| | 1 | Author: | Cooper
James Fenimore
1789-1851 | Add | | | Title: | Ned Myers, or, A life before the mast  | | | | Published: | 1997 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Modern English collection | UVA-LIB-Text | University of Virginia Library, Early American Fiction, 1789-1875 | UVA-LIB-EarlyAmFict1789-1875 | | | | Description: | In consenting to lay before the world the experience of a
common seaman, and, I may add, of one who has been such
a sinner as the calling is only too apt to produce, I trust
that no feeling of vanity has had an undue influence. I
love the seas; and it is a pleasure to me to converse about
them, and of the scenes I have witnessed, and of the hardships
I have undergone on their bosom, in various parts of
the world. Meeting with an old shipmate who is disposed
to put into proper form the facts which I can give him, and
believing that my narrative may be useful to some of those
who follow the same pursuit as that in which I have been so
long engaged, I see no evil in the course I am now taking,
while I humbly trust it may be the means of effecting some
little good. God grant that the pictures I shall feel bound
to draw of my own past degradation and failings, contrasted
as they must be with my present contentment and hopes, may
induce some one, at least, of my readers to abandon the excesses
so common among seamen, and to turn their eyes in
the direction of those great truths which are so powerful to
reform, and so convincing when regarded with humility, and
with a just understanding of our own weaknesses. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
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