THE BEAUTIFUL. 109 



microscopic inhabitants whose tiny structures are as studi- 

 ously and tastefully elaborated as if each were to be ex- 

 hibited at the world's millennial exposition. There pass 

 to and fro the unspoken messages which weave the web 

 that binds the continents in amity. * * * B^t let the 

 winds arise from their slumbers. * * * Midnight drops 

 her murky mantle on the deck. The sea rolls and heaves 

 and groans in an agon3^ Fierce spirits of the air howl 

 among the cordage, and flap their rain-soaked pinions 

 against the fluttering shrouds. The good ship leaps in 

 air, then plunges with a groan beneath the curling, angry 

 lip of a wave. The water boards the deck, and again re- 

 treats from the well battened hatchways. The flashes of 

 an angry heaven make visible the tumult of sea and ship, 

 and the threatening thunders, louder-voiced than the ter- 

 rific howl of the waves, descend upon the terror stricken 

 inmates of the cabin. Terrible, but glorious, is the storm 

 at sea. The man who remembers a storm in mid- Atlantic 

 possesses a fortune of aesthetic and moral influences. 



Such beauty, such sublimity, are spread over land and 

 sea to awaken the aesthetic sense and ensphere us in a 

 medium of inspiration and joy. Happy is he who is sen- 

 sitive to the myriad revelations of beauty which blos- 

 som from land and sea and sky. Were no other reward 

 of culture attainable, all our pains would be compen- 

 sated in a spirit trained to interpret nature and drink 

 the inspiration of her beauty. Hear what one of the ac- 

 knowledged ornaments of your sex is reported to have 

 said of the beauty of the world: "To me it seems as if, 

 when God conceived the world, that was poetry; he formed 

 it, and that was sculpture; he varied and colored it, and 

 that was painting; and then, crowning all, he peopled it 



