616 
VOYAGE OF THE POTOMAC. 
[March, 
obedience to her helm ; when an iceberg on the other bow requi- 
red the counter order, " hard up the helm ! steady ! steady ! she 
will now go clear !" and our noble ship passed out unscathed ! — 
To manage a vessel under such circumstances requires the highest 
exertion of nautical skill. 
It is not easy to do justice to the profession of the sailor. His 
noblest efforts are witnessed only by the few hardy spirits who 
are themselves actors along with him. Not so in other professions. 
The persuasive accents of the pulpit orator fall upon the ears of 
an attentive and tranquil audience, and by the numerous chords 
of human sympathies are preserved and extended to a crowded cir- 
cle ; the resistless advocate, while in the courts of justice he pleads 
the cause of injured innocence, or stays the strong arm of the 
proud oppressor, is surrounded by multitudes, who can pay hom- 
age to his eloquence; the erudite judge records his opinions, and 
his name will be referred to in the coming time ; while the vener- 
able senator, it may be said, by means of the press, speaks to a 
listening nation, and not unfrequently to an admiring world ; the 
artist, whose pencil imparts life to the "glowing canvass," leaves 
the impress of his genius to mellow and improve with time ; the 
writer of romance creates and peoples realms of his own, and 
keeps alive a world of ideal sympathy and passion in the human 
heart I , 
Not so the sailor. Much of the grandeur, we might say sub- 
limity, of his profession, is lost to the rest of the world : nor can 
any language breathe into description the imbodied spirit of his 
experience ! While we admire the noble bark, that breasts the 
billows, and moves on battling with the elements until she reaches 
the point of her destination, though it be the farthermost port in the 
known world, yet how much more sublime to our contemplation 
is the intelligence which directs her movements with such unerring 
certainty ! And how often, amid the wide waste of ocean, is that 
intelligence brought to contend with the wild spirit of the storm, 
the goodly ship writhing beneath the angry tempest, while a single 
error in command, or the mind unpoised for an instant, would be 
fatal to all on board. How the good ship, among the proudest 
monuments of the genius of man, still rides on, till the -very ele- 
ments have wasted their strength, and wearied themselves into 
repose, in vain attempts for the mastery ! But of this mighty 
