hen they get command seem to
forget that they ever were officers themselves. It is the general
opinion that the strict ship is the most comfortable one, and as a
rule the master who will take the trouble to enforce proper discipline
fore and aft is just the very man who will also be considerate and
courteous to those who sail under his command--whatever be their rank.

To govern others well a man _must_ first have learned to govern
himself. The first lesson for a young seaman to learn is obedience,
and unless he does learn this lesson he will not know how to enforce
it when he becomes an officer, and still less will he be fit for his
position when he obtains command. It is to be feared that many _never_
learn this lesson, and that this is the cause of much of the
insubordination rife in these days.

If the modern hard-driven shipmaster would exercise greater care as to
his health and habits, and would strive more after being a true
_master_ over his ship's company, and this is easier to be gained by
respect than fear, things would go on more smoothly, and when he did
get away for a time from all the petty annoyances of shore, which are
more especially felt in his home port, he would have a time of
comparative comfort, would live longer and happier, and, possibly,
escape the terrible attacks of nervous depression which have finished
the career of many a too finely strung _fin de siecle_ shipmaster.
--_Nautical Magazine._

* * * * *

ALFRED TENNYSON.

Alfred Tennyson, the poet laureate of England, was born at Sornersby,
Lincolnshire, April 9, 1810, and was the third of a large family of
children, eight of whom were boys and three girls. His father was a
clergyman, a man of remarkably fine abilities; his mother, as should
be the mother of a great poet, was a deeply religious woman with a
sensitive spirit that was keenly attuned to the aspects of nature. It
was from her that Tennyson inherited his poetic temperament combined
with the love of study that was a characteristic of his father.
Tennyson's brother, Charles, superintended the construction of his
younger brother's first poetic composition, which was written upon a
slate when the great laureate was a child of seven. Tennyson's parents
were people who had sufficient of this world's wealth to educate their
sons well, and Alfred was sent to Trinity College, where he as a mere
lad won the gold medal for a poem in blank verse en