All who possess an ordinary degree of mental activity,
and delight to create to themselves an inner world of thought, must be
penetrated with the sublime image of the infinite, when gazing around them
on the vast and boundless sea, when involuntarily the glance is attracted to
the distant horizon, where air and water blend together, and the stars
continually rise and set before the eyes of the mariner. This contemplation
of the eternal play of the elements is clouded, like every human joy, by a
touch of sadness and of longing.
A peculiar predilection for the sea, and a grateful remenbrance of the
impression which it has excited in my mind, when I have seen it in the
tropics in the calm of nocturnal rest, or in the fury of the tempest, have
alone induced me to speak of the individual enjoyment afforded by its aspect
before I entered upon the consideration of the favorable influence which the
proximity of the ocean has incontrovertibly exercised on the cultivation of
the intellect and character of many nations, by the multiplication of those
bands which ought to encircle the whole of humanity, by affording additional
means of arriving at a knowledge of the configuration of the earth, and
furthering the advancement of astronomy, and of all other mathematical and
physical sciences.
Pages:
627
628
629
630
631
632
633
634
635
636
637
638
639
640
641
642
643
644
645
646
647
648
649
650
651