POWER OF WINDS AND WAVES. 207 



with spray ; it shakes it nods it curls forward, and 

 for a moment the liquid column hangs suspended in 

 the air ; but down it dashes in one volume of snow- 

 white foam, which dances and ripples upon the beach. 

 There is an instant retreat, and the clean and smooth 

 pebbles, as they are drawn back by the reflux of the 

 water, emulate in more harsh and grating sounds the 

 thunder of the wave. 



Here we may see what a wonderful thing motion is. 

 What is so bland and limpid as still water ! what sub- 

 stance half so soft and fine as the motionless atmo- 

 sphere ! The one does not loosen a particle of sand : 

 the other you must question with yourself, and even 

 add a little faith to feeling, before you be quite sure 

 of its existence. But arm them once with life, or with 

 that which is the best emblem and the most universal 

 indication of life, motion, and they are terrible both in 

 their grandeur and their power. The sand is driven 

 like stubble ; the solid earth must give way ; and the 

 rocks are rent from the promontory, and flung in ruins 

 along its base. Need we, therefore, wonder that the 

 masts and cordage that man constructs should be rent as 

 if they were gossamer, and his navies scattered like chaff. 



The grandest scenes, however, are found at those 

 places where former storms have washed away all the 

 softer parts, and the caverned and rifted rocks the 

 firm skeleton of the globe, as it were stand out to 

 contend with the turmoiling waters. The long roll of 

 the Atlantic upon the Cornish coast ; a south-easter 

 upon the cliffs of Yorkshire, or among the stupendous 

 caves to the eastward of Arbroath ; a north-easter in 

 the Bullers of Buchan ; or, better still, the whole mass 



