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- of fruits and wines and marbles; they carry missionaries, embassadors,
opera-singers, armies, merchants, tourists, and scholars to their
destination: they are a bridge of boats across the Atlantic; they are
the _primum mobile_ of all commerce; and, in short, were they to
emigrate in a body to man the navies of the moon, almost every thing
would stop here on earth except its revolution on its axis, and the
orators in the American Congress.
And yet, what are sailors? What in your heart do you think of that
fellow staggering along the dock? Do you not give him a wide berth,
shun him, and account him but little above the brutes that perish? Will
you throw open your parlors to him; invite him to dinner? or give him a
season ticket to your pew in church?—No. You will do no such thing; but
at a distance, you will perhaps subscribe a dollar or two for the
building of a hospital, to accommodate sailors already broken down; or
for the distribution of excellent books among tars who can not read.
And the very mode and manner in which such charities are made, bespeak,
more than words, the low estimation in which sailors are held. It is
useless to gainsay it; they are deemed almost the refuse and
offscourings of the earth; and the romantic view of them is principally
had through romances.
But can sailors, one of the wheels of this world, be wholly lifted up
from the mire? There seems not much chance for it, in the old systems
and programmes of the future, however well-intentioned and sincere; for
with such systems, the thought of lifting them up seems almost as
hopeless as that of growing the grape in Nova Zembla.
But we must not altogether despair for the sailor; nor need those who
toil for his good be at bottom disheartened, or Time must prove his
friend in the end; and though sometimes he would almost seem as a
neglected step-son of heaven, permitted to run on and riot out his days
with no hand to restrain him, while others are watched over and
tenderly cared for; yet we feel and we know that God is the true Father
of all, and that none of his children are without the pale of his care.
CHAPTER XXX.
REDBURN GROWS INTOLERABLY FLAT AND STUPID OVER SOME OUTLANDISH OLD
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