THE OCEAN AND ITS LIFE. 115 



fills the mind with the idea of infinity, and thought, escap- 

 ing from all visible impression of space and time, rises 

 to sublimest contemplations. Yet, the sight of the clear, 

 transparent mirror of the ocean, with its light, curling, 

 sportive waves, cheers the heart like that of a friend, and 

 reminds us that here, as upon the great sea of life, even 

 when the wrecked mariner has been cast among the raging 

 billows, an unseen hand has often guided him to a happy 

 shore. For He ruleth the raging of the sea : when the 

 waves thereof rise, He stilleth them. 



This sense of the Infinite, suggested and awakened by 

 the vast expanse of restless and uneasy waters is, however, 

 not unmixed with a feeling of deep mysterious awe. The 

 mind cannot seize nor comprehend this boundless gran- 

 deur ; hence its mysteriousness. The eye cannot see, no 

 sense can, in fact, perceive the connection between the stu- 

 pendous phenomena on the wide ocean and the fate of 

 man. To human eyes the surging billows and the tower- 

 ing waves are both raised by an invisible, unknown power, 

 and their depth is peopled with beings uncouth, ungov- 

 erned, and unknown. The sea is lonely, the sea is dreary, 

 like a wide, watery waste, compared with the gay, bright 

 colors of the land, and the might of gigantic waves that 

 rush from age to age against the bulwarks of continent 

 and isle, seems irresistible and able to destroy the world's 

 foundation. Thus the ocean awakens in us feelings of dark 

 mystery and grim power ; the Infinite carries us off beyond 

 the limits of familiar thought, and the sea becomes the 

 home of fabled beings and weird images. All sea-shore 

 countries teem with such stories, legends and traditions; 



