NONSUCH 



green growths on Nonsuch and other islands but, 

 at the moment, having nothing with which to com- 

 pare them, these cedars could well have been gi- 

 gantic mosses and fungi. It was the inorganic world 

 which gave the dominant feeling of just beginning. 

 The sea was quiet, not even old enough to be stag- 

 nant — but as still as ever water can be. Even the 

 sunrise, having attained an exquisitely subdued 

 brilliance, hung fire in cosmic suspense and I also 

 held my breath. There was not a feather of wind — 

 the air was immovable and therefore unthinkable: 

 weather was on dead center. 



It was not hot. The feeling of coolness — first hint 

 of the coming winter (only winters were still to be 

 thought of) added to the newness — the earth and 

 the sea had not had a chance thoroughly to warm up 

 after yesterday's tremendous experiment of making 

 the first water. And now I knew the dominant un- 

 derlying feeling — the earth was not revolving. 

 For a season it had ceased, was resting, — witness 

 the suspended sunrise — and the ether had stopped 

 rushing against the atmosphere. I knew it was only 

 for a morning or an hour — indeed the world might 

 begin its business of life and old age and death in 

 the next spht second. But this experience would 

 never die in my memory. As long as I lived I would 

 remember the dawn when the earth stood still. 

 Somewhere, uncountable years from now, when 

 men began to clutter the earth, they were going to 

 believe that a certain general commanded the sun 

 to stand still. But that was simply to drag out a 



158 



