THE WONDERS OF THE SHORE. 143 



and to tliem, as to us, as soon as we begin asking 

 " How f '' and " Why f " the mighty Mother will only 

 reply with that magnificent smile of hers, most 

 genial, but most silent, which she has worn since 

 the foundation of all worlds ; that silent smile which 

 has tempted many a man to suspect her of irony, 

 even of deceit and hatred of the human race ; the 

 silent smile which Solomon felt, and answered in 

 " Ecclesiastes ; " Avhich Goethe felt, and did not 

 answer in his " Faust ; " which Pascal felt, and tried 

 to answer in his " Thoughts," and fled from into self- 

 torture and superstition, terrified beyond his powers 

 of endurance, as he found out the true meaning of 

 St. John's vision, and felt himself really standing on 

 that fragile and slippery "sea of glass," and close 

 beneath him the bottomless abyss of doubt, and the 

 nether fires of moral retribution. He fled from 

 Nature's silent smile, as that poor old King Edward 

 (mis-called the Confessor) fled from her hymns of 

 praise, in the old legend of Havering-atte-bower, 

 when he cursed the nightingales because their songs 

 confused him in his prayers : but the wise man need 



