Sterne was the first to use the word sentimental to characterize, “The soft state of the feelings and the imagination.” A tale on misery gives him sweet and pleasurable sensations. His compassion is aroused even by the suffering of a flea or a donkey, and he expresses it in such a way that we are moved to smile at the same time.

He was a connoisseur of feeling, he could tell and distinguish between fine shades of feeling, and could communicate them to his readers, in a way that aroused both compassion and mirth.