion in which I continued to live for a large part of my life, I can call to mind scarcely any of the occurrences of the first half of this time. I remember only, that at about twelve years old, I used to hear the housemaid complain

that I was "of a very fretful temper;" and that my aunt Winifred took no less pains to assure me that I " was of a very delicate constitution" -of which last piece of information, one of the greatest mischiefs was, that it was considered as furnishing a complete apology for the fault hinted at in the first.-I, moreover, found myself possessed of the name of Sancho; the singularity of which title never struck me, till I found at least half a dozen pointers in the neighbourhood in the enjoyment of the same distinction. Upon inquiring into the origin of my name, however, I discovered that my aunt had vowed, early in life, that, should she ever be possessed of a human being on whom she might be privileged to bestow a name, he should be enriched by at least one half of the title of the illustrious squire of Don Quixote,-he being, next to the oracle of Delphos, the greatest originator and promulgator of those sententious sayings in which her heart delighted.