IF I was not morally sure that the reader must be out of all patience
for my uncle _Toby_’s character,——I would here previously have
convinced him that there is no instrument so fit to draw such a thing
with, as that which I have pitch’d upon.
A man and his HOBBY-HORSE, tho’ I cannot say that they act and re-act
exactly after the same manner in which the soul and body do upon each
other: Yet doubtless there is a communication between them of some
kind; and my opinion rather is, that there is something in it more of
the manner of electrified bodies,—and that, by means of the heated
parts of the rider, which come immediately into contact with the back
of the HOBBY-HORSE,—by long journies and much friction, it so happens,
that the body of the rider is at length fill’d as full of
HOBBY-HORSICAL matter as it can hold;—so that if you are able to give
but a clear description of the nature of the one, you may form a pretty
exact notion of the genius and character of the other.
Now the HOBBY-HORSE which my uncle _Toby_ always rode upon, was in my
opinion an HOBBY-HORSE well worth giving a description of, if it was
only upon the score of his great singularity;—for you might have
travelled from _York_ to _Dover_,—from _Dover_ to _Penzance_ in
_Cornwall_, and from _Penzance_ to _York_ back again, and not have seen
such another upon the road; or if you had seen such a one, whatever
haste you had been in, you must infallibly have stopp’d to have taken a
view of him. Indeed, the gait and figure of him was so strange, and so
utterly unlike was he, from his head to his tail, to any one of the
whole species, that it was now and then made a matter of
dispute,——whether he was really a HOBBY-HORSE or no: But as the
Philosopher would use no other argument to the Sceptic, who disputed
with him against the reality of motion, save that of rising up upon his
legs, and walking across the room;—so would my uncle _Toby_ use no
other argument to prove his HOBBY-HORSE was a HOBBY-HORSE indeed, but
by getting upon his back and riding him about;—leaving the world, after
that, to determine the point as it thought fit.
In good truth, my uncle _Toby_ mounted him with so much pleasure, and
he carried my uncle _Toby_ so well,——that he troubled his head very
little with what the world either said or thought about it.
It is now high time, however, that I give you a description of him:—But
to go on regularly, I only beg you will give me leave to acquaint you
first, how my uncle _Toby_ came by him.