articular line, and resolve,
ever afterwards, manfully to persevere in it. His abilities being
concentrated on some definite set of objects; his friends, both on
shore and afloat, will be furnished with some tangible means of
judging of his capacity. Without such knowledge, their patronage is
likely to do themselves no credit, and their _protege_ very little, if
any, real service.

Some young fellows set out in their professional life by making
themselves thorough-bred sailors; their hands are familiar with the
tar-bucket; their fingers are cut across with the marks of the ropes
they have been pulling and hauling; and their whole soul is wrapped up
in the intricate science of cutting out sails, and of rigging masts
and yards. Their dreams are of cringles and reef-tackles, of knots,
splices, grummets, and dead-eyes. They can tell the length, to a
fathom, of every rope in the boatswain's warrant, from the flying jib
down-haul to the spanker-sheet; and the height of every spar, from the
main-top-gallant truck to the heel of the lower mast. Their delight
is in stowing the hold; dragging about kentlage is their joy; they are
the very souls of the ship's company. In harbour they are eternally
paddling in the boats, rowing, or sculling, or sailing about; they are
always the first in fishing or bathing parties; in short, they are for
ever at some sailor-kind of work. At sea, their darling music is the
loud whistle of the hardest storm-stay-sail breeze, with an occasional
accompaniment of a split main-topsail. "The harder it blows, and the
faster she goes," the merrier are they; "strong gales and squally" is
the item they love best to chalk on the log-board; and even when the
oldest top-men begin to hesitate about lying out on the yard to gather
in the flapping remnants of the torn canvas, these gallant youngsters
glory in the opportunity of setting an example of what a gentleman
sailor can perform. So at it they go, utterly reckless of
consequences; and by sliding down the lift, or scrambling out, monkey
fashion, to the yard-arm, where they sit laughing, though the spar be
more than half sprung through, they accomplish their purpose of
shaming the others into greater exertions. It is well known that one
of the ablest, if not the very ablest, of the distinguished men whom
the penetrating sagacity of Nelson discovered and brought forward,
owed his first introduction to the notice of that wonderful commander
by an exploit of this