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Untitled Article
it as an ornament to the hand ; there is the loadstone of ladies * hearts . It is in vain that you will look even in the most skilfull y manned merchant vessels for any thing which can glimpse & conception of a ship of war making sail from her anchorage . In a merchantman , the sails are spread and set stragglingly and partially ; portions tumble down , flap about , and slowly , creepingly spread at intervals , and from the several points ; but with the
words I above quoted ., the instant flashing effect is magical and magnificent : the minute-ago-naked masts , beams , and yards , the whole of the uptowering scaffolding and beautiful skeleton , is clothed in fifteen thousand feet of graceful drapery , so perfectly fitted , and so admirably put on : then out it swells and curves in the wind : it is beauty itself . Not a word is spoken till belay ! '
then the rumbling of four or five hundred stamping feet : the rattling of blocks and pulleys , the whirring of ropes , and thg grinding of the massive beams which are by these adjusted in their required positions , are all at once stopped . Still the immense and splendidly compact machine lies motionless : the anchor has not yet quitted its mighty grip of the solid ground ,
ten fathoms beneath the surface of that glassy field on which she sits , but ready for her start . ' Ship the capstern bars , ' a few more turns and the anchor is away ; ' Man the cat and fish / ( odd things there are in a ship , reader , but I cannot stop to exj ^ lain , ) the proud and gorgeous mass of machinery , slowly
gathering progress , glides round into her destined track . Track there is no track . She is the engineer of her own road and digs it up as she advances , and it closes up behind , leaving no line to denote the course of her journey . She is a huge sea dragon , swimming along with her enormous wings thrown upwards to the
air , while her copper belly curls up the hissing and boiling foam of the sea , and dashes the clipping waves from her ponderous bulk , as if in derision of their familiar touch . Sulphurous lightning , and thunder , and destruction , are engirdled within her
many strong and massive ribs , ready to be spit forth at once from her fifty gaping mouths . Yet is she so beautiful ; and she glides along with . so much grace , that her every motion might seem the dignity of joy . Who could have thought she was an ocean monster , destined to seek victims and devour them ! Circumstances more and more impressed me with ideas of the grandeur of this ship and- her genteel manners on the water . 'Faith , the
sea was her drawing-room ; she was the lordly—lady mistress of the ceremonies there , and carefully exacted the forms of respect from all comers and goers ; though she assumed the privilege of occasionall y neglecting a little of her politeness , which she could act so pivttily when the guest was of rank or station . She was authoritative and dictatorial in her demeanour at times . An humble equipage and unfashionable dress , which spoke the plebeian , transformed her tones and graces of courtesy into hauteur
Untitled Article
Autobiography of Pel . Verjuice . 2 JJ
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Jan. 2, 1834, page 23, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2629/page/23/
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