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battering-rams of the ancients,—the vinea which Alexander made use of at the siege of Tyre.—He would tell my uncle Toby of the catapultæ of the Syrians which threw such monstrous stones so many hundred feet, and shook the strongest bulwarks from their very foundation;—he would go on and describe the wonderful mechanism of the ballista, which Marcellinus makes so much rout about,—the terrible effects of the pyraboli,—which cast fire,—the danger of the terebra and scorpio, which cast javelins.—But what are these, he would say, to the destructive machinery of corporal Trim?—Believe me, brother Toby, no bridge, or bastion, or sally port that ever was constructed in this world, can hold out against such artillery.
My uncle Toby would never attemptany
