He learned to compose songs, and
burned to give forth "a scheme and theory of music not yet
ever made in the world." When he heard "a fellow whistle
like a bird exceeding well," he promised to return another
day and give an angel for a lesson in the art. Once, he
writes, "I took the Bezan back with me, and with a brave gale
and tide reached up that night to the Hope, taking great
pleasure in learning the seamen's manner of singing when they
sound the depths." If he found himself rusty in his Latin
grammar, he must fall to it like a schoolboy. He was a
member of Harrington's Club till its dissolution, and of the
Royal Society before it had received the name. Boyle's
HYDROSTATICS was "of infinite delight" to him, walking in
Barnes Elms. We find him comparing Bible concordances, a
captious judge of sermons, deep in Descartes and Aristotle.
We find him, in a single year, studying timber and the
measurement of timber; tar and oil, hemp, and the process of
preparing cordage; mathematics and accounting; the hull and
the rigging of ships from a model; and "looking and improving
himself of the (naval) stores with" - hark to the fellow! -
"great delight." His familiar spirit of delight was not the
same with Shelley's; but how true it was to him through life!
He is only copying something, and behold, he "takes great
pleasure to rule the lines, and have the capital words wrote
with red ink;" he has only had his coal-cellar emptied and
cleaned, and behold, "it do please him exceedingly.
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