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 this passion, even in its excess, our ships would be receptacles of abomination and horror. — The sexes are the elements of the world; there is male and female in every tree and plant down to the grass we tread upon; and you might as well complain, that their farinas mixed with one another in the upland country, as condemn the transient amours of our seamen upon the shore. I respect as much as any man the sanctities of marriage, and acknowledge its usefulness in the social world; but you must not think of contending too roughly with the ancient characteristics of mankind. — You may scour an old coin to make it legible; but if you go on scouring, it will be no coin at all."

"I could only say in reply to all this, that I was the last man in the world to object to the admiration of women, and that what he had said of its usefulness to the inhabitants of ships was quite unanswerable; but that no human beings could go beyond our English sailors, who nevertheless were most sedate and considerate,