s, but
still there has been loss as well; and to sentiment, ranging over the
past, the loss stands more conspicuous. "Memory reveals every rose,
but secreteth its thorn."

This is the more apparent when the change has been sudden, or on such
a scale as to overwhelm, by mere bulk, that subtle influence for which
we owe to the French the name of _esprit de corps_. It is the breath
of the body, the breath of life. Before the War of Secession our old
friends the marines had a deserved reputation for fidelity, which
could not survive the big introduction of alien matter into the
"corps." I remember hearing an officer of long service say that he
had known but a single instance of a marine deserting; and as to the
general fact there was no dissent among the by-standers. The same
could scarcely be said now, nor of seamen then. The sentiment of
particular faithfulness had been nurtured in the British marines under
times and conditions which made them at a critical moment the saviors
of discipline, and thereby the saviors of the state. It is needless to
philosophize the strength of such a tradition, so established, nor its
effect on each member of the body; and from thence, not improbably, it
was transmitted to our younger navy. Whencever coming, there it was.
One marine private, in the ship to which I belonged, returning from
liberty on shore, was heard saying to another with drunken
impressiveness, "Remember, our motto is, 'Patriotism and laziness.'"
Of course, this went round the ship, greatly delighting on both counts
our marine officers, and became embodied in the chaff that passed to
and fro between the two corps; of which one saying, "The two most
useless things in a ship were the captain of marines and the
mizzen-royal," deserves for its drollery to be committed to writing,
now that mizzen-royals have ceased to be. May it be long before the
like extinction awaits the captains of marines! Our own, however, an
eccentric man, who had accomplished the then rare feat of working his
way up from the ranks, used to claim that marines were an absurdity.
"It is having one army to keep another army in order," he would say.
This was once true, and might with equal truth be said of a city
police force--one set of citizens to keep the other citizens orderly.
In the olden time it had been the application of the sound
statesmanship dogma, "_Divide et impera_." For this, in the navy,
happily, the need no longer exists; but I can see no r