wind and waves rendered necessary, and with great solemnity and without the least disturbance of temper, called out in reply: "I feel confident that I can bring you in safe; I therefore must not, and by the help of Almighty God! I will not leave you.' What he pro

mised he performed; and after they were safely anchored, Nelson came on board of Ball's Ship, and embracing him with all the ardour of acknowledgement, exclaimed-a Friend in need is a Friend indeed! At this time and on this occasion commenced that firm and perfect friendship between these two great Men, which was interrupted only by the death of the former. The pleasing task of dwelling on this mutual attachment I defer to that part of the present sketch which will relate to Sir Alexander Ball's opinions of men and things. It will be sufficient for the present to say, that the two Men, whom Lord Nelson especially honoured, were Sir Thomas Troubridge and Sir Alexander Ball; and once, when they were both present, on some allusion made to the loss of his Arm, he replied: "Who shall dare tell me, that I want an Arm, when I have three right arms-this (putting forward his own) and Ball and Troubridge.'

"

In the Plan of the Battle of the Nile it was Lord Nelson's design, that Captains Troubridge and Ball should have led up the attack. The former was stranded: and the latter by accident of the wind, could not bring his Ship into the line of battle till some time after the engagement had become general.. With his characteristic forecast and activity of (what may not improperly be called) practical imagination, he had made arrangements to meet every probable contingency. All the shrouds and sails of the Ship, not absolutely necessary for it's immediate management, were thoroughly wetted and so rolled up, that they were as hard and as little inflamable as so many solid cylinders of wood; every Sailor had his appropriate place and function, and a certain number were appointed as the firemen, whose sole duty it was to be on the watch if any part of the Vessel should take fire: and to these men exclusively the charge of extinguishing it was committed. It was already dark when he brought his Ship into action, and laid her alongside the l'Orient. One particular only I shall add to the known account of the memorable engagement between these Ships, and this I received from Sir Alexander Ball himself. He had previously made a combustible preparation, but which, from the nature of the engagement to be expected, he had pur

posed to reserve for the last emergency. But just at the time when from several symptoms he had every reason to believe, that the Enemy would soon strike to him, one of the Lieutenants, without his knowledge, threw in the combustible matter: and this it was that occasioned the tremendous explosion of that Vessel, which with the deep silence and interruption of the Engagement which succeeded to it, has been justly deemed the sublimest war incident recorded in History. Yet the incident which followed, and which has not, I believe, been publicly made known, is scarcely less impressive, though it's sublimity is of a different character. At the renewal of the battle Captain Ball, though his Ship was then on fire in three different parts, laid her along side a French eightyfour and a second longer obstinate contest began. The firing on the part of the French Ship having at length for some time slackened, and then altogether ceased, and yet no sign given of surrender, the senior Lieutenant came to Captain Ball and informed him that the hearts of his Men were as good as ever, but that they were so completely exhausted, that they were scarcely capable of lifting an arm. He asked therefore, whether, as the Enemy had now ceased firing, the Men might be permitted to lie down by their Guns for a short time. After some reflection, Sir Alexander acceded to the proposal, taking of course the proper precautions to ronze them again at the moment he thought requisite. Accordingly, with the exception of himself, his Officers, and the appointed Watch, the Ship's Crew lay down, each in the place to which he was stationed, and slept for twenty minutes. They were then rouzed; and started up, as Sir Alexander expressed it, more like men out of an Ambush than from sleep, so co-instantaneously did they all obey the summons! They recommenced their fire, and in a few minutes the Enemy sur rendered: and it was soon after discovered, that during that interval, and almost immediately after the French Ship had first ceased firing, the Crew had sunk down by their Guns, and there siept, almost by the side, as it were, of their sleeping Enemy.

.

Whatever other incidents, I propose to mention relating to Sir Alexander Ball as a naval Commander, will either appear among the proofs and illustrations with which I shall accompany the analysis of his Character; or will be better related under the head of MALTA, as appertaining to the conquest of that Island, and forming a part of those services which secured for himself the devout and filial

attachment of the Maltese. The conduct of Sir Alexander Ball in relation to Malta, will be the subject, therefore, of the next Number.

NOTE in explanation of the assertion in No. 9, that all men possess REASON in the same degree.

Every Man must feel, that though he may not be exerting different faculties, he is exerting his faculties in a different way, when in one instance he begins with some one self-evident truth, (that the radii of a circle, for instance, are all equal), and in consequence of this being true, sees at once, without any actual experience, that some other thing must be true likewise, and that this being true, some third thing must be equally true, and so on till he comes, we will say, to the properties of the Lever, considered as the spoke of a circle; which is capable of having all it's marvellous powers demonstrated even to a Savage who had never seen a Lever, and without supposing any other previous knowledge in his mind, but this one, that there is a conceivable figure, all possible lines from the middle to the circumference of which are of the same length or when, in the second instance, he brings together the facts of experience, each of which has it's own separate value, neither encreased nor diminished by the truth of any other fact which may have preceded it; and making these several facts bear upon some particular project, and finding some in favour of it, and some against it, determines for or against the project, according as one or the other class of facts preponderate: as, for instance, whether it would be better to plant a particular spot of ground with Larch, or with Scotch Fir, or with Oak in preference to either. Surely every Man will acknowledge, that his mind was very differently employed in the first case from what it was in the second; and all men have agreed to call the results of the first class the truths of science, such as not only are true, but which it is impossible to conceive otherwise while the results of the second class are called facts, or things of experience: and as to these latter we must often content ourselves with the greater probability, that they are so, or so, rather than otherwise-nay, even when we have no doubt that they are so in the particular case, we never presume to assert that they must continue so always, and under all circumstances. On the contrary, our conclusions depend altogether on contingent circumstances. Now when the mind is employed, as in the case first-mentioned, I call it Reason, or more defi

nitely, the pure Reason; but, in the second case, the Understanding or Prudence.

This Reason applied to the motives of our conduct, and combined with the sense of our moral responsibility, is called the Conscience and as the Reason consists wholly in a man's power of seeing, whether any two ideas, which happen to be in his mind, are, or are not in contradiction with each other, it follows of necessity, not only that all men have Reason, but that every man has it in the same degree. For Reason does not consist in the Ideas, or in their clearness, but simply, when they are in the mind, in seeing whether they contradict each other or no.

And again as in the determinations of Conscience, the only knowledge required is that of my own intentionwhether in doing such a thing, instead of leaving it undone, I did what I should think right if any other Person had done it; it follows that in the mere question of guilt or innocence, all men have not only Reason equally, but likewise all the materials on which the Reason, considered as Conscience, is to work. But when we pass out of ourselves, and speak, not exclusively of the agent as meaning well or ill, but of the action in it's consequences, then of course experience is required, judgment in making use of it, and all those other qualities of the mind which are so differently dispensed to different persons, both by (nature and education) and though the reason itself is the same in all men, yet the means of exercising it, and the materials (i. e the facts and ideas) on which it is exercised, being possessed in very different degrees by different persons, the practical Result is, of course, equally different and the whole ground work of Rousseau's Philosophy ends in a mere Nothingism.--Evenin that branch of Knowledge, in which the ideas, on the congruity of which with each other, the Reason is to decide, are all possessed alike by all men, namely, in Geometry, (for all men in their senses possess all the component images, viz. simple curves and straight lines) yet the power of attention required for the perception of linked Truths, even of such Truths, is so very different in A and in B that Sir Isaac Newton professed that it was in this power only that he was superior to ordinary men. In short, the sophism is as gross as if I should say-The Souls of all men have the faculty of Sight in an equal degree-forgetting to add, that this faculty cannot be exercised without eyes, and that some men are blind and others shortsighted, &c.-and should then take advantage of this omission to conclude against the use or necessity of

spectacles, miscroscopes, &c. or chusing the sharpestsighted men for our Guides.

Having exposed the gross sophism, I must warn against an opposite error-namely, that if Reason, as distinguished from Prudence, consists merely in knowing that Black cannot be White-or when a man has a clear conception of an inclosed figure, and another equally clear conception of a straight line, his Reason teaches him that these two conceptions are incompatible in the same object, i. e. that two straight lines cannot include a space — — the said Reason must be a very insignificant faculty. But a moment's steady self-reflection will shew us, that in the simple determination "Black is not White"-or, "that two straight Lines cannot include aspace"-all the powers are implied, that distinguish Man from Animals-first, the power of reflection-2d. of comparison 3d. and therefore of suspension of the mind-4th. ergo of a controlling Will, and the power of acting from Notions, instead of mere Images exciting appetites, from Motives, not mere dark instincts.-Was it an insignificant thing to weigh the Planets, and determine all their courses, and prophecy every possible relation of the Heavens a thousand years hence? Yet all this mighty Pile of Science is nothing but a linking together of the truths of the same kind as, the whole is greater than it's part :— or, if A and B = C, then A Bor 347, therefore 7+ 5 12, and so forth. X is to be found either in A or B or C or D: It is not found in A, B, or C,-therefore it is to be found in D.-What can be simpler? Apply this to an animal-a Dog misses his master where four roads meet-he has come up one, smells to two of the others, and then with his head aloft darts forward to the third road without any examination.—If this was done by a conclusion, the Dog would have Reason-how comes he then never to shew it in his ordinary habits? Why does this story excite either wonder or incredulity?-If the Story be a fact, and not a fiction, I should say-the Breeze brought his Master's scent down the 4th Road, to the Dog's nose, and that therefore he did not put it down to the Road, as in the two former instances. So aweful and almost miraculous does the simple act of concluding, that take 3 from 4, there remains one, appear to us when attributed to the most sagacious of all animals.

This is the whole that is necessary to be understood in order to find no difficulty in comprehending the reasoning of Nos. 7, 8, 9, and 10, of The Friend.