The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman · Chapter
My Uncle Toby’s Apologetical Oration explained
Uncle Toby delivers a passionate defense of his love for war and military sieges, arguing that his enthusiasm stems from nature and a sense of honor, not cruelty.
What happens
Uncle Toby delivers a passionate defense of his love for war and military sieges, arguing that his enthusiasm stems from nature and a sense of honor, not cruelty. He appeals to his brother Walter and to Yorick, recounting his childhood sensitivity to tales of war and his deep distress at its miseries, and justifies his hobbyhorse as serving the great ends of creation.
Themes in this chapter
Obsession and Hobbyhorses
Uncle Toby's apologetical oration is a direct defense of his hobbyhorse—his obsession with military sieges—as a noble and natural pursuit.
The Absurdity of Systems
Toby's elaborate rationalization of war and his bowling-green sieges highlights the absurdity of systematic justifications for personal passions.
Characters to notice
- Uncle Toby
Delivers an apologetical oration defending his wish for war and his passion for sieges, rooted in nature and honor.
- Walter Shandy
Addressed directly by Toby; interjects with a parenthetical remark about lending Toby a hundred pounds for his sieges.
- Mr. Yorick
Referenced by Toby as having preached a sermon on Le Fever's death, prompting Toby's reflection on the nature of war.
- Corporal Trim
Mentioned as sharing in Toby's delight during the sieges on the bowling-green.
Key passages
“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;”
Toby acknowledges that a soldier openly wishing for war may appear suspect to others.
Opening of Toby's oration, setting up his defensive stance.
“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 it upon unworthy views;”
Toby challenges Walter to identify any unworthy motive behind his regret that the war ended too soon.
Toby defends his opposition to the Peace of Utrecht.
“O brother! ’tis one thing for a soldier to gather laurels,—and ’tis another to scatter cypress.”
There is a difference between seeking glory in battle and causing mourning and loss.
Toby distinguishes between the honor of combat and the sorrow of war's consequences.
“For what is war? what is it, Yorick, when fought as ours has been, upon principles of liberty, and upon principles of honour—what is it, but the getting together of quiet and harmless people, with their swords in their hands, to keep the ambitious and the turbulent within bounds?”
War, fought for liberty and honor, is merely a gathering of peaceful people to restrain the ambitious and disorderly.
Toby's idealistic justification of war as a defensive and honorable endeavor.