My Uncle Toby’s Apologetical Oration
I am not insensible, brother Shandy , that when a man whose profession is arms, wishes, as I have done, for war,—it has an ill aspect to the world;⸺and that, how just and right soever his motives and intentions may be,—he stands in an uneasy posture in vindicating himself from private views in doing it.
For this cause, if a soldier is a prudent man, which he may be without being a jot the less brave, he will be sure not to utter his wish in the hearing of an enemy; for say what he will, an enemy will not believe him.⸺He will be cautious of doing it even to a friend,—lest he may suffer in his esteem:⸺But if his heart is overcharged, and a secret sigh for arms must have its vent, he will reserve it for the ear of a brother, who knows his character to the bottom, and what his true notions, dispositions, and principles of honour are: What, I hope , I have been in all these, brother Shandy , would be unbecoming in me to say:⸺much worse, I know, have I been than I ought,—and something worse, perhaps, than I think: But such as I am, you, my dear brother Shandy , who have sucked the same breasts with me,—and with whom I have been brought up from my cradle,—and from whose knowledge, from the first hours of our boyish pastimes, down to this, I have concealed no one action of my life, and scarce a thought in it⸺Such as I am, brother, you must by this time know me, with all my vices, and with all my weaknesses too, whether of my age, my temper, my passions, or my understanding.
Tell me then, my dear brother Shandy , upon which of them it is, that when I condemned the peace of Utrecht , and grieved the war was not carried on with vigour a little longer, you should think your brother did