THE SEA IN THE LIFE OF THE NATIONS. 397 



c'ourso ill starlos.s nights aiul fog-gv weather. l)ut without the huge 

 mass of observations seamen had made in all zones, by means of the 

 compass, a Gauss could not have grappled successfully with the prob- 

 lem of the magnetism of the earth. And if, hundreds of years ago, 

 the survevors in the Clausthal mines, consulting their compass by the 

 light of the miner's lamp, laid out their subterranean corridors with 

 unhesitating certainty, then, verily, this is a cultural echo of tumul- 

 tuous waves dying away in the womb of mountains far removed from 

 the sea. 



But its supreme gift to man lies in the fact that the ocean alone 

 afforded him a possibility of becoming acc^uainted with the globe as a 

 whole; it unveiled the face of the earth for him. Knowledge of ever\' 

 part was followed b}' trade with every part, uniting the economies of 

 single nations and sets of nations into a world economy. Finalh% bj^ 

 means of universal commerce, such as only the all-embracing ocean 

 can create, the olden separateness of the human races according to 

 their native continents was wiped out, and the first steps were taken 

 toward a spiritual alliance comprehending the whole of mankind. 

 That this consummation should have been brought about primarily 

 through world commerce is due to the not wholly evil power of the 

 desire for gain. Nearly two thousand years ago Strabo watched sea- 

 men risk their lives on the tossing billows of the high seas while 

 transferring wares destined for Rome from merchant vessels to light- 

 ers, because even then the Tiber was too shallow for heavy navigation, 

 and he exclaimed, "Verily, ihe desire for gain overcomes all difficul- 

 ties."" Since time out of mind the ocean opened up to man the free-t 

 and, what is of paramount importance, the cheapest paths around the 

 L'lobe, From mines in the province of Sha tung we shall sooji be 

 in a position to deliver cheaper anthracite coal at Tsingtau than could 

 l)e offered for sale there if brought from England. On the other h:.nd, 

 Milan, not to speak of the Italian coast, is too distant by the overland 

 route for German coal to supplant P^njlish coal, because the latter can 

 be transported l)y sea almost directh' from the mines, Italian oranges 

 can be bought for less in Hamburg than in Munich or Vienna, as 

 freight by sea from Sicily to Hamburg is not so costly as freight b}" 

 land, sa3% from Hamburg to Berlin. On account of the low freight 

 charges, trade by sea is eveiywhere most lucrative. In oi'der not to 

 shorten the inexpensive sea route unnecessarily by a single kilometer, 

 the great seaports have arisen in the innermost recesses of ocean 

 sinuses. So enormous is the profit derived from world connnerce by 

 sea that it yields enough to furnish the vast sums swallowed by the 

 construction of vessels and needed to reward the hard lalK)r of the 

 gallant crews who, far away from home, are exposed to constant peril, 

 biddin defiance even to the dread typhoon. 



"■ Unfruitful" Homer called the sea. Yet what a wealth of treasure 



