This was no longer "the baseless fabric of a vision." The dream of my early years had come to pass; and I looked forward with all the confidence of youth to a bold and manly career, checkered it might be with toil and suffering, but replete with stirring adventure, whose wild and romantic charms would be cheaply won by wading through a sea of troubles.

I now realized the feeling which has since been so well described by the poet: "A life on the ocean wave, A home on the rolling deep, Where the scattered waters rave, And the winds their revels keep.
"Like an eagle caged, I pine On this dull, unchanging shore; O, give me the flashing brine, The spray, and the tempest's roar.".