ved according to law."

The precision with which these injunctions are attended to will depend
chiefly on three things:--The personal disposition of the captain; the
nature of the service upon which the ship is employed; and the state
of the weather. It is nearly always in the captain's power to make the
Sunday a day of rest to the people committed to his charge. Sooner or
later he is sure to reap the fruits of his conduct in this matter, and
is made to feel, that, to command the respect or to win the regard of
his crew, he must show them, on all ordinary occasions, that he is
himself under the guidance of right principles. In the same spirit,
his authority will be strengthened by every touch of consideration
with which the inevitable sternness of his rule is softened; and the
more he manages to impart to all such indulgences the character of
routine, or matters of course and constant usage, so much the better.
We feel obliged to a person who confers almost any favour upon us; but
if this favour be one of daily or weekly occurrence, and, at each time
of its concession, we are reminded of the weight of our obligation,
all kindliness is in danger of being removed from it, and we would
sometimes rather go without than hold the advantage by a tenure thus
avowedly capricious.

A captain of sense and feeling, therefore, makes it his business, in
the first place, to find out what is right and proper, consistently
with the rules of the service, and then to ascertain how far the
peculiar nature of the employment upon which the ship is engaged will
admit of indulgences. Having settled with himself what is possible to
be done with propriety, he should grant it not as a matter of personal
favour, but simply because it is fitting in itself.

It is not possible, at sea, to comply to the letter with the fourth
commandment; but we have no right on that account to dispense with its
spirit, which is at all times and in all places within every man's
reach. The absolute necessity, however, of performing some work,
appears a sufficient reason with many people for doing away with the
ordinance of Sunday altogether, and converting it into a day of hard
and irksome toil, instead of a season of at least comparative rest. On
the other hand, some officers either allow essential public interests
to be neglected which ought to be attended to, or they harass their
people by exacting more attention to religious observances than the
poor sailors ca