20 
J0UIIN"AL OF A 
degradations. Considering the liberty always given on this occa- 
sion, the crew behaved very orderly. 
We dined to-day on the albicore, caught yesterday, and found 
it excellent food. The flesh was white and brown; both parts 
equally good. 
19th. In the evening, before the moon rose, the sea abounded with 
large bright spots of apparently phosphoric light, or detached col- 
lections of those sparks, which, singly, accompanied us everywhere. 
20th. Several men of war birds flew about the ship. Their bo- 
dies are not large, but their wings extend a great way. Olden- 
dorp, in his Account of the West Indies, speaks of fourteen feet 
from tip to tip. Their bill is pointed, and they pounce upon flying 
and other small fishes with great dexterity and swiftness. 
21st. For some days I have been feasting my mind on Milton's 
Paradise Lost. To make any remarks on a poem so sublime and 
unrivalled, may seem strangely impertinent; but, may I be per- 
mitted to say, that, whether from my increased aversion to hea- 
then mythology, or an idea, that its subjects are here and there 
brought in, chiefly as a display of classical knowledge, when quite 
unnecessary, I felt as if this truly christian and evangelical poem 
was rather bespattered than ornamented by these old fooleries. 
Now and then, I grant, they are well introduced, when their ab- 
surdity is shown; but am I right in thinking, that t|ie whole 
might have been as excellent, as classical, and as sublime, with- 
out much allusion to such wretched nonsense ? I fear, however, 
that to those, who consider the study of the ancient authors and 
poets of Greece and Home an essential preparation for a work of 
this kind, it might have been a sufficient cause to reject the 
whole poem, had it not abounded with such classical allusions. 
More is the pity, that the infinitely more sublime and elevated 
lano-ua^e of truth in the Bible should be so seldom imitated, and 
be made to give way to the lying and silly devices of idolatrous 
heathen. Nay, I fear that Milton's Paradise Lost will by some 
be laid upon the shelf, as an old obsolete performance, merely be- 
