lled one, of exchanging the quiet of a
college room for the bustle and privations of a sea-life, is not near so
prevalent now as it was several years since; and yet I have known many
instances, and have repeatedly met, in merchantmen and men of war, men
who have received a collegiate education, and have known one case, on
board of an English line-of-battle ship, the Superb, of a dissenting
minister, a foretopman, who could clear away a foul topsail-clewline, or
explain an obscure passage in Scripture, with equal facility and
address, and was both a smart seaman and a smart preacher:

"As some rats, of amphibious nature,
Are either for the land or water."

It is a pity our professional men do not travel more, especially
clergymen, who, though generally learned men, are not deep in the
knowledge of their own species. Of course I do not apply this remark to
the Methodist clergy; as their vagabond life makes them but too well
acquainted with the weaknesses of one portion of the human race, while
the alarming and arbitrary dominion they thereby acquire over the minds,
bodies, and estates of both sexes, is beautifully illustrated in the
trial, not many years since, of a reverend gentleman of oil of tansy
and hay-stack celebrity.

Morton's first voyage was rather a long one, but it introduced him to
the most interesting portion of the world, the nations bordering upon
the Mediterranean, while his knowledge of the Latin language was of no
small advantage to him in acquiring a knowledge of the Spanish and
Italian--an advantage that he certainly did not think of, when he was
plodding through Virgil and Horace, Cicero and Tacitus. He returned from
his first voyage a thorough practical seaman, and more than tolerably
acquainted with European languages. He rose in his profession, and might
at the time we introduced him have commanded a ship; but a sudden desire
to go at least one whaling voyage seized him, and a whaling he
accordingly went. In person Morton was above the middling height, some
inches above it, in short he had attained the altitude of five feet
eight inches--my own height to a fraction. Like most young men born in
New England, and who choose a seafaring life, his frame had acquired a
robustness and solidity, his countenance a healthy brown, his chest a
depth, and his shoulders a breadth, that are each and all
considered--and with justice--by the present generation, as irrefragable
proofs and marks of vulgar