The Nineteenth Century 79 



Neptune recognized me in a moment. In fact the motive that incited him 

 to come on board, was to impart something to me in private. We were old 

 acquaintance. I had been introduced to him on the Line in my very early 

 youth, and caroused with him in the cabins of a dozen or more ships. 



Having retired to a convenient part of the deck, the god of the sea thus 

 addressed me. 



"It has not escaped my notice that certain persons living on the island 

 whose ships maintain a supreme ascendancy in my dominions, have, in certain 

 books of extensive circulation, drawn such monsters as a ship never saw, and 

 presumptuously called them sailors. Certain authors by profession, named 

 Cumberland and Pratt, have atrociously offended in this particular. Godwin, 

 with more judgment, has confined himself in his last work to the teUing of 

 Hes through four volumes, and Saint Leon is not once to be found in my 

 dominions. But Holcroft has incurred my wrath. While Holcroft continues to 

 dress his characters invariably in leather-breeches and boots, and does not 

 invade my sea- weed, it is for the woollen-draper and shoe-maker to call him to 

 an account; but when he makes his personages to swear more than a swab- 

 ringer, or a boatswain's yeoman, he robs my sailors of their oaths. 



"To caution these men against a repetition of their crimes, is my motive 

 of visiting your ship in this imusual latitude. My sprite Ariel informed me you 

 were again on the ocean, and I have come since last night from the Tropic, 

 with my wife and her nymphs, to put into your hands a proclamation, which, 

 as you value fair winds, clear skies, and smooth water, I enjoin you to pubhsh. 

 And I impose that you make it first known in a certain city of your island, 

 where, in one of the principal streets, the inhabitants have erected a statue 

 to me, which, in majesty of countenance, dignity of mien, and symmetry of 

 limb, is not to be exceeded by the Belvidere Apollo." 



Having concluded his speech, Neptune again stalked forward to the bows 

 of the ship, followed by his goddess and her attendant nymphs. He ordered 

 his car to be brought under the bows. But in passing the foremast, it ought 

 not to escape mention, that he levelled his trident at oui horseshoe, and cut 

 it in twain. Still the horse-shoe adhered to the mast, and Neptune, with some 

 confusion, committed himself and his family again to the deep. 



He mounts the car, the golden scourge apphes. 

 He sits superior, and the chariot flies: 

 His whirhng wheels the glassy surface sweep: 

 Th' enormous monsters rolling o'er the deep. 

 Gambol around him on the watery way; 

 And heavy whales in awkward measvures play: 

 The sea subsiding spreads a level plain, 

 Exults and crowns the monarch of the main: 

 The parting waves before his coursers fly; 

 The wond'ring waters leave his axle dry. 

 Pope. 



