and received it, and now I ask aid for others, and I shall not be
denied.

_October, 1889._




_VOYAGING AT SEA_


A philosopher has described the active life of man as a continuous
effort to forget the facts of his own existence. It is vain to pin such
philosophers to a definite meaning; but I think the writer meant vaguely
to hint in a lofty way that the human mind incessantly longs for change.
We all crave to be something that we are not; we all wish to know the
facts concerning states of existence other than our own; and it is this
craving curiosity that produces every form of social and spiritual
activity. Yet, with all this restless desire, this uneasy yearning, only
a few of us are ever able to pass beyond one piteously narrow sphere,
and we rest in blank ignorance of the existence that goes on without the
bounds of our tiny domain. How many people know that by simply going on
board a ship and sailing for a couple of days they would pass
practically into another moral world, and change their mental as well as
their bodily habits? I have been moved to these reflections by observing
the vast amount of nautical literature which appears during the holiday
season, and by seeing the complete ignorance and misconception which are
palmed off upon the public. It is a fact that only a few English people
know anything about the mightiest of God's works. To them life on the
ocean is represented by a series of phrases which seem to have been