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better our ſituation. Again I began to yield to utter r deſpair--again I thought of letting go my hold, and ſinking at once: it is impoſſible, thought I, even to eſcape--why, then, prolong, for a few minutes, a painful exiſtance that muſt at laſt be given up? Yet, yet, the all-ſubduing love of life ſuggeſted, that many things apparently impoſſible had come to paſs; and I ſaid to myſelf, If life is to be loſt, why not loſe it in a glorious ſtruggle? Should I ſurvive it by accident, life will be rendered doubly ſweet to me, and I ſtill more worthy of it by perſevering fortitude.
"While I was employed in this train of reflection, I perceived ſome of the people collecting together, talking, and holding a conſultation: it immediately occurred to me, that they were deviſing ſome plan for eſcaping from the wreck, and getting on ſhore: and, ſo natural is it for man to cling to his fellow creature for ſupport in difficult or dangerous exigences, that I propoſed to Mr. Hall to join them, and take a ſhare in the execution of the plan--obſerving to him at the ſame time, that I was determined at all events to quit the veſſel, and truſt to the protection and guidance of a ſuperintending Providence for the reſt.
"As prodigality of life is, in ſome caſes, the exceſs of virtue and courage--ſo there are others in which it is vice, meanneſs and cowardice. True courage is, according to the circumſtances under which it is to operate, as rigidly tenacious and vigilant of life in one caſe, as it is indifferent and regardleſs in another; and I think it is a very ſtrange contradiction in the human heart (although it often happens), that a man who has the moſt unbounded courage, ſeeking death even in the canon's mouth, ſhall yet want the neceſſary reſolution to make exertions to ſave his life in caſes of ordinary
