92 NIMROD OF THE SEA ; OB, 



gates are hermetically sealed to him. A simple glimpse or 

 hope of heaven is shut out from him by the coldness of even 

 Heaven's ministers, and the gates of the Inferno seem invit- 

 ing, when viewed from the forecastle of many a whale-ship 

 just in from an eight - months' cruise. Good temperance- 

 man as you are, would you dash the cup of temporary obliv- 

 ion from this poor wretch's lips? You say "it steals his 

 brains." Exactly ; that he desires. With a shilling's worth, 

 he becomes a man ; with twice that quantity, the old boy- 

 hood is with him again ; with thrice that, he staggers down 

 the street, and, with his thumb in his armpit, tips his tar- 

 paulin to his captain, bites his thumb-nail at the port ad- 

 miral, and votes the President a lubber. He feels, for the 

 time, " every inch a man." 



Your warning that " he endangers life " has no weight 

 with a being who lives hourly with his life in his hand. 

 Don't plead the joys or duty of life to him who, to save his 

 life, will not waver a step from the line of duty. You preach 

 never so well of Heaven, and plead for his soul in the ac- 

 cepted ways of the churches; but your good words and 

 ways fall weak and meaningless on the ear of the man who 

 lives habitually in the presence of God's mightiest works, 

 and who, in the lonely nightwatches of the silent sea, is 

 forced into communion with the Divine Authority for all 

 things. Careless, thoughtless, and wicked as the sailor may 

 seem, it was not a bad impression I received in my dis- 

 courses with many seamen in the nightwatches. 



