transplanted from copy-books. They speak of "the bounding main," "the
raging billows," "seas mountains high," "the breath of the gale," "the
seething breakers," and so on; but regarding the commonplace, quiet
everyday life at sea they know nothing. Strangely enough, only Mr. Clark
Russell has attempted to give in literary form a vivid, veracious
account of sea-life, and his thrice-noble books are far too little
known, so that the strongest maritime nation in the whole world is
ignorant of vital facts concerning the men who make her prosperity. Let
any one who is well informed enter a theatre when a nautical drama is
presented; he will find the most ridiculous spectacle that the mind of
man can conceive. On one occasion, when a cat came on to the stage at
Drury Lane and ran across the heaving billows of the canvas ocean, the
audience roared with laughter; but to the judicious critic the real
cause for mirth was the behaviour of the nautical persons who figured in
the drama. The same ignorance holds everywhere. Seamen scarcely ever
think of describing their life to people on shore, and the majority of
landsmen regard a sea-voyage as a dull affair, to be begun with regret
and ended with joy. Dull! Alas, it is dull for people who have dim eyes
and commonplace minds; but for the man who has learned to gaze aright at
the Creator's works there is not a heavy minute from the time when the
dawn trembles in the gray sky until the hour when, with stars and
sea-winds in her raiment, night sinks on the sea. Dull! As well describe
the rush of the turbulent Strand or the populous splendour of Regent
Street by that word! I have always held that a man cannot be considered
as educated if he is unable to wait an hour in a railway-station for a
train without _ennui_. What is education good for if it does not give us
resources which may enable us to gather delight or instruction from
every sight and sound that may fall on our nerves? The most melancholy
spectacle in the world is presented by the stolid citizen who yawns over
his _Bradshaw_ while the swift panoramas of Charing Cross or Euston are