SEASIDE DIVINITY, 



CHAPTER I. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Charms of the Sea-shore. Classic and Oriental Myths relat- 

 ing to the Sea. Various Studies suited to the Seaside. 

 What is requisite for such Studies, an Illustration from 

 Botany. Advantages of such Pursuits. 



IT is the month of June. The keen and withering 

 blasts of Eurus, which blow with such direful per- 

 tinacity in April and May, are at last superseded 

 by the soft west winds, fraught with health and 

 oxygen from the luxuriant vegetation of the 

 tropical lands where they have their birth. It 

 must have been in this same month the love- 

 liest of the year that "holy George Herbert" 

 indited those lines so dear to quaint old Isaac 

 Walton: 



" Sweet day, so calm, so pure, so bright, 

 The bridal of the earth and sky ! " 



In no other month does Nature exhibit so many 

 and such varied evidences of that august bridal 

 of which the poet so sweetly sings. Heaven, 

 with its soft breezes and gentle showers and 

 genial sunshine, is united with the smiling Earth ; 



