310 COSMOS. 



The abundance of these marine anhnalcules, and the anima* 

 matter yielded by their rapid decomjjosition, are so vast that 

 the sea water itself becomes a nutrient fluid to many of tho 

 larger animals. However much this richness in animated 

 forms, and this multitude of the most various and highly-de- 

 veloped microscopic organisms may agreeably excite the fancy, 

 the imagination is even more seriously, and, I m^ight say, more 

 solemnly moved by the impression of boundlessness and im- 

 measurability, which are presented to the mind by every sea 

 voyage. All who possess an ordinary degree of mental activi- 

 ty, and delight to create to themselves an inner world of 

 thought, must be penetrated with the sublime image of the 

 infinite when gazing around them on the vast and boundless 

 sea, when involuntarily the glance is attracted to the distant 

 horizon, where air and water blend together, and the stars con- 

 tinually rise and set before the eyes of the mariner. This con- 

 templation of the eternal play of the elements is clouded, like 

 every human joy, by a touch of sadness and of longing. 



A peculiar predilection for the sea, and a grateful remem- 

 brance of the impression which it has excited in my mind, when 

 I have seen it in the tropics in the calm of nocturnal rest, or 

 in the fury of the tempest, have alone induced me to speak of 

 the individual enjoyment afibrded by its aspect before I en- 

 tered upon the consideration of the favorable influence which 

 the proximity of the ocean has incontrovertibly exercised on 

 the cultivation of the intellect and character of many nations, 

 by the multiplication of those bands which ought to encircle 

 the whole of humanity, by affording additional means of arriv- 

 ing at a knowledge of the configuration of the earth, and fur- 

 thering the advancement of astronomy, and of all other math- 

 ematical and physical sciences. A portion of this influence 

 was at first limited to the Mediterranean and the shores of 

 southwestern Africa, but from the sixteenth century it has 

 wddely spread, extending to nations who live at a distance 

 from the sea, in the interior of continents. Since Columbus 

 was sent to " unchain the ocean"* (as the unknown voice 

 whispered to him in a dream when he lay on a sick-bed near 



* The voice addressed him iu these words, " Maravillosamente Dios 

 liizo sonar tu nombre en la tieiTa ; de los atamientos de la mar Oceana, 

 que estaban cerrados con cadenas tan tuertes, te dio las Haves" — " God 

 will cause thy name to be wonderfully resounded through the earth, 

 and give thee the keys of the gates of the ocean, which are closed with 

 strong chains." The dream of Columbus is related in the letter to the 

 Catholic monarchs of July the 7th, 1503. (Humboldt, Exavien CrUiqis.e, 

 L iii. p. 234.) 



