ge do create,
As he plays frankly who has least estate.
DRYDEN.

It were all one,
That I should love a bright particular star,
And think to wed it.
SHAKESPEARE.

Seymour was soon weary of the endless noise and confusion to which he
was subjected on board of the guard-ship, and he wrote to Captain M---,
requesting that he might be permitted to join some vessel on active
service, until the period should arrive when the former would be enabled
to resume the command of his ship. The answer from his patron informed
him, that the time of his renewal of his professional duties would be
uncertain, not having hitherto derived much benefit from his return to
England; that as the _Aspasia_ was daily expected to arrive from the
mission on which she had been despatched, and would then remain on
Channel service, ready to be made over to him as soon as his health
should be re-established, he would procure an order for him to join her
as soon as she arrived. He pointed out to him that he would be more
comfortable on board a ship in which he had many old messmates and
friends than in any other, to the officers of which he would be a
perfect stranger. That, in the meantime, he had procured leave of
absence for him, and requested that he would pay him a visit at his
cottage near Richmond, to the vicinity of which place he had removed, by
the advice of his medical attendants.

Seymour gladly availed himself of this opportunity of seeing his
protector, and after a sojourn of three weeks, returned to Portsmouth,
to join the _Aspasia_, which had, for some days, been lying at Spithead.
Most of the commissioned, and many of the junior officers, who had
served in the West Indies, were still on board of her anxiously waiting
for the return of Captain M---, whose value as a commanding officer was
more appreciated for the change which had taken place. Seymour was
cordially greeted by his former shipmates, not only for his own sake,
but from the idea that his having rejoined the frigate was but a
precursor of the reappearance of Captain M--- himself.

There is, perhaps, no quality in man partaking of such variety, and so
difficult to analyse, as _courage_, whether it be physical or mental,
both of which are not only innate, but to be acquired. The former, and
the most universal, is most capriciously bestowed; sometimes, although
rarely, Nature has denied it altogether. We have, therefore, in the
latter instance, courage nil