IT is so long since the reader of this rhapsodical work has been parted
from the midwife, that it is high time to mention her again to him,
merely to put him in mind that there is such a body still in the world,
and whom, upon the best judgment I can form upon my own plan at
present, I am going to introduce to him for good and all: But as fresh
matter may be started, and much unexpected business fall out betwixt
the reader and myself, which may require immediate dispatch;——’twas
right to take care that the poor woman should not be lost in the mean
time;—because when she is wanted, we can no way do without her.
I think I told you that this good woman was a person of no small note
and consequence throughout our whole village and township;—that her
fame had spread itself to the very out-edge and circumference of that
circle of importance, of which kind every soul living, whether he has a
shirt to his back or no,——has one surrounding him;—which said circle,
by the way, whenever ’tis said that such a one is of great weight and
importance in the _world_,——I desire may be enlarged or contracted in
your worship’s fancy, in a compound ratio of the station, profession,
knowledge, abilities, height and depth (measuring both ways) of the
personage brought before you.
In the present case, if I remember, I fixed it about four or five
miles, which not only comprehended the whole parish, but extended
itself to two or three of the adjacent hamlets in the skirts of the
next parish; which made a considerable thing of it. I must add, That
she was, moreover, very well looked on at one large grange-house, and
some other odd houses and farms within two or three miles, as I said,
from the smoke of her own chimney:——But I must here, once for all,
inform you, that all this will be more exactly delineated and explain’d
in a map, now in the hands of the engraver, which, with many other
pieces and developements of this work, will be added to the end of the
twentieth volume,—not to swell the work,—I detest the thought of such a
thing;—but by way of commentary, scholium, illustration, and key to
such passages, incidents, or innuendos as shall be thought to be either
of private interpretation, or of dark or doubtful meaning, after my
life and my opinions shall have been read over (now don’t forget the
meaning of the word) by all the _world_;——which, betwixt you and me,
and in spite of all the gentlemen-reviewers in _Great Britain_, and of
all that their worships shall undertake to write or say to the
contrary,—I am determined shall be the case.—I need not tell your
worship, that all this is spoke in confidence.