108 SEASIDE DIVINITY. 



There is no inconsiderable similitude between 

 the sea and the atmosphere. Air and water are 

 both fluids, although in many respects they differ 

 from each other. The vast assemblage of waters 

 which constitute the sea, and the immense extent 

 of air which forms the atmosphere, are both 

 oceans. The marine ocean has its inhabitants, 

 some of which move about on the ground at the 

 bottom, while others swim far above in the midst 

 and at the surface of their watery world ; in the 

 aerial ocean these are represented by the animals 

 which move on the ground and those which fly 

 through the air; in the marine ocean there is 

 submarine vegetation of vast luxuriance, answer- 

 ing to the meadows, the fields, the copses and 

 the forests that belong to the aerial ocean ; in the 

 former there are currents and tides, represented 

 in the latter by the monsoons and the trade winds, 

 and the land and sea breezes ; in both there are 

 storms and calms. 



The Roman soldiers, when they first made their 

 way to the shores of the Atlantic, are said to have 

 been filled with astonishment at the regular and 

 periodical ebbing and flowing of the ocean, a 

 phenomenon unknown to them on the lovely 

 shores of Italy. And but for our familiarity with 

 it, we ourselves should experience the same as- 

 tonishment on first perceiving so striking a phe- 

 nomenon. 



Do we not call to mind in the well-remem- 

 bered time of childhood, happy period passed 

 away! the ineffable pleasure with which for 



