ntirely forgotten
themselves as if they had taken a large draught of the river of Lethe.

Nor is the captain always sure of even finding out the place to which
Circe hath conveyed them. There are many of those houses in every
port-town. Nay, there are some where the sorceress doth not trust only
to her drugs; but hath instruments of a different kind to execute
her purposes, by whose means the tar is effectually secreted from the
knowledge and pursuit of his captain. This would, indeed, be very fatal,
was it not for one circumstance; that the sailor is seldom provided
with the proper bait for these harpies. However, the contrary sometimes
happens, as these harpies will bite at almost anything, and will snap at
a pair of silver buttons, or buckles, as surely as at the specie itself.
Nay, sometimes they are so voracious, that the very naked hook will go
down, and the jolly young sailor is sacrificed for his own sake.

In vain, at such a season as this, would the vows of a pious heathen
have prevailed over Neptune, Aeolus, or any other marine deity. In
vain would the prayers of a Christian captain be attended with the
like success. The wind may change how it pleases while all hands are on
shore; the anchor would remain firm in the ground, and the ship would
continue in durance, unless, like other forcible prison-breakers, it
forcibly got loose for no good purpose. Now, as the favor of winds and
courts, and such like, is always to be laid hold on at the very first
motion, for within twenty-four hours all may be changed again; so, in
the former case, the loss of a day may be the loss of a voyage: for,
though it may appear to persons not well skilled in navigation, who see
ships meet and sail by each other, that the wind blows sometimes east
and west, north and south, backwards and forwards, at the same instant;
yet, certain it is that the land is so contrived, that even the same
wind will not, like the same horse, always bring a man to the end of
his journey; but, that the gale which the mariner prayed heartily for
yesterday, he may as heartily deprecate to-morrow; while all use
and benefit which would have arisen to him from the westerly wind of
to-morrow may be totally lost and thrown away by neglecting the offer of
the easterly blast which blows to-day.

Hence ensues grief and disreputation to the innocent captain, loss and
disappointment to the worthy merchant, and not seldom great prejudice to
the trade of a nation who