120 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



tention to the labours of my anatomical investiga- 

 tions, made me feel the need of complete repose, I 

 would betake myself to the beach, where, stretched 

 full length on the grassy slope of some hill, I gave 

 the rein to my thoughts. If you still preserve any 

 of those illusions which, day by day, are vanishing 

 amid the turmoils of life, if you regret the dreams 

 that have fled never to return, go to the ocean side, 

 and there on its sonorous banks you will assuredly 

 recall some of the golden fancies that shed their 

 radiance over the hours of your youth. If your 

 heart have been struck by any of those poignant 

 griefs which darken a whole life, go to the borders 

 of the sea, seek out some lonely beach, an Archipelago 

 of Chausey, or an Isle of Brehat, beyond reach of the 

 exacting conventionalities of society ; and when your 

 spirit is well-nigh broken with anguish, seek some 

 elevated rock, where your eye may at once scan the 

 heaving ocean and the firmament above ; listen to the 

 grand harmonious voices of the winds and waves, as 

 at one moment they seem to murmur gentle melodies, 

 and at another to swell in the thundering crash of 

 their majesty; mark the capricious undulations of 

 the waves, as far as the bounds of the horizon, where 

 they merge into the fantastic figures of the clouds, 

 and seem to rise before your eyes into the liquid sky 

 above. Give yourself up to the sense of infinitude, 

 which is stealing over your mind, and soon the tears 

 you shed will have lost their bitterness; you will 

 feel ere long that there is nothing in this world 

 which can so thoroughly alleviate the sorrows of the 

 heart as the contemplation of nature, and of the 



