made him a 'watch and watch' critter. As for the
twilight of which so much was said, it was worse than nothin', being
neither one thing nor the other. For his part, he liked things 'made out
of whole cloth.' Then he had sent the ship round to a distant roadstead,
in order that there might be no more post-captains and rear-admirals
among the people; and here had he been as much as four days on nothing
but nuts. Nuts might do for the philosophy of a monkey, but he found,
on trial, that it played the devil with the philosophy of a man. Things
were bad enough as they were. He pined for a little pork--he cared
not who knew it; it might not be very sentimental, he knew, but it was
capital sea-food; his natur' was pretty much pork; he believed most men
had, in some way or other, more or less pork in their human natur's;
nuts might do for monikin natur', but human natur' loved meat; if
monikins did not like it, monikins need not eat it; there would be
so much the more for those who did like it--he pined for his natural
aliment, and as for living nine years in an eclipse, it was quite out
of the question. The longest Stunnin'tun eclipses seldom went over three
hours--he once knew Deacon Spiteful pray quite through one, from apogee
to perigee. He therefore proposed that Sir John and he should resign
their seats without delay, and that they should try to get the Walrus
to the north'ard as quick as possible, lest they should be caught in the
polar night. As for the Hon. Robert Smut, he wished him no better luck
than to remain where he was all his life, and to receive his eight
dollars a day in acorns."

Although it was impossible not to hear, and, having heard, not to
record the sentiments of Noah, still my attention was much more strongly
attracted by the demeanor of the brigadier, than by the jeremiad of the
sealer. To an anxious inquiry if he were not well, our worthy colleague
answered plaintively, that he mourned over the misfortune of his
country.

"I have often witnessed the passage of the passions, and of the minor
motives, across the disc of the great moral postulate, Principle; but
an occultation of its light by a pecuniary Interest, and for so long a
period, is fearful! Heaven only knows what will become of us!"

"Are not these eclipses, after all, so many mere illustrations of the
social-stake system? I confess this occultation, of which you seem to
have so much dread, is not so formidable a thing, on reflection, as i