Abstract
In her Letters Addressed to a Young Man (1801), the novelist and conduct writer Jane West employs the Christian metaphor of life as a ‘voyage’ into unknown territories replete with ‘tempests of adversity’, ‘destructive whirlpools’, ‘rocks and quicksands’ (LYM, i. 21). According to West, these hazardous obstacles can be successfully negotiated provided individuals undertake ‘employment’ and ‘wholesome exercise’ (LYM, iii. 295, 296). A similar emphasis upon the virtues of hard work recurs throughout the Letters. In this instance, however, West’s argument takes an unexpected turn, as she proceeds from extolling the salutary influence of ‘wholesome exercise’ (LYM, iii. 296) to discussing the heroic feats of those employed in ‘laborious and dangerous’ occupations (LYM, iii. 297). The metaphor of life as a voyage is introduced only to be overshadowed by its literal referent, as West comes to reflect upon the activities of ‘sea-faring people’:
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