ASPECTS OF THE SEA. 27 



not irresistibly and at once coerce the mind to think of sub- 

 jects mysterious and awful — it carries with it no ineradi- 

 cable associations of terror and awe, such as are borne 

 in every murmur of old ocean — and thus is neither so 

 terrible nor so suggestive. As we look from the cliffs, every 

 wave has its history ; every swell keeps up suspense — 

 will it break now, or will it melt into that larger wave ? 

 And the log which floats so aimlessly on the wave, and 

 now is carried under again, like a drowning wretch, — 

 is it the fragment of some ship which has struck miles 

 and miles away, far from all heljo and all pity, unseen 

 except of Heaven, with no messenger of its agony to earth, 

 except this log which floats so buoyantly on the tide ? We 

 may weave some such tragic story, as we idly watch the 

 fluctuating advance of the dark log ; Init whatever we weave, 

 the story will not be wholly tragic, for the beauty and 

 serenity of the scene are sure to assert their influences, 

 mighty and unfathomable sea ! O terrible fiuniliar ! 

 grand and mysterious passion ! In thy gentleness thou art ter- 

 rible, when sleep smiles on thy quiet-heaving breast ; in thy 

 wrath and thunder thou art beautiful ! By the light of rising 

 or of setting suns, in grey dawn or garish day, in twilight 

 or in sullen storms of darkness, ever and everywhere beautiful ; 

 the poets have sung of thee, the painters have painted thee ; 

 but neither the song of the poet, nor the cunning of the 

 painter's hand, has caught more than faint reflexes of thy 

 incommvmicable grandeur, and loveliness inexhaustible ! 



During this digression our cigars have come to an end, and 

 the tide has almost cut off" our retreat. We clutch up our 



