But the witty division of literary spinners into silkworms and
spiders--those who spin because they are full, and those who do so
because they are empty--is not exhaustive. There are human silk-worms
who become gradually transformed into spiders--men who begin writing
in order to unburden a full imagination, and who, long after that
process has been completely performed, continue writing in order to
fill an empty belly; and though Sterne did not live long enough to
"write himself out," there are certain indications that he would
not have left off writing if and when he felt that this stage of
exhaustion had arrived. His artistic impulses were curiously combined
with a distinct admixture of the "potboiler" spirit; and it was with
something of the complacency of an annuitant that he looked forward to
giving the public a couple of volumes of _Tristram Shandy_ every year
as long as they would stand it. In these early days, however, there
was no necessity even to discuss the probable period either of the
writer's inspiration or of the reader's appetite. At present the
public were as eager to consume more Shandyism as Sterne was ready to
produce it: the demand was as active as the supply was easy.
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