mind incessantly longs for change.
We all crave to be something that we are not; we all wish to know the
facts concerning states of existence other than our own; and it is this
craving curiosity that produces every form of social and spiritual
activity. Yet, with all this restless desire, this uneasy yearning, only
a few of us are ever able to pass beyond one piteously narrow sphere,
and we rest in blank ignorance of the existence that goes on without the
bounds of our tiny domain. How many people know that by simply going on
board a ship and sailing for a couple of days they would pass
practically into another moral world, and change their mental as well as
their bodily habits? I have been moved to these reflections by observing
the vast amount of nautical literature which appears during the holiday
season, and by seeing the complete ignorance and misconception which are
palmed off upon the public. It is a fact that only a few English people
know anything about the mightiest of God's works. To them life on the
ocean is represented by a series of phrases which seem to have been
transplanted from copy-books. They speak of "the bounding main," "the
raging billows," "seas mountains high," "the breath of the gale," "the
seething breakers," and so on; but regarding the commonplace, quiet
everyday life at sea they know nothing. Strangely enough, only Mr. Clark
Russell has attempted to give in literary form a vivid, veracious
account of sea-life, and his thrice-noble books are far too little
known, so that the strongest maritime nation in the whole world is
ignorant of vital facts concerning the men who make her prosperity. Let
any one who is well informed enter a theatre when a nautical drama is
presented; he will find the most ridiculous spectacle that the mind of
man can conceive. On one occasion, when a cat came on to the stage at
Drury Lane and ran across the heaving billows of the canvas ocean, the
audience roared with laughter; but to the judicious critic the real
cause for mirth was the behaviour of the nautical persons who figured in
the drama. The same ignorance holds everywhere. Seamen scarcely ever
think of describing their life to people on shore, and the majority of
landsmen regard a sea-voyage as a dull affair, to be begun with regret
and ended with joy. Dull! Alas, it is dull for people who have dim eyes
and commonplace minds; but for the man who has learned to gaze aright at
the Creator's works there is not a h