he is, in other
matters, we might be better than we are in seamanship."

"I do not think religion hurts a sailor, Greenly--no, not in the least.
That is to say, when he don't wedge his masts too tight, but leaves play
enough for all weathers. There is no cant in Goodfellow."

"Not the least of it, sir, and that it is which makes him so great a
favourite. The chaplain of the Warspite is of some use; but one might as
well have a bowsprit rigged out of a cabin-window, as have our chap."

"Why, we never bury a man, Greenly, without putting him into the water
as a Christian should be," returned Sir Gervaise, with the simplicity of
a true believer of the decency school. "I hate to see a seaman tossed in
the ocean like a bag of old clothes."

"We get along with that part of the duty pretty well; but _before_ a man
is dead, the parson is of opinion that he belongs altogether to the
doctor."

"I'd bet a hundred guineas, Magrath has had some influence over him, in
this matter--give the Blenheim a wider berth, Sir Wycherly, I wish to
see how she looks aloft--he's a d----d fellow, that Magrath,"--no one
swore in Sir Gervaise's boat but himself, when the vice-admiral's flag
was flying in her bows;--"and he's just the sort of man to put such a
notion into the chaplain's head."

"Why, there, I believe you're more than half right, Sir Gervaise; I
overheard a conversation between them one dark night, when they were
propping the mizzen-mast under the break of the poop, and the surgeon
_did_ maintain a theory very like that you mention, sir."

"Ah!--he did, did he? It's just like the Scotch rogue, who wanted to
persuade me that your poor uncle, Sir Wycherly, ought not to have been
blooded, in as clear a case of apoplexy as ever was met with."

"Well, I didn't think he could have carried his impudence as far as
that," observed Greenly, whose medical knowledge was about on a par with
that of Sir Gervaise. "I didn't think even a doctor would dare to hold
such a doctrine! As for the chaplain, to him he laid down the principle
that religion and medicine never worked well together. He said religion
was an 'alterative,' and would neutralize a salt as quick as fire."

"He's a great vagabond, that Magrath, when he gets hold of a young hand,
sir; and I wish with all my heart the Pretender had him, with two or
three pounds of his favourite medicines with him--I think, between the
two, England might reap some advantage, Greenly.--Now, to my