5 o THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



evolutional stand-point serves as yet one further illustration of the al- 

 most infinite ramifications to which natural selection and its associated 

 doctrines of development may be applied. Macmillan's Magazine. 



-- 



SUNLIGHT, SEA, AND SKY. 



By WILLIAM SPOT TIS WOODE, F. E. S. 



THERE are many ways in which men have looked at life, the higher 

 kind of life, that ideal which each of us forms in his own mind, 

 ' to which we each hope that we are always tending. But all these va- 

 rious ideas may for the most part be grouped under two heads : the 

 Ideal of Rest and the Ideal of Work. " Rest, rest ! " said a brave old 

 German worker, "shall I not have Eternity to rest in? " That repre- 

 sents one view. " "Work, work ! " said another ; " must I not work now, 

 that I may the better work in Eternal Life ? " That represents the 

 other. But, without entering upon the somewhat transcendental ques- 

 tion of a future life, these ideas and aspirations have a meaning and 

 reality even in the life which we now live. How do we hope to spend 

 the leisure which old age may some day bring ? Or, nearer still, when 

 the day's work is done, and the day itself is not quite spent ; or when 

 such holiday as may befall each of us comes round, how do we hope to 

 spend the time? Do we long for mere rest, for that 



" land 

 In which it seemed always afternoon ? " 



Do we desire to sit us 



"down upon the yellow sand 

 Between the sun and moon upon the shore," 



and sing with the lotus-eaters : 



" All things have rest ; why should we toil alone, 

 Nor steep our brows in slumber's holy balm, 

 Nor hearken what the inner spirit sings. 

 There is no joy but calm ? " 



Or do we rather with Ulysses say : 



" How dull to pause, to make an end, 

 To rust unburnished, not to shine in use! 

 As though to breathe were life. Life piled on life 

 "Were all too little, and of one to me 

 Too little remains ; but every hour is saved 

 From that eternal silence, something more, 

 A bringer of new things ; and vile it were 

 For some [few] suns to store and hoard myself, 

 And this gray spirit yearning in desire 

 To follow knowledge like a sinking star 

 Beyond the utmost bounds of human thought." 





