CHAPTER VII.

A GENTLEMAN AT LARGE.

It is not my intention to record any of the ordinary
incidents of a sea voyage: the subject is too hackneyed
and too trite; and besides, when the topic is seasickness,
it is infectious and the description nauseates. _Hominem
pagina nostra sapit_. The proper study of mankind is man;
human nature is what I delight in contemplating; I love
to trace out and delineate the springs of human action.

Mr. Slick and Mr. Hopewell are both studies. The former
is a perfect master of certain chords; He has practised
upon them, not for philosophical, but for mercenary
purposes. He knows the depth, and strength, and tone of
vanity, curiosity, pride, envy, avarice, superstition,
nationality, and local and general prejudice. He has
learned the effect of these, not because they contribute
to make him wiser, but because they make him richer; not
to enable him to regulate his conduct in life, but to
promote and secure the increase of his trade.

Mr. Hopewell, on the contrary, has studied the human
heart as a philanthropist, as a man whose business it
was to minister to it, to cultivate and improve it. His
views are more sound and more comprehensive than those
of the other's, and his objects are more noble. They are
both extraordinary men.