Status Updates From King's Own

More tedious with every page...

"It was no time for man to war against man. The powers of heaven were loose, and in all their fury. The wind howled, the sea raged, the thunder stunned, and the lightning blinded. The Eternal was present in all his majesty; yet pigmy mortals were contending."

“Take an elephant, Mr Prose,” cried Courtenay; “his size is double, but he’ll give you less trouble.”
“Why, that’s a rhyme, I do declare; but how shall I get upon his back?”
“Oh! he’ll take you up in his trunk, and put you on.”
“Indeed he shall not,” cried Prose, retreating some paces; “I say, Mr Interpreter, how am I to get on the top of that great beast?”

"Nay, for the time being, a violent stomach-ache will turn a hero into a poltroon."

"We must return to the servant, who, with no other injury than a severe contusion of the Os coccygis, from the frontal bone of the bull, recovered his senses and his legs at the same moment, and never ceased exerting the latter until he arrived at — Hall..." I love this book! 😂

"...Mr. Peter Capon and Mr. Paul Contract went on shore, declaring that until a mail coach ran between there and England, they would never leave the island, and again subject themselves to the charming vicissitudes of a seafaring existence." 🤣

"It is through his works that the Almighty is most sincerely reverenced, through them that his infinite power is with deepest humility acknowledged. The most forcible arguments, the most pathetic eloquence from the pulpit, will not affect so powerfully the mind of man, as the investigation of a blade of grass, or the mechanism of the almost imperceptible insect."

"I am seated in the after-cabin of a vessel, endowed with as liberal a share of motion as any in His Majesty’s service...The sea is high, the gale fresh, the sky dirty, and threatening a continuance of what our transatlantic descendants would term a pretty-considerable-tarnation-strong blast of wind."

"The second-lieutenant, whose name was Price, was a good-looking young man, who kept his watch and read Shakespeare. He was constantly attempting to quote his favourite author; but, fortunately for those who were not fond of quotations, his memory was very defective." 😂

"Thus it is with proud man. He struggles to conceal effects arising from feelings which do honour to his nature; but feels no shame when he disgraces himself by allowing his passions to get the better of his reason—and all because he would not be thought womanish! I’m particularly fond of crying myself."

"He is, what man looks in vain for among his kind, a faithful friend, without contradiction...I cannot think what Mahomet was about when he pronounced his fiat against them, as unclean.”
“Well,” said Debriseau, “I agree with Mahomet that they are not clean, especially puppies. There’s that little beast at Monsieur Picardon’s, I declare—”
“Pooh,” interrupted M'Elvina, laughing, “I don’t mean it in that sense—

I must have de satisfaction or de apology tout de suite.”
“But, sir, I have not insulted you.”
“Sare, you insult my dog—he is von and de same ting—mon chien est un chien de sentiment. He feel de affront all de same vid me—I feel de affront all de same vid him. Vous n’avez qu’à choisir, monsieur.”
“Between you and your dog,” answered McElvina—“Well, then, I’d rather fight the dog.”

"He again told me, 'honesty was a scarce commodity'. I could have informed him that it had always been so with me, but I kept my own counsel."

"We do not give children credit for the feelings which they possess, because they have not, at their early age, acquired the power of language to express them correctly. Treat a child as you would an equal, and, in a few months, you will find that the reason of his having until then remained childish, was because he had heretofore been treated as a being of inferior capacity and feelings."

"In the multitude of counsellors there may be wisdom, but there certainly is not secrecy. Twenty men have probably twenty wives, and it is therefore twenty to one but the secret transpires through that channel. Further, twenty men have twenty tongues; and much as we complain of women not keeping secrets, I suspect that men deserve the odium of the charge quite as much, if not more, than women do."

"Doubtless there is a point at which endurance of oppression ceases to be a virtue, and rebellion can no longer be considered as a crime; but it is a dangerous and intricate problem, the solution of which had better not be attempted."

Having a hard time getting through this one. Marryat is usually enjoyable like listening to grandpa reminisce about the olden days. This one is like grandpa is getting on in years and having a tendency to ramble off on strange and unrelated tangents.