6 SEASIDE DIVINITY. 



solemn the lessons uttered as to Creative wisdom, 

 and power, and foresight, bidding us 



"own 



The Hand Almighty who its channelled bed 

 Immeasurable sunk, and poured abroad, 

 Fenced with eternal mounds, the fluid sphere ! " 



Looking upon the sea on a day so lovely as this, 

 one ceases to marvel at those wild and wayward 

 fancies of Greek and Oriental mythology which 

 loved to people the realms of ocean with nymphs 

 and deities endowed with natures suited to the 

 element in which they were presumed to exist. 

 How favourable to the birth and development of 

 such charming myths must have been the shores 

 of Baiae, or the isles that stud the blue Egean ! 

 With cloudless azure above, and serene waters 

 below, and all nature breathing grace and beauty, 

 how natural the idea that those bright waters were 

 the abode of the Nereides, marine damsels, ever 

 blooming in youth and loveliness, and who by the 

 favoured few might sometimes be seen disporting 

 on the backs of dolphins, or frequenting, on the 

 sea-shore, caves and grottoes, adorned with flowers 

 and sea-shells ! How natural too, and how credible 

 to a fervid imagination, the story of Ceyx and 

 Halcyone, told in strains of such tender melan- 

 choly by Ovid, in which the faithful pair are 

 reunited in the form of birds dear to the sea- 

 nymphs, and which make their nests on the sea 

 foam when winds and waters are at rest ! The 

 desire one feels to be able to take up one's abode 

 beneath these mysterious waves would itself render 



