THE BEAUTIFUL. 109 



microscopic inhabitants whose tiny structures are as studi- 

 ously and tastefully elaborated as if each were to be ex- 

 hibited at the world's millennial exposition. There pass 

 to and fro the unspoken messages which weave the web 

 that binds the continents in amity. * * * But let the 

 winds arise from their slumbers. * * * Midnight drops 

 her murky mantle on the deck. The sea rolls and heaves 

 and groans in an agony. Fierce spirits of the air howl 

 among the cordage, and flap their rain-soaked pinions 

 against the fluttering shrouds. The good ship leaps in 

 air, then plunges with a groan beneath the curling, angry 

 lip of a wave. The water boards the deck, and again re- 

 treats from the well battened hatchways. The flashes of 

 an angry heaven make visible the tumult of sea and ship, 

 and the threatening thunders, louder- voiced than the ter- 

 rific howl of the waves, descend upon the terror stricken 

 inmates of the cabin. Terrible, but glorious, is the storm 

 at sea. The man who remembers a storm in mid- Atlantic 

 possesses a fortune of aeothetic and moral influences. 



Such beauty, such sublimity, are spread over land and 

 sea to awaken the aesthetic sense and ensphere us in a 

 medium of inspiration and joy. Happy is he who is sen- 

 sitive to the myriad revelations of beauty which blos- 

 som from land and sea and sky. Were no other reward 

 of culture attainable, all our pains would be compen- 

 sated in a spirit trained to interpret nature and drink 

 the inspiration of her beauty. Hear what one of the ac- 

 knowledged ornaments of your sex is reported to have 

 said of the beauty of the world: " To me it seems as if, 

 when God conceived the world, that was poetry; he formed 

 it, and that was sculpture; he varied and colored it, and 

 that was painting; and then, crowning all, he peopled it 



