and robust while facing the mist and mirk, and inhaling the
smoky moisture that did service for air. Nor was his health impaired by
the long hours in the daily consulate--a grimy little room barely five
paces from end to end, with its dusty windows so hemmed in by taller
buildings that even had there been any sunshine to make the attempt, it
could never have succeeded in effecting an entrance through them. Here,
from ten in the morning until four in the afternoon, he dealt with all
varieties of scamps and mendicants, fools and desperadoes, and all the
tribe of piratical cutthroats which in those days constituted a large
part of the merchant marine. Calamity, imbecility, and rascality were
his constant companions in that dingy little den; and the gloomy and
sooty skies without but faintly pictured the moral atmosphere which
they exhaled; he entered deeply into all their affairs, projects, and
complaints, feeling their troubles, probably, at least as keenly as
they did themselves, and yet he came out of it all with clear eyes and a
sound digestion. I presume the fact may have been that he unconsciously
regarded the whole affair somewhat as we do a drama in a theatre; it
works upon our sensibilities, and yet we do not believe that it is real.
There was nothing in the experience germane to his proper life; it could
not become a part of him, and therefore its posture towards him
remained inveterately objective. The only feature of it that quickened a
responsive chord in him was the revelation of the intolerable condition
of the sailors in many of our ships, and upon these abuses he enlarged
in his communications to Washington. Improvements were made in
consequence of his remonstrances; but the American merchant service had
already begun its downward career, and it is only very lately, owing to
causes which are too novel and peculiar to be intelligently discussed
as yet, that our flag is once more promising to compete against that of
England.

It would be misleading to say, however, that my father was not
interested in his consulate work; there was a practical side in him
which took hold of the business in man-fashion, and transacted it so
efficiently as to leave no room for criticism, and nobody can produce
voluntary effects without feeling in himself a reaction from them. He had
occasion to look into the privacy of many human hearts, to pity them and
advise them, and from such services and insights he no doubt obtained a
r