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taken into account in the disquisitions of ethical writers.

Between these two different powers the human will must make election, determining itself to good. To enlighten the mind to choose, and to strengthen it in its adherence to right choice, has been the great object of all moralists. It is the most important object, undoubtedly, for it is when man wavers, or when he has fallen, that he needs aid; and those affections which are right from the beginning, rather seem to dispense with such succour. To this situation, then, of man tempted and struggling, the attention of speculative and practical moralists has been principally directed, and to this the greater part of their technical language bears reference. The most marked term, especially, of their whole language, "moral obligation," refers to this state solely, and to this the answering word of ordinary language, conscience, seems in like manner to apply.

The consideration of the difference between the spontaneous virtue of right affections, and that virtue which arises in the struggles of difficult duty, appears to explain the defective and partial view which some writers have taken of the whole of morality.

Virtue appears for the most part to be, in ethical language, a term of very undefined application. It is of very comprehensive significance, but is sometimes used with a tendency to one meaning in preference, and sometimes to another, so as to produce seeming contradictions among different writers, using the word not in the same sense. Thus some speak of virtue as equivalent with the exact discharge of all moral obligation. But our natural sentiment prompts us to use it in a more extended sense. Surely such affections as those of which we have spoken are called by us virtuous. But we are apt to apply this name especially to describe with force and warmth the highest exertions of our moral nature. These highest exertions occur when some opposition is overcome. And it appears to us that generally we apply this highest description of moral superiority to those cases where the temptations of evil are overcome, or where weaknesses, known or presumed, of our inferior

nature, are greatly vanquished. Thus in the struggle of the soul, when strong passion pulls against the sense of duty and against the nobler affec tions, but these triumph, this is one of the cases, where we emphatically apply the name of virtue to that moral power in the mind which has maintained it from falling. But at the same time it never occurs to us to qualify our approbation from considering that the sense of duty was not the sole principle on its own side, and that it had to divide with high and generous feelings the honour of the victory. So, too, when the natural prompting of the higher feelings is withstood by the weakness of the inferior nature, and rises above it, we then willingly give the name of virtue; as to those who, on great occasions, under a lofty passion, have gone voluntarily to death, examples such as that of Decius, who, agreeably to a superstition of his people, when the fortune of a great battle was going against them, rode unarmed into the ranks of the enemy, devoting himself for his country. On the other hand, cases may be cited where the allurement to weakness is from feelings good and right in themselves, but which interfere with a higher claim, and which are sacrificed simply to the austere and inflexible sentiment of duty, examples which also belong to high virtue.

On the whole, it would appear, that the great extent to which the virtues of men bear the marks of this our mixed nature, has led ethical writers to consider them solely with respect to it, as the most illustrious examples of virtue do arise from it, and as, in the greater number of mankind, virtue cannot have place except by deliberate resistance to evil propensities. But it appears, at the same time, that there is no reason whatever, for that exclusion of the affections from the place of virtue. On the contrary, a more accurate examination shews that virtuous affections may exist, and receive high moral approbation, without any regard to the struggle with evil or inferior propensities; that they have the character of virtue when they aid the sense of duty in resisting a crime; and that they have the same character, when, in their pure native strength, they triumph over the weaknesses of mortal nature.

TOM CRINGLE's Log.

CHAP. XVIII.

THE CRUISE OF THE WAVE.

"O'er the glad waters of the dark blue sea,
Our thoughts as boundless, and our souls as free,
Far as the breeze can bear the billow's foam,
Survey our empire, and behold our home.
These are our realms, no limits to their sway-
Our flag the sceptre all who meet obey."

The Corsair.

Ar three o'clock next morning, about an hour and a half before daydawn, I was roused from my cot by the gruff voice of the boatswain on deck—“ All hands up anchor."

The next moment the gunroom steward entered with a lantern, which he placed on the table "Gentlemen, all hands up anchor, if you please."

"Botheration!" grumbled one. "Oh dear!" yawned another. "How merrily we live that sailors be!" sung another in a most doleful strain, and in all the bitterness of heart consequent on being roused out of a warm nest so unceremoniously. But no help for it; so up we all got, and opening the door of my berth, I got out, and sat me down on the bench that ran along the starboard side of the table.

For the benefit of the uninitiated, let me describe a gunroom on board of a sloop of war. Everybody knows that the captain's cabin occupies the after part of the ship; next to it, on the same deck, is the gunroom. In a corvette, such as the Firebrand, it is a room, as near as may be, twenty feet long by twelve wide, and lighted by a long scuttle, or skylight, in the deck above. On each side of this room runs a row of small chambers, seven feet long by six feet wide, boarded off from the main saloon, or, in nautical phrase, separated from it by bulkheads, each with a door and small window opening into the same, and, generally speaking, with a small scuttle in the side of the ship towards the sea. These are the officers' sleeping apartments, in which they have each a chest of drawers and basinstand; while overhead is suspended a cot, or hammock, kept asunder by a wooden frame, six feet long by about two broad, slung from cleats nailed to the beams above by two lan

yards fastened to rings, one at the head, and the other at the foot; from which radiate a number of smaller cords, which are fastened to the canvass of the cot; while a small strip of canvass runs from head to foot on each side, so as to prevent the sleeper from rolling out. The dimensions of the gunroom are, as will be seen, very much circumscribed by the side berths; and when you take into account, that the centre is occupied by a long table, running the whole length of the room, flanked by a wooden bench, with a high back to it on each side, and a large clumsy chair at the head, and another at the foot, not forgetting the sideboard at the head of the table, (full of knives, forks, spoons, tumblers, glasses, &c. &c. &c., stuck into mahogany sockets,) all of which are made fast to the deck by strong cleats and staples, and bands of spunyarn, so as to prevent them fetching way, or moving, when the vessel pitches or rolls, you will understand that there is no great scope to expatiate upon, free of the table, benches, and bulkheads of the cabins. While I sat monopolizing the dull light of the lantern, and accoutring myself as decently as the hurry would admit of, I noticed the officers, in their night-gowns and night-caps, as they extricated themselves from their coops; and picturesque-looking subjects enough there were amongst them, in all conscience. At length, that is in about ten minutes from the time we were called, we were all at stations-a gun was fired, and we weighed, and then stood out to sea, running along about four knots, with the land-wind right aft. Having made an offing of three miles or so, we outran the Terral, and got becalmed in the belt of smooth water between it and the sea-breeze. It was striking to see

the three merchant-ships gradually draw out from the land, until we were all clustered together in a bunch, with half a gale of wind curling the blue waves within musketshot, while all was long swell and smooth water with us. At length the breeze reached us, and we made sail with our convoy to the southward and eastward, the lumbering merchantmen crowding every inch of canvass, while we could hardly keep astern, under close-reefed topsails, jib, and spanker.

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Pipe to breakfast," said the captain to Mr Yerk.

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The little vessel approached."Shorten sail, Mr Yerk, and heave the ship to," said the captain to the first lieutenant. "Ay, ay, sir."

"All hands, Mr Catwell." Presently the boatswain's whistle rung sharp and clear, while his gruff voice, to which his mates bore any thing but mellow burdens, echoed through the ship-"All hands shorten sail-fore and mainsails haul uphaul down the jib-in topgallant sails -now back the main topsail."

By heaving to, we brought the Wave on our weather bow. She was now within a cable's length of the corvette; the captain was standing on the second foremost gun, on the larboard side. "Mafame,"-to his steward,-"hand me up my trumpet." He hailed the little vessel. "Ho, the Wave, ahoy!"

Presently the responding "hillo" came down the wind to us from the officer in command of her, like an echo-" Run under our stern and heave to, to leeward." "Ay, ay, sir."

As the little vessel came to the wind, she lowered down her boat, and Mr Jigmaree, the boatswain of the dockyard in Jamaica, came on board, and touching his hat, presented his dispatches to the captain. Presently he and the skipper retired into the cabin, and all hands were inspecting the Wave in her new character of one of his Britannic Majesty's cruisers. When I had last seen her she was a most beautiful little craft, both in hull and rigging, as ever delighted the eye of a sailor; but the dockyard riggers and carpenters had fairly bedeviled her, at least so far as appearances went. First, they had replaced the light rail on her gunwale, by heavy solid bulwarks four feet high, surmounted by hammock nettings, at least another foot, so that the symmetrical little vessel, that formerly floated on the foam light as a sea-gull, now looked like a clumsy dish-shaped Dutch dogger. Her long slender wands of masts, which used to swig about, as if there were neither shrouds nor stays to support them, were now as taught and stiff as church steeples, with four heavy shrouds of a side, and stays and back-stays, and the devil knows what all.

"Now," quoth Tailtackle, " if them heave'emtaughts at the yard have not taken the speed out of the little beauty, I am a Dutchman." Timotheus, I may state in the bygoing, was not a Dutchman; he was fundamentally any thing but a Dutchman; but his opinion was sound, and soon verified to my cost. Jigmaree now approached.

"The captain wants you in the cabin, sir," said he. I descended, and found the skipper seated at a table with his clerk beside him, and several open letters lying before him. "Sit down, Mr Cringle." I took a chair. "There-read that," and he threw an open letter across the table to me, which ran as follows:

passage. When you have rejoined the Wave at Nassau, you are to proceed with her as your tender to Crooked Island, and there to await instructions from the Vice-Admiral, which shall be transmitted by the packet to sail on 9th proximo, to the care of the postmaster. I have the honour to be, sir, your obedient servant, Sec.

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"To the Hon. Capt. N-
"&c. &c. &c."

To say sooth, I was by no means amorous of this independent command, as an idea had, at the time I speak of, gone abroad in the navy, that lieutenants, commanding small vessels, seldom rose higher, unless through extraordinary interest, and I took the liberty of stating my repugnance to my captain.

He smiled, and threw over another letter to me; it was a private one from the Admiral's Secretary, and was as follows:

"SIR,

"The Vice-Admiral, commanding on the Jamaica station, desires me to say, that the bearer, the boatswain of the dockyard, Mr Luke Jigmaree, has instructions to cruise for, and if possible to fall in with you, before you weather Cape Maize, and falling in with you, to deliver up charge of the vessel to you, as well as of the five negroes, and the pilot, Peter Mangrove, who are on board of her. The Wave having been armed and fitted with every thing considered necessary, you are to man with thirtyfive of your crew, including officers, and to place her under the command of Lieut. Thomas Cringle, who is to be furnished with a copy of this letter authenticated by your signature, and to whom you will give written instructions, that he is first of all to cruise in the great Cuba channel, until the 14th proximo, for the prevention of piracy, and the suppression of the slave-trade carried on between the island of Cuba and the coast of Africa, and to detain and carry in to Havanna, or Nassau, New Providence, all vessels having slaves on board, which he may have reason to believe have been shipped beyond the prescribed limits on the African coast, as specified in the margin; and after the 14th he is to proceed direct to New Providence if unsuccessful, there to land Mr Jigmaree, and the dockyard Negroes, and await your return from the northward, after having seen the merchantmen clear of the Caicos

"(Confidential.) "MY DEAR N

"The Vice-Admiral has got a hint from Sir to kick that wild splice, young Cringle, about a bit. It seems he is a nephew of Old Blue Blaze's, and as he has taken a fancy to the lad, he has promised his mother that he will do his utmost to give him opportunities of being knocked on the head, for all of which the old lady has professed herself wonderfully indebted. As the puppy has peculiar notions, hint, directly or indirectly, that he is not to be permanently bolted down to the little Wave, and that if half a dozen skippers (you, my darling, among the rest) were to evaporate during the approaching hot months, he may have some small chance of t'other swab. Write me, and mind the claret and curaçoa. Put no address on either; and on coming to anchor, send notice to old Wiggins, in the lodge at the Master Attendant's, and he will relieve you, and the pies de Gallo, some calm evening, of all farther trouble regarding them.Don't forget the turtle from Crooked Island, and the cigars.

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Always, my dear N,
"Yours sincerely,

Custom-house officers.

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"Oh, I forgot. The Admiral begs you will spare him some steady old hands to act as gunner, boatswain, &c.-elderly men, if you please, who will shorten sail before the squall strikes him. If you float him away with a crew of boys, the little scamp will get bothered, or capsized, in a jiffy. All this for your worship's government. How do you live with your passenger-prime fellow, an't he? My love to him. Lady dying to see him again."

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Presently the captain and I were on the Wave's deck, where I was much surprised to find no less personages than Pepperpot Wagtail, and Paul Gelid, Esquires. Mr Gelid, a conch, or native of the Bahamas, was the same yawning, drawling, longlegged Creole, as ever. He had been ill with fever, and had asked a passage to Nassau, where his brother was established. At bottom, however, he was an excellent fellow, warm-hearted, honourable, and upright. As for little Wagtail-oh, he was a delight!-a small round man, with all the Jamaica Creole irritability of temper, but also all the Jamaica warmth of heart about himstraightforward, and scrupulously conscientious in his dealings, but devoted to good cheer in every shape. He had also been ailing, and had adventured on the cruise in order to recruit. I scarcely know how to describe his figure better than by comparing his corpus to an egg, with his little feet stuck through the bot tom; but he was amazingly active withal.-Both the captain and my self were rejoiced to see our old friends; and it was immediately fixed that they should go on board the corvette, and sling their cots alongside of Bang, so long as the courses

of the two vessels lay together. This being carried into execution, we set about our arrangements; our precious blockheads at the dock-yard had fitted a thirty-two pound carronade on the pivot, and stuck two long sixes one on each side of the little vessel. I hate carronades, especially small guns. I had, before now, seen thirty-two pound shot thrown by them, jump off a ship's side with a rebound like a football, when a shot from an eighteen-pounder long gun went crash at the same range through both sides of the ship, whipping off a leg and arm, or aiblins a head or two, in its transit.

"My dear sir," said I, " don't shove me adrift with that old pot there-do lend me one of your long brass eighteen-pounders."

"Why, Master Cringle, what is your antipathy to carronades?"

"I have no absolute antipathy to them, sir-they are all very well in their way. For instance, sir, I wish you would fit me with two twelvepound carronades instead of those two popgun long sixes. These, with thirty muskets, and thirty-five men or so, would make me very complete."

"A modest request," said Captain N

"Now, Tom Cringle, you have overshot your mark, my fine fellow," thought I; but it was all right, and that forenoon the cutter was hoisted out with the guns in her, and the others dismounted and sent back in exchange; and in fine, after three days' hard work, I took the command of H.B.M. schooner, Wave, with Timothy Tailtackle as gunner, the senior midshipman as master, one of the carpenter's crew as carpenter, and a boatswain's-mate as boatswain, a surgeon's mate as surgeon, the captain's clerk as purser, and thirty foremast-men, besides the blackies, as the crew. But the sailing of the little beauty had been regularly spoiled. We could still in light winds weather on the corvette, it is true, but then she was but a slow top; unless it blew half a gale of wind, as for going any thing free, why a sand barge would have beaten us.- -We kept company with the Firebrand until we weathered Cape Maize. It was about five o' clock in the afternoon, the corvette was about half a mile on our lee-bow

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