10 SEASIDE DIVINITY. 



impressions and past enjoyments. To him there 

 are sermons not only in trees, but in the humblest 

 flower beneath his feet; in the moss that crowns 

 the mouldering wall, the little fern that grows on 

 its sides, or the various coloured lichens that 

 give their peculiar tints to the stones that 

 form it. 



These remarks are not less applicable to a 

 ramble by the sea-shore than to a walk among 

 the rustic places of the inland country. In both 

 instances some special and particular knowledge 

 is essential to the pleasure and enjoyment of the 

 observer; and with such particular acquirement 

 the wanderer by the seaside may convert even the 

 murmur of the ocean into an articulate voice, and 

 understand much of what the "wild waves are 

 saying." 



No study is better calculated to strengthen our 

 corporeal and mental faculties, or to recruit them 

 when wearied or overtaxed, than that of the 

 Natural History of the Sea-shore. Even the 

 fresh air, the exercise, the freedom from restraint 

 connected with these pursuits, are for a large 

 number of human ills medicines, in the uni- 

 versality of which all physicians are agreed from 

 the days of Hippocrates and Galen to the present 

 hour. And what a solace to mind and body to 

 leave behind the thousand and one " winged 

 cares " which the poet tells us flit about the ceilings 

 of our abodes! What a delight, if they still 

 pursue us as we drive away to the beach, to bid 

 them begone, or, if they succeed in entering the 



