and to quit such method;--we may depend upon it, however
unanimous we be, every step taken in that direction will, by the
Eternal Law of things, be a step _from_ improvement, not towards it.

Not towards it, I say, if so! Unanimity of voting,--that will do
nothing for us if so. Your ship cannot double Cape Horn by its
excellent plans of voting. The ship may vote this and that,
above decks and below, in the most harmonious exquisitely
constitutional manner: the ship, to get round Cape Horn, will
find a set of conditions already voted for, and fixed with
adamantine rigor by the ancient Elemental Powers, who are
entirely careless how you vote. If you can, by voting or without
voting, ascertain these conditions, and valiantly conform to
them, you will get round the Cape: if you cannot, the ruffian
Winds will blow you ever back again; the inexorable Icebergs,
dumb privy-councillors from Chaos, will nudge you with most
chaotic "admonition;" you will be flung half frozen on the
Patagonian cliffs, or admonished into shivers by your iceberg
councillors, and sent sheer down to Davy Jones, and will never
get round Cape Horn at all! Unanimity on board ship;--yes indeed,
the ship's crew may be very unanimous, which doubtless, for the
time being, will be very comfortable to the ship's crew, and to
their Phantasm Captain if they have one: but if the tack they
unanimously steer upon is guiding them into the belly of the
Abyss, it will not profit them much!--Ships accordingly do not
use the ballot-box at all; and they reject the Phantasm species
of Captains: one wishes much some other Entities--since all
entities lie under the same rigorous set of laws--could be
brought to show as much wisdom, and sense at least of
self-preservation, the first command of Nature. Phantasm