384 JACK TAR ON THE SEA AND ASHORE. 



ticipatiou in the vicissitudes of their everyday life, 

 1 have fallen into a rhapsody, or employed rodomon- 

 tade ; whilst not a few readers will think that I have 

 merely blown my own horn. Yet I will appeal for 

 corroboration of all I have written to those who have 

 seen Jack Tar on his proper element: whether, on 

 the sea, he does not display some of the noblest traits 

 of humanity — not merely physical excellencies, but 

 high moral qualities? Whether he is not there the 

 most patient and courageous of human beings ? 

 "Whether he does not sing the same in storm or calm, 

 and unflinchingly meet all hardships with a cheerful 

 spirit ? I feel assured that all who have thus seen 

 him will attest to his good qualities. Ashore he is 

 not the same creature. The only apology I can offer 

 for his excesses here is, that such are naturally 

 prompted by the liberation of his buoyant spirit, 

 • — with a hardy frame and hot blood — from a 

 long confinement and abstinence aboard ship. 

 It is from sheer wanto^nness that he exults in the 

 commission of his thousand-and-one frivolities; but 

 which seldom leads him into the perpetration of any 

 criminal act. 



But, let us take a sober second view of this matter, 

 and see whether Jack's follies — crimes, too, if you 

 please — are altogether of his own immoral brewing. 

 Of course there can be no question of this, if we use 

 the cold-blooded formal argument of the self-sufficient 

 man, which is, that inasmuch as he, like all the rest 

 of mankind, is a free agent, his shortcomings and 

 misdeeds must necessarily be voluntary', and there- 

 fore he alone should be held responsible for them. 

 But, 1 would ask, does not society in a measure 



