the impressions of those who
occupy their business in the great waters! These men "see the works of
the Lord, and his wonders in the deep." They behold him in all his
magnificence, in all his beauty, in all his wrath, in all his vastness,
in all his variety. Unassisted by theory, they practically feel that
God is great, and their worship, although dumb, is sincere.

I am aware that it is the idea of many that sailors have little or no
religion: and their dissolute conduct, when thrown on shore, is
certainly a strong argument in support of this opinion; but they must
not be so partially judged. Those who are constantly mixed with the
world, and exposed to its allurements, are subject to a continual
struggle against their passions, which they are more enabled to
restrain, as temptation so rapidly succeeds temptation that one destroys
the other--effacing it from their recollection before they have had time
to mature their embryo guilt. But in our floating monasteries, where
rigid discipline and active duties allow only the thoughts to ramble to
that society which never has been intended to be abandoned, the passions
are naturally impelled towards that world, whose temptations are so much
increased by long and unnatural seclusion.

In the mountain lake, whose waters are daily increasing, all is
unruffled till their own weight has forced its boundaries, and the
roaring cataract sweeps everything before it. Such is the licentious
and impetuous behaviour of the sailor on shore. But on board he is a
different being, and appears as if he were without sin and without
guile. Let those, then, who turn away at his occasional intemperance,
be careful how they judge. They may "thank God that they are not as
that publican," and yet be less justified, when weighed in that balance,
where, although Justice eyes the beam, Mercy is permitted to stand by,
and throw into the scale her thousand little grains to counter-poise the
mass of guilt.

Religion in a sailor (I mean by the term, a common seaman) is more of an
active than a passive feeling. It does not consist in reflection or
self-examination. It is in externals that his respect to the Deity is
manifest. Witness the Sunday on board of a man-of-war. The care with
which the decks are washed, the hauling taut, and neat coiling down of
the ropes, the studied cleanliness of person, most of which duties are
performed on other days, but on this day are executed with an extra
pr