THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 995 
“Nothing can exceed the solemn stillness of a night 
at sea within the tropics, when the wind is light, 
and the water comparatively smooth. Few periods 
and situations amid the diversified circumstances 
of human life, are equally adapted to excite con- 
templation, or to impart more elevated conceptions 
of the Divine Being, and more just impressions of 
the insignificancy and dependence of man. In order 
to avoid the vertical rays of a tropical sun, and the 
painful effects of the reflection from the water, 
many of my voyages among the Georgian and So- 
ciety Islands have been made during the night. At 
these periods I have often been involuntarily brought 
under the influence of a train of thought and feel- 
ing peculiar to the season and the situation, but 
never more powerfully so than on the present oc- 
casion. 
“The night was moonless, but not dark. The 
stars increased in number and variety as the even- 
ing advanced, until the whole firmament was over- 
spread with luminaries of every magnitude and 
brilliancy. The agitation of the sea had subsided, 
and the waters around us appeared to unite with the 
indistinct, though visible, horizon. In the heaven 
and the ocean, all powers of vision were lost; while 
the brilliant lights in the one being reflected from 
the surface of the other, gave a correspondence to the 
appearance of both, and almost forced the illusion 
on the mind, that our little bark was suspended in 
the centre of two united hemispheres. 
“The perfect quietude that surrounded us was 
equally impressive. No objects were visible but the 
