Being much among the seamen I have, from a motion of love, taken sundry 10 opportunities with one of them at a time, and have in free conversation labored to turn their minds towards the fear of the Lord. This day we had a meeting in the cabin, where my heart was contrite 15 under a feeling of Divine love.

I believe a communication with different parts of the world by sea is at times consistent with the will of our Heavenly Father, and to educate some 20 youth in the practice of sailing, I believe may be right; but how lamentable is the present corruption of the world! How impure are the channels through which trade is conducted! How great is 25 the danger to which poor lads are exposed when placed on shipboard to learn the art of sailing! Five lads training up for the seas were on board this ship. Two of them were brought up in our 30 Society, and the other, by name James Naylor, is a member, to whose father James Naylor, mentioned in Sewel's history, appears to have been uncle. I often feel a tenderness of heart towards 35 these poor lads, and at times look at them as though they were my children according to the flesh.

furnished with all conveniences. If, after having been on deck several hours in the night, they come down into the steerage soaking wet, and are so closely stowed that proper convenience for change of garments is not easily come at, but for want of proper room their wet garments are thrown in heaps, and sometimes, through much crowding, are trodden under foot in going to their lodgings and getting out of them, and it is difficult at times for each to find his own. Here are trials for the poor sailors.

Now, as I have been with them in my lodge, my heart hath often yearned for them, and tender desires have been raised in me that all owners and masters of vessels may dwell in the love of God and therein act uprightly, and by seeking less for gain and looking carefully to their ways they may earnestly labor to remove all cause of provocation from the poor seamen, so that they may neither fret nor use excess of strong drink; for, indeed, the poor creatures, in the wet and cold, seem to apply at times to strong drink to supply the want of other convenience. Great reformation is wanting in the world, and the necessity of it among those who do business on great waters hath at this time been abundantly opened before me.

Eighth of fifth month.-This morning the clouds gathered, the wind blew strong from the southeast, and before noon so increased that sailing appeared dangerous. The seamen then bound up some of their sails and took down others, and the storm increasing they put the dead

O that all may take heed and beware of covetousness! O that all may learn 40 lights, so called, into the cabin windows

and lighted a lamp as at night. The wind now blew vehemently, and the sea wrought to that degree that an awful seriousness prevailed in the cabin, in

of Christ, who was meek and lowly of heart. Then in faithfully following him he will teach us to be content with food and raiment without respect to the customs or honors of this world. Men thus 45 which I spent, I believe, about seventeen redeemed will feel a tender concern for their fellow-creatures, and a desire that those in the lowest stations may be assisted and encouraged, and where owners of ships attain to the perfect law of 50 liberty and are doers of the Word, these will be blessed in their deeds.

A ship at sea commonly sails all night, and the seamen take their watches four hours at a time. Rising to work in the 55 night, it is not commonly pleasant in any case, but in dark rainy nights it is very disagreeable, even though each man were

hours, for the cabin passengers had given me frequent invitations, and I thought the poor wet toiling seamen had need of all the room in the crowded steerage. They now ceased from sailing and put the vessel in the posture called lying to.

My mind during this tempest, through the gracious assistance of the Lord, was preserved in a good degree of resignation; and at times I expressed a few words in his love to my shipmates in regard to the all-sufficiency of Him who formed the great deep, and whose care

is so extensive that a sparrow falls not without his notice, and thus in a tender frame of mind I spoke to them of the necessity of our yielding in true obedience to the instructions of our Heavenly Father, who sometimes through adversities intendeth our refinement.

5

About eleven at night I went out on the deck. The sea wrought exceedingly, and the high, foaming waves round about 10 had in some sort the appearance of fire, but did not give much if any light. The sailor at the helm said he lately saw a corposant at the head of the mast. I observed that the master of the ship 15 ordered the carpenter to keep on the deck; and, though he said little, I apprehended his care was that the carpenter with his axe might be in readiness in case of any extremity. Soon after this 20 the vehemency of the wind abated, and before morning they again put the ship under sail.

Tenth of fifth month.-It being the first day of the week and fine weather, 25 we had a meeting in the cabin, at which most of the seamen were present; this meeting was to me a strengthening time. 13th. As I continue to lodge in the steerage I feel an openness this morning 30 to express something further of the state of my mind in respect to poor lads bound apprentice to learn the art of sailing. As I believe sailing is of use in the world, a labor of soul attends me that the pure 35 counsel of truth may be humbly waited for in this case by all concerned in the business of the seas. A pious father whose mind is exercised for the everlasting welfare of his child may not 40 with a peaceable mind place him out to an employment among a people whose common course of life is manifestly corrupt and profane. Great is the present defect among seafaring men in regard 45 to virtue and piety; and, by reason of an abundant traffic and many ships being used for war, so many people are employed on the sea that the subject of placing lads to this employment appears 50 very weighty.

When I remember the saying of the Most High through his prophet, "This people have I formed for myself; they shall show forth my praise," and think 55 of placing children among such to learn the practice of sailing, the consistency of it with a pious education seems to me

like that mentioned by the prophet, "There is no answer from God."

Profane examples are very corrupting and very forcible. And as my mind day after day and night after night hath been affected with a sympathizing tenderness towards poor children who are put to the employment of sailors, I have sometimes had weighty conversation with the sailors in the steerage, who were mostly respectful to me and became more so the longer I was with them. They mostly appeared to take kindly what I said to them; but their minds were so deeply impressed with the almost universal depravity among sailors that the poor creatures in their answers to me have revived in my remembrance that of the degenerate Jews a little before the captivity, as repeated by Jeremiah the prophet, "There is no hope."

Second of Sixth Month.-Last evening the seamen found bottom at about seventy fathoms. This morning, a fair wind and pleasant. I sat on deck; my heart was overcome with the love of Christ, and melted into contrition before Him. In this state the prospect of that work to which I found my mind drawn when in my native land being, in some degree, opened before me, I felt like a little child; and my cries were put up to my Heavenly Father for preservation, that in an humble dependence on Him, my soul might be strengthened in His love and kept inwardly waiting for His counsel. This afternoon I saw that part of England called the Lizard.

Some fowls yet remained of those the passengers took for their sea-store. I. believe about fourteen perished in the storms at sea, by the waves breaking over the quarter-deck, and a considerable number with sickness at different times. I observed the cocks crew as we came down the Delaware, and while we were near the land, but afterwards I think I did not hear one of them crow till we came near the English coast, when they again crowed a few times. In observing their dull appearance at sea, and the pining sickness of some of them, I often remembered the Fountain of goodness, who gave being to all creatures, and whose love extends to caring for the sparrows. I believe where the love of

THOMAS GODFREY (1736-1763)

The distinction of having been the first American to write a tragedy that was strong enough to force its way to representation upon the professional stage belongs to Thomas Godfrey, son of Thomas Godfrey, the Philadelphian, famous as the inventor of the mariner's quadrant. More than of any other poet of his period may it be said of Godfrey that he was endowed with a spark of genius. There is, to be sure, little among his "literary remains" that is of permanent value, but it must be remembered that he worked in a dark period so far as poetry was concerned. He was bound by the traditions of the Pope school, then in the fulness of its power; the literary atmosphere about him was thin and unexhilarating; there were few magazines and few critics and few readers of "polite literature." Moreover, the circumstances of his environment were a handicap: he had been bound as apprentice to a watchmaker who took all his time; then he joined the militia and took part in the expedition against Fort Duquesne; then he embarked upon a business enterprise in North Carolina, and for three years had little time for poetic composition. He died at twenty-seven. Had he lived, he might, perhaps, have outgrown the influence of his early models,-Shakespeare, Pope, Young-and have made himself the leading poet of America before Emerson. It was in him, undoubtedly. As it was, his Prince of Parthia, lamentably crude though it be, wholly wanting in humor and in verisimilitude, is a remarkable work for a youth of twenty-three who perhaps never had seen a theatrical presentation, at least of a serious play. The tragedy was staged in Philadephia April 24, 1767, four years after the death of its author. It was not played again, so far as I can ascertain, until 1915, when it was revived by the Zelosophic Society of the University of Pennsylvania. If one reads the last act of the drama one need read no more. The act is really complete in itself, needing little explanation to make the plot clear. Moreover, it is complete in another way: it presents all that is necessary to be known of the strength and the weakness of Thomas Godfrey as a dramatist.