ieve in youthful talent,
industry, or goodness more. Our days pass swiftly, because busily. The
regular business of the ship, the school, astronomical observations,
study of history and modern languages, and nothing permitted to pass
without observation, fill our time completely.

Lord Bacon says, "It is a strange thing that in sea voyages, where there
is nothing to be seen but sky and sea, men should make diaries; but in
land travel, wherein so much is to be observed, for the most part they
omit it, as if chance were fitter to be registered than observation."
However, for once, his lordship has only seen, or perhaps only spoken,
in part. Sea and sky must be observed before we can know the laws by
which their great changes or chances are regulated. Observations on the
works of man, as cities, courts, &c. may be omitted, for we know their
authors, and can have recourse to them, their motives, and their
history, whenever we please; but the great operations of nature are so
above us, that we must humbly mark them, and endeavour to make their
history a part of our experience, in order that we pass safely through
their vicissitudes. Hence it is, that the commonest details of the early
navigators, their sunrise and sunset, their daily portionings of food
and water, are read with a deeper interest than the liveliest tour
through civilised countries and populous cities; that Byron's passage
through Chiloe continues to excite the most profound sympathy; while
Moore's lively view of society and manners in France or Italy, are now
seldom or languidly read. The uncertainty, the mystery of nature, keep
up a perpetual curiosity; but I suspect that if we knew the progress and
dependance of her operations, as well as we do those of an architect or
brick-layer, the history of the building of a theatre or a
dwelling-house might vie in interest with that of a sea voyage.

The books we intend our boys to read are,--history, particularly that of
_Greece_, _Rome_, _England_, and _France_; an outline of general
history, voyages, and discoveries; some poetry, and general literature,
in French and English; Delolme, with the concluding chapter of
Blackstone on the history of the law and the constitution of England;
and afterwards the first volume of Blackstone, Bacon's Essays, and
Paley. We have only three years to work in; and as the _business_ of
their life is to learn their profession, including mathematics,
algebra, nautical astronomy, theo