midshipman and mate, and seven years as lieutenant.




CHAPTER III.

THE NYMPHE AND CLEOPATRA.


Rich only in reputation, and with an increasing family, Captain Pellew
felt the pressure of narrow circumstances; and with the mistake so often
made by naval officers, he thought to improve them by farming. There was
a moderately large farm, Treverry, within a few miles of Falmouth, which
had descended in the family to his elder brother, and he proposed to
cultivate this upon the principle of sharing the profits. His brother,
though not very sanguine on the result, readily agreed to the
experiment; and when in no long time Captain Pellew complained that he
found it impossible to keep the accounts so as to make a fair division,
he was allowed to rent it on his own terms. It will not occasion
surprise that the undertaking was anything but profitable.

Indeed, farming is almost always a very losing employment to a
gentleman, and especially to a sailor. Nothing can be more incorrect
than the conclusion that education ought to excel, because ignorance
succeeds; for success depends upon attention to a multiplicity of petty
details, which inexperience will be likely to overlook, and talent may
find it irksome to attend to. If the small farmer, who cultivates his
little ground by the labour of his own family, and the more considerable
one, who devotes to his estate skill, capital, and undivided attention,