The Steam-Packet: A Tale of the River and the Ocean — page 18: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

be ’ 4 THE STEAM PACKET: A TALE OF THE RIVER AND THE OCEAN. CHAPTER I. IN WHICH THE READER RECEIVES SOME INSTRUCTION IN NAUTICAL MATTERS. Ir any individual, who takes this book in hand, be either beneath or above in- struction,—that is, if he be already so well informed or so indifferent as to be literally above the knowledge which we propose to record in this chapter; or, if he be so inaccessible to anything in the shape ‘of dry description as to be abso- lutely beneath the possibility of mental improvement,—we at once advise him to skip Chapter the First, and com- mence the perusal of Chapter the Second. But for the behoof of those who attach some little importance to learn- ing, and who gladly find instruction blended with amusement, we have undertaken to describe, in as concise a manner as possible, the origin and progress of naval architecture. ae The invention and improvement of ships are commingled with so many fabulous or allegorical circumstances, that the accounts of = (3 RY Ae : TU, TTL ean, -\\ ee ancient writers upon the subject must be received with extreme sus- picion. When we are told that Deedalus invented wings to fly away from Crete, we must thereby understand that he evaded the wrath of Minos by means of a ship with sails ;—and when we are assured that Hercules sailed with the hide of a lion, we cannot fail to comprehend that his vessel was urged onwards by means of his well-known garment hung up for the purpose. Dardanus is represented to be fleeing before the B Gomichbooks (E(0)