ress, and was reckoned
a very handsome boy; and though stout of my age, the ladies admitted me
to great freedom, under pretence of my being still a dear little darling
of a middy, and so perfectly innocent in my mind and manners. The fact
is, I was kept in much better order on board my ship than I was in my
father's house--so much for the habit of discipline; but this was all
outside show. My father was a man of talent, and knew the world, but he
knew nothing of the navy; and when I had got him out of his depth, I
served him as I did the usher: that is I soused him and his company head
over heels in the horse-pond of their own ignorance. Such is the power
of local knowledge and cunning over abstruse science and experience.

So much assurance had I acquired by my recent success in town, that my
self-confidence was increased to an incredible degree. My apparent
candour, impudence, and readiness gave a currency to the comings of my
brain which far surpassed the dull matter-of-fact of my unwary
contemporaries. Of my boyish days, I have now almost said enough. The
adventures of a midshipman, during the first three years of his
probationary life, might, if fully detailed, disgust more than amuse,
and corrupt more than they would improve; I therefore pass on to the age
of sixteen, when my person assumed an outline of which I had great
reason, to be proud, since I often heard it the subject of encomium
among the fair sex, and their award was confirmed even by my companions.

My mind kept pace with my person in every acquirement save those of
morality and religion. In these, alas! I became daily more and more
deficient, and for a time lost sight of them altogether. The manly
athletic frame and noble countenance with which I was blessed, served to
render me only more like a painted sepulchre--all was foul within. Like
a beautiful snake, whose poison is concealed under the gold and azure of
its scales, my inward man was made up of pride, revenge, deceit, and
selfishness, and my best talents were generally applied to the worst
purposes.

In the knowledge of my profession I made rapid progress, because I
delighted in it, and because my mind, active and elastic as my body,
required and fed on scientific research. I soon became an expert
navigator and a good practical seaman, and all this I acquired by my own
application. We had no schoolmaster; and while the other youngsters
learned how to work a common day's work from