eft the crowd, taking the direction of my door again, pondering on
this singular state of society, in which a peculiarity that had been
deliberately and publicly adopted, should give rise to a sensitiveness
of a character so unusual. I very well knew that men are commonly more
ashamed of natural imperfections than those which, in a great measure,
depend on themselves; but then men are, in their own estimation at
least, placed by nature at the head of creation, and in that capacity
it is reasonable to suppose they will be jealous of their natural
privileges. The present case was rather Leaplow than generic; and I
could only account for it, by supposing that nature had placed certain
nerves in the wrong part of the Leaplow anatomy.

On entering the house, a strong smell of roasted meat saluted my
nostrils, causing a very unphilosophical pleasure to the olfactory
nerves, a pleasure which acted very directly, too, on the gastric juices
of the stomach. In plain English, I had very sensible evidence that it
was not enough to transport a man to the monikin region, send him to
parliament, and keep him on nuts for a week, to render him exclusively
ethereal, I found it was vain "to kick against the pricks." The odor of
roasted meat was stronger than all the facts just named, and I was
fain to abandon philosophy, and surrender to the belly. I descended
incontinently to the kitchen, guided by a sense no more spiritual than
that which directs the hound in the chase.

On opening the door of our refectory, such a delicious perfume greeted
the nose, that I melted like a romantic girl at the murmur of a
waterfall, and, losing sight of all the sublime truths so lately
acquired, I was guilty of the particular human weakness which is usually
described as having the "mouth water."

The sealer had quite taken leave of his monikin forbearance, and was
enjoying himself in a peculiarly human manner. A dish of roasted meat
was lying before him, and his eyes fairly glared as he turned them from
me to the viand, in a way to render it a little doubtful whether I was
a welcome visitor. But that honest old principle of seamen which never
refuses to share equally with an ancient mess-mate, got the better even
of his voracity.

"Sit down, Sir John," the captain cried, without ceasing to masticate,
"and make no bones of it. To own the fact, the latter are almost as good
as the flesh. I never tasted a sweeter morsel!"

I did not wait for a second in