First, the multiplication table and the tables of
weights and measures; then the states of the union, with their
capitals; the counties of England, with their shire towns; the kings
of England in their order; and a large part of the peerage, which I
committed from an almanac that we had on board; and then the Kanaka
numerals. This carried me through my facts, and, being repeated
deliberately, with long intervals, often eked out the two first bells.
Then came the ten commandments; the thirty-ninth chapter of Job, and a
few other passages from Scripture. The next in the order, that I never
varied from, came Cowper's Castaway, which was a great favorite with
me; the solemn measure and gloomy character of which, as well as the
incident that it was founded upon, made it well suited to a lonely
watch at sea. Then his lines to Mary, his address to the jackdaw,
and a short extract from Table Talk; (I abounded in Cowper, for I
happened to have a volume of his poems in my chest;) "Ille et nefasto"
from Horace, and Goethe's Erl King. After I had got through these, I
allowed myself a more general range among everything that I could
remember, both in prose and verse.
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