The Four Loves

“There is a delicious illustration of really good domestic manners in [Laurence Sterne’s] Tristram Shandy.  At a singularly unsuitable moment Uncle Toby has been holding forth on his favorite theme of fortification.  ‘My Father,’ driven for once beyond endurance, violently interrupts.  Then he sees his brother’s face; the utterly unretaliating face of Toby, deeply wounded, not by the light to himself—he would never think of that—but by the slight to the noble art [of fortification].  My Father at once repents.  There is an apology, a total reconciliation.  Uncle Toby, to show how complete is his forgiveness, to show that he is not on his dignity, resumes the lecture on fortification.”