ey kind, but because the needed naval
officers cannot always be spared from general service. A sound policy
has continuously favored the employment of sea officers, where
possible; not because they can often be equal in acquirement to chosen
men from the special fields in question, but because through them the
spirit and authority of the profession pervades the class-room as well
as the drill-ground, and so forwards the highly specialized product in
view. Besides, as I have heard observed with admiration by a very able
civilian, head of one of the departments, who had several officers
under him, the habit of turning the hand to many different
occupations, and of doing in each just what was ordered, following
directions explicitly, gives naval officers as a class an adaptability
and a facility which become professional characteristics. It may be
interesting to note that the same was commonly remarked of the
old-time seaman. His specialty was everything--versatility; and he was
handy under the least expected circumstances, on shore as well as
afloat. Burgoyne used chaffingly to attribute his misfortunes at
Saratoga to the aptitude with which a British midshipman and seamen
threw a bridge over the upper Hudson. "If it had not been for you," he
said to the culprit, "we should never have got as far as this."

In my day the proportion of officers was less than afterwards, when
the graduates themselves took up the task of instruction. There were
two who taught us mathematics, one of whom remains in my memory as the
very best teacher, to the extent of his knowledge, that I ever knew.
The professional branches, seamanship and gunnery, fell naturally to
the sea officers who conducted the drills. These studies, as pursued,
reflected the transition condition of the period which I have before
depicted; the grasp on the old still was more tenacious than that on
the new. The preparation of text-books for young seamen far antedated
the establishment of naval schools. There was one, _The Sheet Anchor_,
by Darcy Lever, a British seaman, published before 1820, which had
great vogue among us. Among other virtues, it was illustrated with
very taking pictures of ships performing manoeuvres in the midst of
highly conventional waves. As far as memory serves me, I think we were
justified in regarding it as more instructive than the American work
assigned to us by the course, _The Kedge Anchor_, by a master in our
navy named Brady. A kedge, the