310 NOTES. 



ed to their minds, an impression of a much more decisive 

 and satisfactory character, methinks, would naturally and gen- 

 erally follow ; for, on occasions when we refrained from 

 fishing on the Sunday, while others were successfully en- 

 gaged in that object, our subsequent labors, as has been seen, 

 often succeeded under circumstances so peculiarly striking, 

 that there was scarcely a man in the amount of our crew 

 who did not seem to consider it as the effect of the Divine 

 blessing ! 



Independently, indeed, of the positive duty of sanctifying 

 the Sabbath, and of the blessing of Providence connected 

 therewith, we ofttimes realize the wisdom of the institution, 

 in the mere physical benefits resulting from its observance ; 

 for when the preceding week happened to have been labo- 

 riously employed, the day of rest became sweetly welcome, 

 obviously beneficial, in its restoring influence upon the ener- 

 gies of the people, fitting them for a renewal of their arduous 

 duties, while the temporaiy restraint thus put upon the ardor 

 of the seamen, operated, no doubt, with no small measure of 

 advantage, by stimulating to additional energy in their sub- 

 sequent labors ; so that, in every point of view, and in every 

 relation to the well-being of man, spiritual and temporal, this 

 sacred appointment stands commended both for wisdom and 

 goodness. 



F, p. 2G9. 



THE writer has had many thoughts and conversations with 

 others on the question whether the captain of a whale ship 

 ought himself to go in the boats or always keep by the ship, 

 and the opinion I have formed is (let it pass for what it is 

 worth), that the commander, on whom so much depends, and 

 whose safety should ever, therefore, be a prime consideration, 

 not for his own sake merely, but for that of the ship and crew 

 under him, should never leave the ship himself to engage in 

 whalinsr. 



