the instruction of the
older midshipmen, I, who was no favourite with the latter, was rejected
from their coteries. I determined, therefore, to supply the deficiency
myself, and this I was enabled to do by the help of a good education. I
had been well grounded in mathematics, and was far advanced in Euclid
and algebra previous to leaving school: thus I had a vast superiority
over my companions.

The great difficulty was to renew my application to study, after many
months of idleness. This, however, I accomplished, and after having
been one year at sea, kept a good reckoning and sent in my day's work to
the captain. The want of instruction which I first felt in the study of
navigation, proved in the end of great service to me: I was forced to
study more intensely, and to comprehend the principles on which I
founded my theory, so that I was prepared to prove by mathematical
demonstration, what others could only assert who worked by "inspection."

The pride of surpassing my seniors, and the hope of exposing their
ignorance, stimulated me to inquiry, and roused me to application. The
books which I had reported lost to my father, were handed out from the
bottom of my chest, and read with avidity: many others I borrowed from
the officers, whom, I must do the justice to say, not only lent them
with cheerfulness, but offered me the use of their cabin to study in.
Thus I acquired a taste for reading. I renewed my acquaintance with the
classic authors. Horace and Virgil, licentious, but alluring, drove me
back to the study of Latin, and fixed in my mind a knowledge of the dead
languages, at the expense of my morals. Whether the exchange were
profitable or not, is left to wiser heads than mine to decide; my
business is with facts only.

Thus, while the ungenerous malice of the elder midshipmen thought to
have injured me by leaving me in ignorance, they did me the greatest
possible service, by throwing me on my own resources. I continued on
pretty nearly the same terms with my shipmates to the last. With some
of the mess-room officers I was still in disgrace, and was always
disliked by the oldsters in my own mess; with the younger midshipmen and
the foremast men I was a favourite. I was too proud to be a tyrant, and
the same feeling prevented my submitting to tyranny. As I increased in
strength and stature, I showed more determined resistance to arbitrary
power: an occasional turn-up with boys of my own size (for the