THE BREEZE ON BEACHY HEAD. 233 



holds the mind, as an invisible force holds back the 

 tide. A faith of expectancy, a sense that something 

 may drift up from the unknown, a large belief in the 

 unseen resources of the endless space out yonder, 

 soothes the mind with dreamy hope. 



The little rules and little experiences, all the petty 

 ways of narrow life, are shut off behind by the 

 ponderous and impassable cliff; as if we had dwelt in 

 the dim light of a cave, but coming out at last to look 

 at the sun, a great stone had fallen and closed the 

 entrance, so that there was no return to the shadow. 

 The impassable precipice shuts off our former selves 

 of yesterday, forcing us to look out over the sea only, 

 or up to the deeper heaven. 



These breadths draw out the soul ; we feel that we 

 have wider thoughts than we knew ; the soul has been 

 living, as it were, in a nutshell, all unaware of its own 

 power, and now suddenly finds freedom in the sun 

 and the sky. Straight, as if sawn down from turf to 

 beach, the cliff shuts off the human world, for the sea 

 knows no time and no era; you cannot tell what 

 century it is from the face of the sea. A Eoman 

 trireme suddenly rounding the white edge-line of chalk, 

 borne on wind and oar from the Isle of "Wight towards 

 the gray castle at Pevensey (already old in olden 

 days), would not seem strange. What wonder could 

 surprise us coming from the wonderful sea ? 



The little rills winding through the sand have made 

 an islet of a detached rock by the beach ; limpets 

 cover it, adhering like rivet-heads. In the stillness 

 here, under the roof of the wind so high above, the 

 sound of the sand draining itself is audible. From 



