de in the affairs of men, has very naturally become
a figure of frequent and almost hackneyed use in the cockpits,
gun-rooms, and even the captains' cabins of our ships and vessels of
war. Like its numerous brethren of common-places, it will be found,
perhaps, but of small application to the real business of life; though
it answers capitally to wind up a regular grumble at the unexpected
success of some junior messmate possessed of higher interest or
abilities, and helps to contrast the growler's own hard fate with the
good luck of those about him. Still, the metaphor may have its
grateful use; for certainly in the Navy, and I suppose elsewhere,
there is a period in the early stages of every man's professional life
at which it is necessary that he should, more or less decidedly, "take
his line," in order best to profit by the tide when the flood begins
to make. It is difficult to say exactly at what stage of a young
officer's career the determination to adopt any one of the numerous
lines before him should be taken: but there can be little doubt as to
the utility of that determination being made early in life. In most
cases, it is clearly beyond the reach of artificial systems of
discipline, to place, on a pair of young shoulders, the reflecting
head-piece of age and experience; neither, perhaps, would such an
incongruity be desirable. But it seems quite within the compass of a
conscientious and diligent commanding officer's power by every means
to cultivate the taste, and strengthen the principles and the
understanding of the persons committed to his charge. His endeavour
should be, to train their thoughts in such a manner that, when the
time for independent reflection and action arrives, their judgment and
feelings may be ready to carry them forward in the right path; to
teach them the habit, for instance, of discovering that, in practice,
there is a positive, and generally a speedy pleasure and reward
attendant on almost every exercise of self-denial. When that point is
once firmly established in the minds of young men, it becomes less
difficult to persuade them to relinquish whatever is merely agreeable
at the moment, if it stand in the way of the sterner claims of duty.

Although the period must vary a good deal, I should be disposed to
say, that, in general, a year or two after an officer is promoted to
the rank of lieutenant, may be about the time when he ought fairly and
finally to brace himself up to follow a p