birds that seem not to hate nor to be unhappy in confinement,
but, hanging by beak or claws, to be often playing with the glittering
wires--to be amusing themselves, so it seems, with drawing up, by small
enginery, their food and drink, which soon sickens, however, on their
stomachs, till, with ruffled plumage, they are often found in the
morning lying on their backs, with clenched feet, and neck bent as if
twisted, on the scribbled sand, stone-dead. There you saw pale
youths--boys almost like girls, so delicate looked they in that hot
infected air which, ventilate it as you will, is never felt to breathe
on the face like the fresh air of liberty--once bold and bright
midshipmen in frigate or first-rater, and saved by being picked up by
the boats of the ship that had sunk her by one double-shotted broadside,
or sent her in one explosion splintering into the sky, and splashing
into the sea, in less than a minute the thunder silent, and the fiery
shower over and gone--there you saw such lads as these, who used almost
to weep if they got not duly the dear-desired letter from sister or
sweetheart, and when they did duly get it, opened it with trembling
fingers, and even then let drop some natural tears--there we saw them
leaping and dancing, with gross gesticulations and horrid oaths obscene,
with grim outcasts from nature, whose mustached mouths were rank with
sin and pollution--monsters for whom hell was yawning--their mortal mire
already possessed with a demon. There, wretched, woe-begone, and wearied
out with recklessness and desperation, many wooed Chance and Fortune,
who they hoped might yet listen to their prayers--and kept rattling the
dice--cursing them that gave the indulgence--even in their cells of
punishment for disobedience or mutiny. There you saw some, who in the
crowded courts "sat apart retired,"--bringing the practised skill that
once supported, or the native genius that once adorned life, to bear on
beautiful contrivances and fancies elaborately executed with meanest
instruments, till they rivalled or outdid the work of art assisted by
all the ministries of science. And thus won they a poor pittance
wherewithal to purchase some little comfort or luxury, or ornament to
their persons; for vanity had not forsaken some in their rusty squalor,
and they sought to please her, their mistress or their bride. There you
saw accomplished men conjuring before their eyes, on the paper or the
canvass, to feed the longing