ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. xlix 



c Ville de Paris,' a first-rate, in the fleet off Toulon, commanded by 

 Sir Edward Pellew. 



It does not appear to be on record in which year of his life it was 

 that he so nearly perished by drowning, and underwent the remark- 

 able experience of the intellectual condition under such a crisis, 

 which he afterwards recorded in a letter, at the request of Dr. 

 Wollaston. He described himself as " a youngster, at Portsmouth, 

 in one of the King's ships." He was not himself impressed as 

 others were by the remarkable character of his sensations ; but he 

 saw the importance of every such record, and made it accordingly. 

 Interesting in itself, the story is extremely valuable as coming from 

 one as singularly truthful in recording experience as skilled in 

 detailing it. One of his most striking accomplishments was the power 

 of expressing what he meant. The effect of this power was seen 

 wherever he went, in the harmony he seemed to establish by the 

 clearness of his ideas, and the graphic manner in which he expressed 

 them. All the disputings and perplexities which accompany the rule 

 of men of confused mind and speech were extinguished by Beaufort's 

 mere presence ; and he at once made every one aware of their own, 

 as well as of his views and objects. 



This power of rendering the most abstruse subject easy of com- 

 prehension, a power possessed hj very few, was strikingly exemplified 

 in the letter to Wollaston, published in Sir John Barrow's Autobio- 

 graphy, which describes that peculiar psychological condition of the 

 human frame at times when it hovers, as it were, between life and 

 death, or is on the point of yielding up the united existence of body 

 and soul, and assuming that alone of the soul. Few have doubtless 

 experienced this condition under the same circumstances as Admiral 

 Beaufort, by being snatched from drowning at the very moment when 

 the soul was about to assume its undisputed empire ; but many have 

 passed through a corresponding state at times when, fever having 

 reduced the powers of the body to a minimum, and elevated those of 

 the soul to an unnatural and unbalanced sway, sleep is dispelled 

 from the weary eyelids of the body, and the phantoms of past words, 

 thoughts, and acts come rushing unbidden, and too often unwelcome, 

 upon the mind's eye. At such moments the past is reflected upon 

 with pain or with pleasure, in proportion to its relation to evil or to 

 good, and doubtless in reference to its bearing upon the future ; and 

 hence the natural reflection of Admiral Beaufort, — 



" May not all this be some indication of the almost infinite power 

 of memory with which we may awaken in another world, and thus 

 be compelled to contemplate our past lives? or might it not in 

 some degree warrant the inference that death is only a change or 

 modification of our existence, in which there is no real pause or 

 interruption? But, however that may be, one circumstance was 

 highly remarkable — that the innumerable ideas which flashed into my 

 mind were all retrospective. Yet I had been religiously brought up, 

 my hopes and fears of the next world had lost nothing of their early 

 strength, and at any other period intense interest and awful anxiety 

 would have been excited by the mere probability that I was floating 



