enter the Royal Navy. Now, in a democratic
age, we don't talk about such things; but there are unwritten laws and
invisible lines just the same. Standing on the captain's deck of an
American warship not long ago, watching the deck hands below putting
things shipshape, I asked an officer--"Is there any chance for those
men to rise?"

"Yes, some," he answered tentatively, "but then, there is a difference
between the men who have been trained for a position, and those who
have worked up the line to it." If that difference exists in a
democratic country and age, what was it for Cook in a country and at a
time when lines of caste were hard and fast drawn? But he entered the
navy on the _Eagle_ under Sir Hugh Palliser, who, almost at once,
transferred him from the forecastle to the quarterdeck. What was the
explanation of such quick recognition? Therein lies the difference
between the man who tries and succeeds, and the man who tries and
fails. Cook had qualified himself for promotion. He was so fitted for
the higher position, that the higher position could not do without him.
Whether rocking on the Baltic, or waiting for the stokers to heave out
coal at Liverpool, every moment not occupied by seaman's duties, Cook
had filled by improving himself, by increasing his usefulness, by
sharpening his brain, so that his brain could better direct his hands,
by {180} studying mathematics and astronomy and geography and science
and navigation. As some one has said--there are lots of people with
hands and no brain; and there are lots of people with brains and no
hands; but the kind who will command the highest reward for their
services to the world are those who have the finest combination of
brains _and_ hands.

[Illustration: Captain James Cook.]

Four years after Cook had joined the navy, he was master on the
_Mercury_ with the fleet before Quebec, making a chart of the St.
Lawrence for Wolfe to take the troops up to the Heights of Abraham,
piloting the boats to the attack on Montmorency, and conducting the
embarkation of the troops, who were to win the famous battle, that
changed the face of America.

Now the Royal Society wished to send some one to the South Seas, whose
reliability was of such a recognized and steady-going sort, that his
conclusions would be accepted by the public. Just twenty years from
the time that he had left the shop, Cook was chosen for this important
mission. What manner of man was he, who i