s of sound--not a prayer lisped, that its
record is not also to be found stamped on the laws of nature, by the
indelible seal of the Almighty's will!"

There was little in common between the religious impressions of the two
friends. They were both sailors, and though the word does not
necessarily imply that they were sinners in an unusual degree, neither
does it rigidly imply that they were saints. Each had received the usual
elementary education, and then each had been turned adrift, as it might
be on the ocean of life, to suffer the seed to take root, and the fruit
to ripen as best they might. Few of those "who go down to the great deep
in ships," and who escape the more brutalizing effects of lives so rude,
are altogether without religious impressions. Living so much, as it
were, in the immediate presence of the power of God, the sailor is much
disposed to reverence his omnipotence, even while he transgresses his
laws; but in nearly all those instances in which nature has implanted a
temperament inclining to deep feeling, as was the case with Bluewater,
not even the harsh examples, nor the loose or irresponsible lives of men
thus separated from the customary ties of society, can wholly extinguish
the reverence for God which is created by constantly dwelling in the
presence of his earthly magnificence. This sentiment in Bluewater had
not been altogether without fruits, for he both read and reflected much.
Sometimes, though at isolated and distant intervals, he even prayed; and
that fervently, and with a strong and full sense of his own demerits. As
a consequence of this general disposition, and of the passing
convictions, his mind was better attuned for the crisis before him, than
would have been the case with most of his brethren in arms, who, when
overtaken with the fate so common to the profession, are usually left to
sustain their last moments with the lingering enthusiasm of strife and
victory.

On the other hand, Sir Gervaise was as simple as a child in matters of
this sort. He had a reverence for his Creator, and such general notions
of his goodness and love, as the well-disposed are apt to feel; but all
the dogmas concerning the lost condition of the human race, the
mediation, and the power of faith, floated in his mind as opinions not
to be controverted, and yet as scarcely to be felt. In short, the
commander-in-chief admitted the practical heresy, which overshadows the
faith of millions, while he deemed him