OCEAN PLAINS 



117 



ceaseless energy of tiny polyps, a mere point 

 of limestone in the deep, how firmly it with- 

 stands the wash of the sea and the wear of the 

 wave! Tides ebb and flow, winds come and 

 storms rush by, but the citadel grows stronger, 

 lifts higher, becomes more beautiful. With its 

 ferns and shrubs and waving palms serenely 

 it rests under the southern sun and sky, a mere 

 speck in space; yet what a refuge, what an 

 earthly paradise! 



Those clustered islands of the Pacific that 

 welcomed Cook and sheltered the mutineers of 

 the Bounty, what romance clings about them 

 still ! Utopias of the sea, where nature al- 

 ways smiles and art is still an unkno\vn story, 

 were ever yet such fairylands for poetry and 

 song ! And how inevitably they provoke a con- 

 trast and pose again the question of human 

 happiness ! What vantage comes to us from 

 a boasted civilization, how bettered are we by 

 place and power and wealth? Men beat down 

 friend and foe alike, and uproot beauty on 

 the earth and in their own hearts, to gain an 

 evidence of riches; but what avails the horde 

 that brings no joy? Heap surplus upon 

 abundance, crown knowledge with enlighten- 

 ment if you will ; but a naked savage by these 

 southern shores with his bread-fruit, his sun- 



Cornl 

 groups. 



Romance 

 of the 

 South Srn 

 islands. 



