PEEFACE-DEDICATION vii 



strange that in this material age one should 

 think of the ocean as anything more than an 

 element to be analyzed, a power to be utilized, 

 or a highway to be commercialized. The 

 beauty of the world has never been of great 

 pith or moment to mankind. Its admirers are 

 few, its destroyers are many. And those who 

 cry out against wanton destruction, those who 

 have seen forest and prairie and mountain 

 wrecked, and every river of our native land 

 blackened in the name of manufactures, now 

 go down to the shore and, looking out from the 

 rocky headlands, thank God for the unpolluted 

 sea. Man has plowed that sea with ships, 

 fought for it with navies, assumed command of 

 it from time to time; but never because of its 

 beauty. A more sordid aim has been his and 

 made him quite oblivious to charm. He has 

 pursued the golden will-o'-the-wisp, and Death 

 has sailed with him. Will he never learn that 

 happiness is not a matter of possessions, and 

 that mental content, joy of heart, a love of 

 loveliness, are more potent factors in human 

 well-being than naval power or commercial 

 gain? When the hurly burly's done, when the 

 flower is frayed and torn, perhaps he may heed, 

 but that will not be in our day. In the mean- 

 time the great ocean in all its glory spreads 



