out most by contrast, it was natural to think on the ugly reverse when
recalling the beautiful harmony and order of our regulations on board.
We were favored with most delightful weather, fresh and dry and warm;
with only one day's hard rain, during which the sea "ran mountains," as
the sailors said. I was conducted on deck, "just for one minute, that
you may be able to say you have seen such a sea," remarked the gentleman
who put a military cloak over me, and led me up the stairs. But who
could be satisfied with a momentary sight of any thing so stupendously
grand? I resisted all efforts to persuade me into retreating again, and
it ended in my being lashed to the mizenmast by my friendly conductor,
who declared that his head, the best landsman's head on board, would not
stand the giddy scene; in short, that he should be obliged to report
himself sick, and exchange our agreeable society below for the solitude
of his berth. Of course I dismissed him, and was left among the
mountains, alone, save when a sailor passed me on his duties among the
rigging, and gave me a smile of approval, while the man at the wheel
seemed to regard me as being under his especial patronage. The tars love
one who does not flinch from their own element.

Truly, I saw that day the works of the Lord and his wonders in the great
deep. Imagine yourself in a ship, large among vessels, but a mere cork
upon the waters of that mighty main. On every side, turn where you
would, a huge mountain of irregular form was rising-dark, smooth, of
unbroken surface, but seeming about to burst from over-extension. How
did you come into that strange valley? how should you get out of it? how
avoid the rush of that giant billow that even now overhangs your bark?
These questions would inevitably rush through the mind; but in a second
of time the huge body beside you sunk, you were on its summit, and
another came rolling on. Meanwhile the ship would reel, with a slow
slanting movement that gradually lowered the tall masts till the yards