2 . SEA MOSSES. 



beside the sounding sea, and watch the incoming and 

 outgoing tides, as 



"The nightmared ocean murmurs and yearns, 

 Welters and swashes, and tosses and turns, 

 And the dreary black seaweed lolls and wags; " 



or listen Hstless to the beating of the sleepless waves. 

 as they go tumbling among the rocks, 



" With sobs in tlie rifts where the coarse kelp shifts, 

 Falling and lifting, tossing and drifting, 

 And under all a deep, dull roar. 

 Dying and swelling for evermore; " 



or send their thoughts wandering around the world, 

 cruising on every shore, with that white sail yonder 

 which just now slid down behind the edge of the sky. 



Somehow, one cannot look upon the wide blue sea, 

 and listen to its rythmic beating, without feeling 

 that in some true sense he is looking into Nature's 

 soul, and hearing her great heart beat. For true it 

 is, the mighty voice of Old Ocean plays a low melodious 

 accompaniment to all the deepest thoughts that stir in 

 the human heart, and makes the soul feel its eternal 

 kinship with all the great forms and forces of the 

 universe. 



But, there is another pleasure which " this great 

 and wide sea " can give us, besides that which she 

 offers to our fancy and our dreams. It is the con- 

 templation and study of the exquisitely beautiful flora 

 which she nurtures in her ample waters. When \'oii 



