14 SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



ink has a perfume when your first " proofs " arrive. Who 

 will revive within me that flutter which deprived me of all 

 coolness and presence of mind, as first I saw the long gi-ey 

 serpent-like tentacles oi Anthea cereus waving to and fro 

 in a clear pool ? Who will restore the enthusiasm of that 

 moment when my eye first rested on a clump of Clavelince 

 (Plate I., fig. 4), almost as translucent as the water in which 

 they stood ? And wherefore, three weeks afterwards, could 

 I not be induced to stop and pick up cither of these, unless 

 of very magnificent pretensions ? If nature were not more 

 inexhaustible than man's curiosity, we should come to the 

 end of our hunting pleasures in a few years. As it is, our 

 lifetime is too brief 



If these first thrills can never come back to us, there is 

 ample compensation in the new vistas which open with 

 increasing knowledge ; the first kiss may be peculiar in its 

 charm, but as the years roll on, we learn to love more and more 

 the cheek on which we first foimd little besides that charm. 

 Knowledge widens, and changes its horizon ; and as we 

 travel, we pass under newer skies lighted by serener stars. 

 In direct contact with Nature we not only learn reverence 

 by having our own insignificance forced on us, but we leani 

 more and more to appreciate the Infinity on all sides ; so 

 that we cannot give ourselves up to one small segment of the 

 circle, no matter how small, without speedily disceniing that 

 life piled on life would not suffice to travel over this .small 

 segment of a segment. And yet the very immensity of the 

 world of Life is a source of encouragement. Compared with 

 what is accessible to us, the knowledge, even of the wisest, 



