COMMON OBJECTS OF THE SHORE. 317 



tinuous sound lulls us into that state of quietness 

 favourable to meditation and uninterrupted trains 

 of thought. And when the storm-wind sweeps 

 over the sea, and we listen breathlessly to the 

 wild harpings of the waves, the spirit seems 

 awakened too, the thoughts are borne away, and 

 blending themselves with the sublimities of nature, 

 the listener seems awhile to forget in the elevation 

 of the spirit, that there is yet a portion of him 

 which is of the earth and mortal. It is in moments 

 like these, amid the deep yearnings of the soul for 

 something beyond all that the material world can 

 offer, that the poet and the philosopher are first 

 awakened to a new existence. It is at moments 

 like these, and amid the longings for the infinite, 

 that the Christian turns with renewed gratitude 

 to that Holy Eecord which tells of Life and 

 Immortality. 



Never, perhaps, is the sea more lovely than 

 when on some summer evening, after a succession 

 of stormy days, it has become calmed and is lighted 

 up with a glow of phosphorescent brightness ; when 

 as the boat glides onwards 



" Every track 

 Is a flash of golden fire." 



Every one who has resided for any length of 

 time on the shore, can remember some calm nights 

 of this kind, when the moon shone in silvery lines 

 across the water, and spread its bright gleam over 

 its whole surface, making it look like burnished 

 steel. A wake of light has seemed to follow every 

 boat ; and if the hand was dipped into the sea, it 

 brought up glittering sparks which dropped from 

 it. If we ask some mariner how this may be, and 



