H2 BOOK OP MATURE LAlD OPEJJ. 



Religious tears involuntarily flowed from my eyes. 

 The consciousness of our insignificance, excited by 

 the spectacle of infinity ; our songs resounding to 

 a distance over the silent waves, the night approach- 

 ing with its dangers; our vessel itself a wonder among 

 so many wonders ; a religious crew, penetrated with 

 admiration and with awe; a priest, august in suppli- 

 cating the Almighty God, inclined over the abyss, 

 with one hand staying the sun at the portal of the 

 west, with the other raising the moon in the eastern 

 hemisphere, and lending, through immensity, an at- 

 tentive ear to the feeble voice of his creatures; this is 

 a picture which baffles description, and which the 

 whole art of man is scarcely sufficient to embrace." 

 No person who has walked along the sea shore 

 but must have observed that incessant noise, that 

 continued murmur, which, even when the greatest 

 calm prevails, salutes his ear, and the beautiful white 

 edging by which the floating mantle is fringed at its 

 extremities. This soft and placid murmur, and these 

 graceful white curls, are occasioned by the motion 

 of the waves on the extended beach ; and, trivial as 

 they may appear, serve as perpetual monitors to 

 warn the passenger where the line of boundary com- 

 mences, which separates the land from the water; 

 and as the rushing noise of the rapid river, and the 

 tremendous roar of the dreadful cataract, serve to 

 point out the path of danger to the bewildered tra- 

 veller, particularly under the cloud of night, these, 

 as well as the luminous appearance of the sea, and 

 the noise of the breakers on the rocks, in regions 



