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Untitled Article
T » I ' ; ' ' ' . ' t t ; . i they have written that which is untrue : I have react nothing in thd nautical novels of the age which is ndt ackmwledged by my owA experience as probability , but they have avoided truths and pictures which mi ght be disagreeable or unpalatable . For its perceptible purposes , such writing is oftentimes as admirable for its
vigorous eloquence as for its closeness to reality ., and while it is devoured with avidity it creates a craving for more . The productions of Captains Marryat , Glascock , and Chaumier , and the glorious Tom Cringle ( who is he ? I have occasional glimpses af a fancy that he and I have been shipmates ) , are not only choice in the vigorous elements of literary composition , and most heartstirring and fascinating in detail , but to nautical aspirants they
contain many invaluable lessons of seamanship . Cooper , too , is as magnificent as either of these , at times ; only he seems never to be content with ordinary , no , nor with extraordinary peril : he has an eternal penchant for suspending all his heroes and heroines by a frayed rope-yarn , and swinging them over the edge of a
yawning and bottomless gulf . Indeed , in all these writers , extreme perils have been too much made the events , and eccentricities the costume of the drama . None of them has given a philosophically concluded picture ; therefore I venture to say that ( as fisur as my limited reading goes ) the descriptions of the habits , characters , and condition of common sailors have so far failed , that
the inference drawn from perusal of their writings is an erroneous one . Indeed it seems no attempt was made to give these things with the sternness of truth . There is none of Crabbe ' s soulthrilliag and chilling rigidity in their delineations , though as ample space and occasion for it exists in the sailor ' s reality as ever Crabbe found in the pauper ' s hut . They were officers that spoke and wrote , and it is not unlikely , nor is it ungenerous to say
so , that an interfering esprit cle corjis allured them away from the statements which might have enabled the readers , and through tlu ^ ua society at large , to arrive at a just conclusion on these (matters . Generally speaking , the authors have abandoned the clap-trap trumpery about the generous and honest English tars / knowing " , as they must do , there is as great a predominance of
selfiahnegs and cunning among them as ignorance can well engender . None of us like to have our pleasant dreams broken by reality , reader ; but reality will tell you that the Knglish sailor possesses aa keen a sense of the sanctity of his mine , ( except on the matter of hfa brains ) , as does the most thriving class in the kingdom , whether on sea or land . Thine , to bo sure , is another affair with
ooth ; the only difference is , Jack ' s mode of damaging think is less conventional , hypocritical , and writ-fearing than theirs may sometimes be ; he has fewer shift ings , shufflings , and doublings , 'With all his ignorant cunning to hel p him therein . Of recklessness and extravagance , of wild and of ctool daring , I am not disposed to deny the English sailor abundant provision and possession j and I deem it quite probable that he will retain the last
Untitled Article
' l 4 ltf Autobiography qf &e l . Verjuices
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), June 2, 1835, page 416, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2646/page/52/
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