191 THE SEA. 



is thrown upon the palazzi opposite to it. Sometimes the fire kindles in the east, and the- 

 square, the houses, the fortress, are all lighted up by a flame of unbearable white, which scorches 

 the eyes. The air is rent by the winds in fury, the boom of the waves resounds through an 

 undertone of wild complaint. Angels of destruction are passing by this night ; one hears th& 

 hiss of their swords. "What is human life ? A nothing. What is man himself ? A worm.. 

 In hours like these the boldest among us calls his ways to remembrance. 



"I can understand seriousness; I have no patience with fear. 



" There was a time when, during heavy storms, my mother was wont to say to me : 

 ' Come ! ' We used to go out in the full fury of the tempest. ' Listen/ my mother would 

 say ; ' it is the voice of God ! ' Then she made me join my hands ; she prayed, and peace 

 descended into my soul." 



And again of a storm elsewhere Madame de Gasparin says : " The mighty voice fills the- 

 air with clamour. Not another word; there it is in its frenzy. 



" There it is, stretching out to the furthest horizons. The clouds which are driving along 

 alternately dye it grey or black ; then the mists are rent, they let the sun pass through, and 

 the intense blue is lit up to the very depths of immensity. 



" Near the shore squadrons of green waves of baleful perfidious hue heavy opaque masses, 

 uplifted by a convulsive throb, shone athwart by a pale ray roll over and break with thunder- 

 ing noise ; and foaming cataracts, precipitated in torrents, dash up, then, suddenly quieted, 

 come and lave the shore with their clear waters. 



" Terrible in its rage this sea ! full of spite, like a wicked fairy. Howling to the four 

 quarters of the sky, heedlessly breaking proud ships to pieces, intoxicated with cries, calamities, 

 frenzied with might ; and then, as in irony, tracing magic circles, enclosing, inundating you, 

 and thrilling with pleasure, running back, leaving the sand strewn with rainbowed bubbles- 



" We stand motionless, mere nothings in presence of this brute force. But our soul 

 thrills, feeling herself greater than the sea, stronger than the waves she who can lay 

 hold on God. 



**;*.*** ft 



" But a ray or light has shone out. 



" And now that the sun is lavishingly scattering diamonds over the sea, now that 

 the wrath of the waves breaks into sparkling laughter, let us run on the shore, and 

 defy the spray. 



"And so, sometimes flying from, and sometimes braving the wind, we rush into the uproar, 

 we push on to that mass of rocks upon which the waves are crashing. Swelling at a distance, 

 they rear themselves up they are giants ! Hardly have they reached the rocks than they 

 crumble away, and the silly foam throws its flakes on the pine-trees holding on to the 

 mountain side. This is succeeded by a heavenly calm." 



" The peaceful main, 

 One molten mirror, one illumined plane, 

 Clear as the blue, sublime, o'er-arching sky." 



"Down we gazed/' says Gosse, in one of his charming sea-side works, "on the smooth 

 sea, becoming more and more mirror-like every moment, as the slight afternoon breeze died 

 away into a calm, and allowing us from our vantage height to see far down into its depths. 



