90 The Life Worth Living 



Has a landlubber lived? 



The sea is our most expressive symbol of 

 the eternal, and the truest test of reality. 

 Fifty cents may pass for a dollar in the in- 

 terior, but when it strikes salt water, it is 

 worth just fifty cents. 



It is so with men. 



I shall never forget the overwhelming 

 sense of my own littleness the first view of 

 the ocean brought me. I had graduated 

 from college, and owned a piece of pig-skin 

 on which was recorded the fact that I was a 

 Master of Arts. One day I climbed a sand 

 mountain on the Cape Hatteras reef and 

 looked out over five miles of roaring white 

 breakers beneath whose angry tread I could 

 feel the earth tremble. As far as the eye 

 could reach they came bounding, hissing and 

 leaping after one another. At first I was 

 stunned, then humbled, and at last moved 

 to love and worship. I took off my hat and 

 felt the breath of the Infinite sweep my soul. 



