ith all these bristling points of sarcasm, dispraise, and bitterness, be
about as pleasant in social life as a porcupine? Surely this powerful
literary lever could be plied to raise heavier stones, and to settle them
in goodly order. Let others grub in the rubbish; but the leading organ
of the week could sound with a grander harmony, more pleasant, and not
less piquant if it gave rhythm to the mind of England in a forward march
against misery.

Perhaps to write thus is too daring; for while Saturn masticates his own
offspring it is a bold child that complains to his face; but it is better
to be called rash than to be proved timid.

Meantime we are nearing Cowes in our sail from Portsmouth, and must mind
the rocks and beacons rather than soliloquies, for this one question may
be put after all:--Is it right to moralize at all in a log-book? and will
not the reader say, that when there is not a storm in the yawl, or a
swamp, there is sure to come a sermon?

CHAPTER XVII.

Continental sailors--Mal de mer--Steam-launches--Punt chase--The
ladies--Fireworks--Catastrophe--Impudence--Drifting yachts--Tool
chest--Spectre ship--Where am I?--Canoe _v_. yawl--Selfish--Risk and
toil--Ridicule.

The regatta days opened with wind and rain; but even at the best of
times, the sight of a sailing match from on shore is like that of a stag
hunt from on foot,--very pretty at the start, and then very little more
to see. It is different if you sail about among the competing yachts.
Then you feel the same tide and wind, and see the same marks and buoys,
and dread the same shoals and rocks as they do, and at every turn of
every vessel you have something to learn.

No one can satisfactorily distribute the verdict "victor" or "vanquished"
in a sailing-match between the designer, the builder, the rigger, and the
course, the weather, the rules, the sailor of each craft, and chance;
though each of these will conduce in part to the success or failure in
every match. Still there is this advantage, that the loser can always
blame, and the winner can always praise, which of these elements he finds
most convenient. But if a sailing-match has little in it quite
intelligible, even when you see it, the account of a past regatta is well
worth keeping out of print--so be it then with this one, the best held at
Cowes for many years.

The large crowds that attended, and their obstinate standing in heavy
rain, were in marked contrast to the p