THE OCEAN AND ITS LIFE. 113 



and splendor ? Why did He conceal the greatest wonders, 

 the most marvellous creations of nature under that azure 







veil, the mirror-like surface of which reflects nearly every 

 ray of light, and mostly returns, as if in derision, the 

 searcher's own face as his only reward 1 ? 



But because all the varied forms, all the minute details 

 are not seen, is therefore the impression, which the ocean 

 produces on our mind, less striking or less permanent? 

 We count not the stars in heaven, we see even but a 

 small number of all, and yet the starry sky has never 

 failed to lift up the mind of man to his Maker. So with 

 the ocean. His way is in the sea, and His path in the 

 great waters. The voice of the Lord is . upon the waters ; 

 the Lord is upon many waters. Prom olden times the 

 ocean has ever been to the nations of the earth the type 

 of all that is great, powerful, infinite. All the fictions 

 of the Orient and Eastern India, all the myths of Greece 

 of the "earth-embracing Okeanus," and even the Jewish 

 tradition that "the earth was without form and void, and 

 the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters," 

 speak of the sea as the great source of all life, the very 

 dwelling-place of the Infinite. 



There are nations who never see the ocean. How dream- 

 like, how fantastic are their ideas of the unknown world! 

 German poetry abounds with wild, fanciful dreams of mer- 

 maids and mermen, and even the sailor-nation has its fa- 

 vorite legends of the Ancient Mariner, and a Tennyson 

 has sung of fabled mermen and their loves. But truly has 

 it been said that "they that go down to the sea in ships, 



