SUNSET AT SEA. 83 



ful observer to accompany the waning light of day. 

 Chateaubriand thus eloquently describes a scene 

 not unlike that of sunset from our coasts in mid- 

 summer. He i speaking of a voyage along the 

 shares of Virginia, when the crew of his ship were 

 called to evening prayers. (e The globe of the sun, 

 whose lustre even then our eyes could scarcely 

 endure, ready to plunge beneath the waves, was 

 discovered through the rigging in the midst of a 

 boundless space. From the motion of the stern 

 of our vessel it appeared as if the radiant orb 

 every moment changed its horizon. A few clouds 

 wandered confusedly in the east, where the moon 

 was slowly rising ; the rest of the sky was serene ; 

 and towards the north a water-spout forming a 

 glorious triangle with the luminaries of day and 

 night glistening with all the colours of a prism, 

 rose out of the sea like a column of crystal sup- 

 porting the vault of heaven. He who recognised 

 not in this spectacle the beauty of the Deity was 

 greatly to be pitied. Religious tears involuntarily 

 flowed from my eyes. The consciousness of our 

 insignificance excited by the spectacle of infinity ; 

 our songs resounding to a distance over the silent 

 waves ; the night approaching with its dangers, 

 and our occupation in supplicating Him whose 

 spirit inclined over the abyss, and who as it were 

 with one hand stayed the sun at the portal of the 

 west, and with the other raised the moon in the 

 eastern hemisphere, and yet lends through im- 

 mensity an attentive ear to the feeble voice of 

 his creatures. This is a picture which baffles 



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