SHIPS THAT PASS 



259 



about the heavens, the sky and the gorgeous 

 staining of the horizon clouds, come from the 

 sea. There is nothing it does not share, no 

 splendor that it has not illuminated, no beauty 

 that it has not made. The sea is above all, the 

 supreme element ! 



And yet from that steamer deck sometimes 

 sad eyes look out at night upon the rush of 

 waters with their flashing white caps, and in 

 the tumult of the stormy surface see only the 

 likeness to the human struggle, the maddening 

 strife for position and power, 



"the turbid ebb and flow 

 Of human misery." 



Inevitably will come with such a vision the use- 

 lessness of endeavor, the hopelessness of con- 

 flict, the certainty of defeat and death. If 

 death then why postpone it? Why drag on 

 another day, another year, only to be beaten 

 down and overwhelmed at last? 



But that way lies madness. And for the mad 

 the sea has her own special lure. The foaming 

 caps keep beckoning with long, white fingers, 

 and every wave that races dovm the steamer's 

 side seems calling " Come ! Come ! " And men 

 from time to time — mad men — ^have answered 

 with a sudden spring over the rail and into the 



The aii- 



preme 



element 



A false 

 view. 



The lure 

 of the sea. 



