Perhaps I carried
the point too far, in the pleasure which I took in thus seeing
myself beaten and bandied by the swelling waters. Those who were
with me took notice of my intrepidity."[171]
[171] From Thomas C. Upham's Life and Religious Opinions and
Experiences of Madame de la Mothe Guyon, New York, 1877, ii. 48,
i. 141, 413, abridged.
The contempt of danger which religious enthusiasm produces may be
even more buoyant still. I take an example from that charming
recent autobiography, "With Christ at Sea," by Frank Bullen. A
couple of days after he went through the conversion on shipboard
of which he there gives an account--
"It was blowing stiffly," he writes, "and we were carrying a
press of canvas to get north out of the bad weather. Shortly
after four bells we hauled down the flying-jib, and I sprang out
astride the boom to furl it. I was sitting astride the boom when
suddenly it gave way with me. The sail slipped through my
fingers, and I fell backwards, hanging head downwards over the
seething tumult of shining foam under the ship's bows, suspended
by one foot.
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