s, living for the day, careless of the morrow; and,
beyond that never bestowing a thought. It is a singular fact, that
where life is most precarious, men are most indifferent about its
preservation; and, where death is constantly before our eyes, as in
this country, eternity is seldom in our thoughts: but so it is; and
the rule extends still further in despotic countries. Where the union
between the head and shoulders may be dissolved in a moment by the
sword of a tyrant, life is not so valued, and death loses its
terrors; hence the apathy and indifference with which men view their
executioners in that state of society. It seems as if existence, like
estates, was valuable in proportion to the validity of the title-deeds
by which they are held.

To digress no more. Although I was far from being even commonly
virtuous, which is about tantamount to absolute wickedness, I was no
longer the thoughtless mortal I had ever been since I left school.
The society of Emily, and her image graven on my heart; the close
confinement to the brig, and the narrow escape from death in the
second attempt to save the poor sailor's life, had altogether
contributed their share to a kind of temporary reformation, if not
to a disgust to the coarser descriptions of vice. The lecture I had
received from Emily on deceit, and the detestable conduct of my last
captain, had, as I thought, almost completed my reformation. Hitherto
I felt I had acted wrong, without having the power to act right.
I forgot that I had never made the experiment. The declaration of
Captain G.'s atheism was so far from converting me, that from that
moment I thought more seriously than ever of religion. So great was
my contempt for his character, that I knew whatever he said must be
wrong, and, like the Spartan drunken slave, he gave me the greatest
horror of vice.

Such was my reasoning, and such my sentiments, previous to any
relapse into sin or folly. I knew its heinousness. I transgressed and
repented; habit was all-powerful in me; and the only firm support
I could have looked to for assistance was, unfortunately, very
superficially attended to. Religion, for any good purposes, was
scarcely in my thoughts. My system was a sort of Socratic heathen
philosophy--a moral code, calculated to take a man tolerably safe
through a quiet world, but not to extricate him from a labyrinth of
long-practised iniquity.

The thoughtless and vicious conduct of my companions became to me