114 FRAGMENT OF AN INTENDED ACCOUNT 



mical discoveries than any individual of the present age, be- 

 took himself to the study of the heavens as a relaxation from 

 professional pursuits. Mr Clerk is to be numbered with these 

 illustrious men, having made great improvements in an art to 

 which he was not educated, and in which early instruction, and 

 long practice, would seem more indispensable than in any 

 other. 



Two reasons may perhaps be assigned for the success which 

 often attends men who thus take a science by assault, without 

 making their approaches regularly, and according to the rules 

 of art. They are inspired by genius, and impelled by the 

 highest of all motives, the pleasure they derive from their ex- 

 ertions. They are also free from the prejudices, and the blind 

 respect for authority, which constitute so strong a barrier 

 against improvement both in the sciences and the arts. 



A young man, who had been bred in the service of the Na- 

 vy, who had seen the Commanders he was taught to respect 

 most highly, bring their fleets into action constantly in a cer- 

 tain way, and who had naturally made that manoeuvre the 

 oreat object of his study, would not be apt to deviate from a 

 practice, in the accurate and successful application of which 

 the greatest merit of a Naval Officer was supposed to consist. 

 Indeed no man learns his art, as it actually exists, more com- 

 pletely than a seaman ; but no man learns it in a way more 

 likely to preclude improvement. A landsman, therefore, sit- 

 ting in his study, and thinking only of the abstract principles, 

 mechanical or tactical, of the naval art, provided he be well in- 

 structed in them, and have a mind sufficiently powerful to 

 combine those principles, and appreciate their different re- 

 sults, may be expected to give valuable lessons to the most 

 able and experienced seamen. 



Mr 



