On this page
-
Text (2)
-
Untitled Article
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
their eyes , or their mode of using eyes , to perceive this : and so very childish , so whimsically puerile their descriptions and impressions appeared to me , that I was astonished at their imbecility ; but more than alJ , at their grovelling superstition : they seemed to be in possession of no ideas ; not a glimpse of the qualities of rational creatures ; not a grain of comprehension or thought beyond the use of the
ship ' s ropes : and their contorted impression of facts—that was not a vapour oozing from the dullest ponds of hobgoblinism , for these muddy superstitions had nothing fanciful to recommend them to the ears : they had not even the merit of barrenness of imagination , or crippled invention ; they seemed like senseless jargon handed down from father to son , generation after generation , the meaning of which had been lost or forgotten ; so excessively stupid were they , but not
less firmly believed on that account : the stubborn positiveness of the men actually amazed and bewildered me . I might have uprooted the pillars of Hercules with a needle ' point , as easily as I could have removed one of their superstitions . They would not think , they could not think ; a putting two ideas together to make a result , seemed to be beyond the reach of their faculties ; these men were ship
machinery : as senseless furniture—except that they breathed , and ate , and drank , and articulated words—as the running rigging or the belaying pins . I have since been thrown among savages , barbarians , people whom these sailors would have sported with and despised as creatures far beneath them , as puppets for their amusement , or animals for their use , but I have never encountered any men who were so idealess , or knew so little of the use of moral faculties as these .
I never knew men whose speech and action exhibited so little glimmering' of intellectuality . They had been trained into breathing automata ; every thing they said was the dribbling of idiocy ; but unlike that , it forbade compassion ; a self-satisfaction dwelt with it , in rugged , gnarled , muscular forms and gruff voices ; and the only flickering of mind which they seemed to possess , was exhibited in the contempt , hard and rigid , with which they visited my disbelief , the pity or scorn which they lavished on my ignorance . Ignorant , indeed , I was ; but these were the men to be held in check by authority , these were the men to glorify the tact of a disciplinarian , these were the men to he driven by petty tyranny , and scourged by pampered insolence . Oh , these were men , the right sort , to be ruled by the 4 privileged , '—not the men to be directed by the wise , or persuaded by the generous .
But what would become of the navy , if its seamen were instructed to think , or allowed to reason ? their daring intrepidity would dwindle in calculations , their reckless bravery would evaporate in foresight and caution . ' Ah ! to this it is fast coming / sighs the reverencer of the good old times , the conservative of exclusive ri < zht to reasoning faculties— ' I knew how it would be . The nation's honour declined when
other than hoop petticoats were once admitted at court , and the wooden walls of old England were doomed to decay and disgrace when that cursed Dalilah , the march of intellect , cut off the sailors' pig-tails ; we are fast losing our empire of the ocean : —men wont fight , if ever they acquire the knack of asking whom or what for . ' Well ; now though I do look forward to the time when the trade of war will be as
Untitled Article
Autobiography of Pel . Verjuice . 693
Untitled Article
No . 82 . 3 V
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1833, page 693, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2624/page/33/
-