THE SEA CALM. 205 



sublime contemplation, we find the mind expand with 

 the subject ; the fancy glides off to places more high 

 than line can measure, more deep than plummet can 

 sound ; we feel the link that binds us to creation ; and 

 finding it to be fair and lovely, our kindly feelings only 

 are touched, and we exult in the general happiness 

 of that of which we feel that we are a part. If then 

 a vessel should come in sight, with the sun illuminating 

 its canvas, like a beam of light on the blue sea, and 

 moving slow and stately, not seeming to us to be 

 in motion, and yet shifting miles before we can count 

 minutes, how we long to be passengers to walk upon 

 the waters to be wafted by the winds to visit the 

 remotest parts of the earth without half the effort 

 which is required before the sluggard can turn on 

 his couch. Then, if we linger till the sun declines, 

 and his beams are wholly reflected from the glowing 

 surface, what an excess of brightness ! An infinitude 

 of burnished gold, and of burnished gold all living 

 and in motion, stretches out at our feet; and as the 

 reflected light upon the shore wakens a gentle zephyr 

 of the air in that direction, the dimpling water plays 

 in alternate sunshine and shade, as if the luminary 

 had been broken to fragments, and gently strewed 

 along its surface. 



But if the elements are in motion, if the winds are 

 up, if the " blackness of darkness," which cloud upon 

 cloud, rolling in masses and roaring in thunder, which 

 answers to the call of the forked lightning, has flung 

 its shadow upon the sea, so as to change the soft green 

 to a dark and dismal raven blue, which gives all the 

 effect of contrast to the spray that dances on the 



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