28 ALONGSHORE 



mankind. They minister to our wildness — to 

 that wildness which, after all these centuries of 

 civilisation, we still feel to be the best part of us. 

 And if they kill us. ... Is not every passion 

 a dangerous thing? Is not man's soul itself an 

 explosive within him — the explosive which drives 

 him, like a projectile, across time? Invalids near 

 the sea have been known to grow madly excited 

 with a rising gale, so much so that they had to be 

 calmed with drugs, and, when the gale had blown 

 itself out, were as if they lacked life. But it is 

 good to see how the eyes of sturdy men, though 

 bloodshot and half bunged-up with salt spray, will 

 kindle in a storm. They will show embarrassment 

 sometimes on finding themselves observed, as they 

 might If you had suddenly come across them 

 hugging their maid in a quiet corner. 



Rarely, except in mid-ocean, when it has been 

 blowing steadily for some time, can the height and 

 speed of waves be in exact proportion to the wind. 

 In here. If a southerly wind send a ground-swell 

 along before it, then by the time it arrives it has 

 already that swell to its advantage. Tides and 

 currents add to or lessen its effect. Waves rise 

 quicker in shoal water, but never to the same 

 height as in deep. Rain flattens down the sea, like 



