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GULLS. 
sublimity. The boasted works of art, the highest towers, 
and the noblest domes, are but ant hills when put in 
comparison. 
“ To walk along the shore when the tide is departed, or 
to sit in the hollow of a rock when it is come in, attentive 
to the various sounds that gather on every side, above and 
below, may raise the mind to its highest and noblest 
exertions. 
“ The solemn roar of the waves, swelling into and 
subsiding from the vast caverns beneath, the piercing 
note of the gull, the frequent chatter of the guillemot, 
the loud note of the auk, the screams of the heron, 
and the hoarse, deep periodical croaking of the cormorant, 
all unite to furnish out the grandeur of the scene, 
and turn the mind to Him who is the essence of all 
sublimity.” 
It is amid such scenes as these that we naturally look 
for and find the next of Shakespeare’s birds, the Gull, or, 
as he sometimes calls it, the “Sea-mell” (The Tempest , 
Act ii. Sc. 2). 
In no passage, however, do we find a reference to any 
particular species of gull; the word is used in its generic 
sense only, and is most frequently applied metaphorically 
to a dupe or a fool:— 
“ Why, ’tis a gull, a fool ! ” 
Henry V. Act iii. Sc. 6. 
