THE WONDEKS OF THE SHORE. 135 



invested tlie old Greek fable of Glaucus the fisher- 

 man ; how, eating of the herb which gave his fish 

 strength to leap back into their native element, he 

 was seized on the spot with a strange longing to 

 follow them nnder the waves, and became for ever a 

 companion of the fair semi-hnman forms with which 

 the Hellenic poets peopled their snnny bays and 

 firths, feeding his "silent flocks" far below on the 

 green Zostera beds, or basking with them on the 

 sunny ledges in the summer noon, or wandering in 

 the still bays on sultry nights amid the choir of 

 Amphitrite and her sea-nymphs, 



" Joining the bliss of the gods, as they waken the coves with their 

 laughter," 



In nightly revels, whereof one has sung, — 



•'•' So they came up in their joy; and before them the roll of the 



surges 

 Sank, as the breezes sank dead, into smooth green foam-flecked 



marble 

 Awed ; and the cx-ags of the cliffs, and the pines of the mountains, 



were silent. 

 So they came up in their joy, and around them the lamps of the 



sea- nymphs, 

 Myriad fiery globes, swam heaving and panting, and rainbows. 



