138 STUDIES OF NATURE 



wind. Going as near to the edge of the rocks 

 as was safe, I stood and watched the grand 

 commotion over which a few white gulls were 

 swooping. The sea, I observed, had three 

 voices. First a roar, unceasing, without pause 

 or modulation : that is caused by the multi- 

 tudinous breaking of the waves against each 

 other. Then a sound of intermittent thunder 

 which results from the flat stroke of a great 

 billow given, now and then, full against the 

 rocks. And last a heavy rattle like that of 

 musketry which is caused by the tide as it 

 rushes up the beach or drags, more slowly, back 

 again. 



During the morning I had been reading that 

 complete text-book of nature and the elements, 

 1 The Prometheus Unbound,' and I could not help 

 noting how fine and true are all the allusions to 

 the ocean. Nothing here strikes us more than 

 does the ever unbroken sympathy, the trembling 

 resonance which exists between the sky and the 



