He was in particular partial to the poets, could quote at will from Gay and Thomson and Goldsmith and Gray, and even from Shakespeare, much to my own astonishment and humiliation.  Saving only Dr. Courtenay of Annapolis I had never met his equal for versatility of speech and command of fine language; and, having heard that he had been at sea since the age of twelve, I made bold to ask him at what school he had got his knowledge.

“At none, Richard,” he answered with pride, “saving the rudiments at the Parish School at Kirkbean.  Why, sir, I hold it to be within every man’s province to make himself what he will, and I early recognized in Learning the only guide for such as me.  I may say that I married her for the furtherance of my fortunes, and have come to love her for her own sake.  Many and many the ’tween-watch have I passed in a coil of rope in the tops, a volume of the classics in my hand.  And ’my happiest days, when not at sea, have been spent in my brother William’s little library.  He hath a modest estate near Fredericksburg, in Virginia, and none holds higher than he the worth of an education.  Ah, Richard,” he added, with a certain sadness, “I fear you little know the value of that which hath been so lavishly bestowed upon you.  There is no creation in the world to equal your fine gentleman!”

It struck me indeed as strange that a man of his powers should set store by such trumpery, and, too, that these notions had not impaired his ability as a seaman.  I did not reply.  He gave no heed, however, but drew from a case a number of odes and compositions, which he told me were his own.  They were addressed to various of his enamouritas, abounded in orrery, and were all, I make no doubt, incredibly fine, tho’ not so much as one sticks in my mind.  To speak truth I listened with a very ill grace, longing the while to be on deck, for we were about to sight the Isle of Man.  The wine and the air of the cabin had made my eyes heavy.  But presently, when he had run through with some dozen or more, he put them by, and with a quick motion got from his chair, a light coming into his dark eyes that startled me to attention.  And I forgot the merchant captain, and seemed to be looking forward into the years.

“Mark you, Richard,” said he, “mark well when I say that my time will come, and a day when the best of them will bow to me.  And every ell of that triumph shall be mine, sir,-ay, every inch!”

Such was his force, which sprang from some hidden fire within him, that I believed his words as firmly as they had been writ down in the Book of Isaiah.  Brimming over with enthusiasm, I pledged his coming greatness in a reaming glass of Malaga.

“Alack,” he cried, “an’ they all had your faith, laddie, a fig for the prophecy!  Ya maun ken th’ incentive’s the maist o’ the battle.”

There was more of wisdom in this than I dreamed of then.  Here lay hid the very keynote of that ambitious character:  he stooped to nothing less than greatness for a triumph over his slanderers.