cultivation; this great man employed most part of the leisure which
peace afforded him. Sometimes, indeed, he went to Bath, or other
fashionable resorts, during the seasons, where he might meet with his
old friends; and sometimes sought them in the metropolis, where he
occasionally paid his respects at the Admiralty.
His heroic mind, no doubt, amidst the calm of peace, prepared for the
storm of war; and, though he disdained not the culture of the
ploughshare, he looked forward to the day when it would become
necessary to exchange it for the sword. He was particularly fond of
geographical studies: few men were so well acquainted with maps and
charts; and his accurate eye frequently traced with eagerness the
various parts of the globe which he had passed with difficulty or
delight, and the spots at which he had successfully or unpleasantly
paused.
In the mean time, as he had become an affectionate husband to Dr.
Nesbit's widow, so he proved, in every possible sense, a faithful father
to his child. The youth was carefully educated, with all the advantages
of this great man's excellent directions, and his progress was minutely
inspected by the same truly paternal attention. Being treated, in every
respect, with the most indulgent tenderness, and seeming early to evince
an inclination for the naval service, Captain Nelson, who had no
prospect of issue by his lady, willingly consented to take him, as an
only son, under his own immediate protection.
Doubtless, while the mind of this exalted man was thus innocently and
laudably engaged in attending to the various duties of private life, he
not unfrequently felt disposed to indulge in deep reflections on
numerous noble plans meditated for the future service of his country:
for, in common with almost every gifted possessor of superior genius, he
seems to have constantly borne about him an invincible conviction, that
he should, at some period of his life, be enabled to give the fullest
manifestation of it's presence to an admiring world. As war was his
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