THE BREEZE ON BEACHY HEAD 209 



wave ; when the distant green from long simmering under 

 the sun becomes pale ; when the sky, without cloud, but 

 with some slight haze in it, likewise loses its hue, and the 

 two so commingle in the pallor of heat that they cannot 

 be separated then the still ships appear suspended in 

 space. They are as much held from above as upborne 

 from beneath. 



They are motionless, midway in space whether it is 

 sea or air is not to be known. They neither float nor 

 fly ; they are suspended. There is no force in the flat 

 sail, the mast is lifeless, the hull without impetus. For 

 hours they linger, changeless as the constellations, still, 

 silent, motionless, phantom vessels on a void sea. 



Another climb up from the sheep path, and it is not far 

 then to the terrible edge of that tremendous cliff which 

 rises straighter than a ship's side out of the sea, six hundred 

 feet above the detached rock below, where the limpets 

 cling like rivet heads, and the sand rills run around it. 

 But it is not possible to look down to it the glance of 

 necessity falls outwards, as a raindrop from the eaves is 

 deflected by the wind, because it is the edge where the 

 mould crumbles ; the rootlets of the grass are exposed ; 

 the chalk is about to break away in flakes. 



You cannot lean over as over a parapet, lest such a 

 flake should detach itself lest a mere trifle should begin 

 to fall, awakening a dread and dormant inclination to 

 slide and finally plunge like it. Stand back ; the sea there 

 goes out and out, to the left and to the right, and how far 

 is it to the blue overhead ? The eye must stay here a 

 long period, and drink in these distances, before it can 

 adjust the measure, and know exactly what it sees. 



The vastness conceals itself, giving us no landmark 

 or milestone. The fleck of cloud yonder, does it part 

 it in two, or is it but a third of the way ? The world 

 is an immense cauldron, the ocean fills it, and we are 



o 



