152 A CALM. 



months ago. My visit to Jamaica becomes every 

 year more filled with hiatuses of recollection, and 

 more and more reduces itself to a general hue ; lovely 

 and empurpled, indeed, it will ever be, but one in 

 which it req[uires more and more effort to trace se- 

 quences and to separate adventures; while of early 

 life how large a portion seems (perhaps only seems) 

 consigned to absolute oblivion ! Yet here and there, 

 along the line of retrospective glance, there are points 

 and prominences, which seem as if they could never 

 die, occurrences which are, as it were, bumt-in on 

 the memory, and which the haziness of approximate 

 scenes and incidents serves only to place in bolder 

 relief; just as an increase of distance often makes 

 more conspicuous the mountain peaks, which the 

 proximity of a multitude of minor objects concealed 

 or obscured. 



Suddenly the wind fails ; ruffles up a little, then 

 fails again ; another little puff; but all in vain. The 

 sea becomes as smooth as a table, as glassy as a mirror. 

 There is a dancing, glimmering haze all round the 

 horizon, which tells us it is all over with us ; and the 

 sun looking out of a sky unveiled by a cloud, pours 

 down his ire upon our heads in the most ferocious 

 manner possible ; — and we a couple of leagues from 

 home ! I thought of the Ancient Mariner : — 



" Down dropped the breeze, the sails dropped down ; 

 'Twas sad as sad could be; 

 And'we did speali, only to break 

 The silence of the sea." 



Nothing remained but to unstep the mast, and put 



