owledge, fall in love all at once,
and that is doubtless the reason why they are said to _fall_ in love.
Love is like the Asiatic cholera; a man is suddenly laid flat on his
back, with all the marked and violent symptoms, when he thought all the
while he was in perfect health. "Love," says Corporal Trim, "is exactly
like war in this, that a soldier, though he has escaped three weeks
complete o' Saturday night, may nevertheless be shot through the heart
on Sunday morning." In the third place, a man, who for two or three
years has seen nothing in the female form more attractive than the
copper-colored beauties of Asia, the South Sea Islands, and the whole
western coast of America, or the ebony _fair_ ones of Africa, is most
astonishingly susceptible when once more restored to the society of
ladies of his own complexion, and of more refinement than those we have
mentioned. I have had the ineffable pleasure of testing the truth of
this theory more than a dozen times in my own person. If any gentleman
doubts the fact, I can only advise him to banish himself from female
society, in a man-of-war or whaleman, for three or four years. If he
does not fall in love fifty times a month, when he returns, he is either
more or less than human, and, in either case, I should wish to remain a
stranger to him.

The whole party were now "under hatches," and examining the wonders of a
whaleman's cabin. Morton had attached himself to Isabella, and, as he
spoke the Spanish language fluently, and, what was more to the purpose,
was impelled by an irresistible feeling to entertain and amuse her, soon
drew her into conversation, and was astonished and delighted with her
good sense. He had visited different parts of South America before, and
had seen enough of the women to perceive that they were excessively
ignorant, superstitious, and vulgar. He was therefore not a little
surprised to perceive in Isabella's conversation marks of a cultivated
and polished understanding.

The rest of the party had gone into the steerage to examine some of
those curious specimens of whalebone work, in the fabrication of which
whalemen employ so much patience and time, during their long and often
unsuccessful voyages. As Isabella and Morton stood together by the cabin
table, the lady opened a bible that was lying there, and seemed for a
moment or two engaged in reading it.

"Do you understand that?" said the seaman, still speaking Spanish.

"Yes," she replied, in