s a
child not a year old--I doubt whether he knows the rank of a lieutenant;
certainly, he can have no idea of the power of a first-lieutenant, by
his treatment of you."

"I should think not," replied Sawbridge dryly.

"I do not think, therefore, that conduct which must have proceeded from
sheer ignorance, should be so severely punished--I appeal to you,
Sawbridge."

"Well, sir, perhaps you are right--but still he told me he was a
philosopher, and talked about equality and rights of man. Told me that
he could only admit of equality between us, and begged to argue the
point. Now, sir, if a midshipman is to argue the point every time that
an order is given, the service will come to a pretty pass."

"That is all very true, Sawbridge; and now you remind me of what never
occurred to me at the time that I promised to take Mr Easy in the ship.
I now recollect that his father, who is a distant relation of mine, has
some very wild notions in his head, just like what have been repeated by
his son on your interview with him. I have occasionally dined there,
and Mr Easy has always been upholding the principles of natural
equality and of the rights of man, much to the amusement of his guests,
and I confess, at the time, of mine also. I recollect telling him that
I trusted he would never be able to disseminate his opinions in the
service to which I belonged, as we should have an end of all discipline.
I little thought, at the time, that his only son, who has no more
occasion to go to sea than the Archbishop of Canterbury, for his father
has a very handsome property--I believe seven or eight thousand a year--
would ever have sailed with me, and have brought these opinions with him
into any ship that I commanded. It is a pity, a great pity--"

"He never could have brought his pigs to a worse market," observed
Sawbridge.

"I agree with you, and, as a father myself, I cannot but help feeling
how careful we should be how we inculcate anything like abstract and
philosophical idea to youth. Allowing them to be in themselves correct,
still they are dangerous as sharp instruments are in the hands of a
child; allowing them to be erroneous, they are seized upon with an
avidity by young and ardent minds, and are not to be eradicated without
the greatest difficulty, and very often not until they have accomplished
their ruin."

"Then you think, sir, that these ideas have taken deep root in this
young man, and we shall not easily rid