 | The two admirals |  |
PREFACE.
Among all the sea-tales that the last twenty years
have produced, we know of none in which the evolutions
of fleets have formed any material feature. The
world has many admirably drawn scenes, in which
pictures of the manœuvres of single ships, and exquisite
touches of nautical character, have abounded; but
every writer of romance appears to have carefully
abstained from dealing with the profession on a large
scale. We have refrained ourselves from attempting
such a subject, partly from a certain consciousness of
incompetency; but more, perhaps, from a desire, in
writing of ships, to write as much as possible under
that flag to which we have been accustomed, and to
which we properly belong. We would openly and
loudly condemn the maudlin patriotism that is sensitive
about the honour of cats and dogs; that fancies
it nationality to extol inferior things, merely because
they happen to be our own; that sets up the extravagant
doctrine — one so new in the annals of literature
as to find its only apology in the poor explanation of
a miserable provincialism — that vice, folly, vulgarity
and ignorance should not be rebuked because they
happen to be American vice, folly, vulgarity and ignorance
rebuked by all American pens; and which reverses the
liberality of Domitian, who tolerated even Juvenal,
while he confined himself to satire on the public at
large, and banished him from Rome, when he descended
to private calumny. The idea, too, that works
of fiction must be written solely in reference to the
country of one's birth, is another provincial prejudice,
that could not exist in a nation of confirmed character
and enlarged views; for which we entertain as little
reverence, as for the indiscriminate property-commendation
just mentioned; but, our own feelings may fairly
be adduced as a motive for doing that which, after all,
must more or less depend on a writer's personal inclinations.
We had a wish to attempt these pictures, and
the disposition is a tolerably safe guide in matters of
the imagination.
Nevertheless, the American who would fain write
about fleets, must be content to desert the flag. An
American fleet never yet assembled. The republic
possesses the materials for collecting such a phenomenon,
but has ever seemed to be wanting in the will.
A strange and dangerous reluctance to create even the
military rank that is indispensable to the exercise of a
due authority over such a force, has existed in the
councils of the state; and had the name of this work
been “The One Admiral,” instead of “The Two Admirals,”
we should have been driven abroad in quest
apparently expect men will perform miracles without
the inducements which usually influence human beings
to perform any thing. How long such a policy can
safely be adhered to, remains to be demonstrated.
While we assert our own independence, however,
by claiming a right to select such scenes for our tales
as may best meet our own impulses, we are ready
enough to admit that, in this instance, we should
gladly have selected the national flag to sail under,
had the thing come within even the limits of fictitious
probabilities. If not actually “native and to
the manner born,” we are certainly, in this particular,
“to the manner bred,” and confess our decided
preference to the stars and stripes (tasteless as may
be the emblems to the instructed eye) over the broad
white field and George's cross of the noble English
ensign; — the spotless banner of France, as it existed
at the period of our tale, or that most beautiful of all
the ensigns that wave at the gaff-end, the tri-color of
our own time. Whenever the national councils shall
give us admirals and fleets to write about, it will be
our delight to aid, in our own humble way, in attempting
to illustrate their deeds. Still, the colonists may
claim an interest in all the renown of England which
was earned previously to 1775; and we leave their
descendants to dispute with the present possessors of
the mother country, what portion of the fame earned
share of each. By applying to our domestic publishers,
Lea & Blanchard of Philadelphia, the American
can obtain all the evidence we possess on the
subject; and, for the convenience of the English, Mr.
Richard Bentley, of New Burlington street, London, is
furnished with duplicates of every particle of authority
on which this legend is founded. We beg the gentlemen
connected with these two great publishing-houses,
not to be backward or reluctant on the occasion; but
to communicate freely whatever they may happen to
know, to all applicants; and more especially to the
critics, a class of writers who, in general, are singularly
assisted by the aid of a little knowledge of the
subjects on which they treat.
We hope the reader will do us the justice to regard the
Two Admirals as a sea-story, and not as a love-story.
Our Admirals are our heroes; and, as there are two
of them, those who are particularly fastidious on such
subjects, are quite welcome to term one the heroine,
if they see fit. We entertain no niggardly love of
exclusion, on this head, and leave the selection entirely
to themselves.
With these brief explanations, we launch our fleets,
committing them to the winds and waves of public
opinion, which are not unfrequently as boisterous and
adverse as those of the ocean, and sometimes quite as
capricious.
| The two admirals | |