THE OCEAN. 



INTRODUCTION. 



Who ever gazed upon the broad sea without 

 emotion? Whether seen in stern majesty, hoary 

 with the tempest, rolling its giant waves upon the 

 rocks, and dashing with resistless fury some gallant 

 bark on an iron-bound coast; or sleeping beneath 

 the silver moon, its broad bosom broken but by a 

 gentle ripple, just enough to reflect a long line of 

 light, a path of gold upon a pavement of sapphire ; 

 who has looked upon the sea without feeling that it 

 has power 



"To stir the soul with thoughts profound?" 



Perhaps there is no earthly object, not even the 

 cloud-cleaving mountains of an alpine country, so 

 sublime as the sea in its severe and naked simplicity. 

 Standing on some promontory whence the eye roams 

 far out upon the unbounded ocean, the soul expands, 

 and we conceive a nobler idea of the majesty of that 

 God, who holdeth "the waters in the hollow of His 

 hand." But it is only when on a long voyage, 

 climbing day after day to the giddy elevation of the 



B (13) 



