Lewisburg chronicle. [volume] (Lewisburg, Pa.) 1850-1859, 1850-08-28
Life on the Ocean.

Life on the Ocean.
Mr.. Kinney. late editor of The Newark
Daily Advertiser, but who recently left tc
ill the appointment Of Consul at Sardinia
gives the following description Of the voy-
age across The ocean ::
An Atlantic steamer, peopled for the sea
is itself world. comprising specimens o.
almost every nation on the habiiable globe
When the " America" left her wharf on
the 18th of June, in her hundred and twenty
passengers were included English. Irish,
Scotch, Welsh. Canadians, North Ameri.
cans, South Americans, Mexicans. West
Indians, Spanish, French. Germans, Danes.
&C., The United States Representatives
being Yankees, New Yorkers, ,Souiherners,
and Western men. You will easily i'm
agine that these formed motley company
when they dined, an irregular army when
they walked. and Babel when they
talked, To US, these human patterns OF
all worlds would have furnished study and
amusement for the whole voyage had there
been nothing TO wonder at, ponder, and ad {.
mire in the surrounding waste" in the
blue above, and the blue below" As it
was, the studies Of nature, and human nd
,urs alternately filled up the time, SO that
it passed almost TOO rapidly away. Talk
now TO those who never crossed the ocean
before, OF its ferrors, and they would no,
understand you for, TO US the sea was a
liberal friend. doubling the smile of Heaven
that bent over our heads in cerulean beau
ly; or, capricious mirror, golden in the
sunlight. and silvered by the moon tina,
blessed all our nights with her compan.
ionable beams.
But. lest we should pass over the great
deep, filled only with the sence of beauty,
the august presence oficebergs-'hose cit
adels Of arctic seas-awakened in us a
deep sense Of the sublimity and reverence
ever due to Ocean, that mighty "Eerarch
Of NATURE" whose "voice OF many waters
leads the worship Of Creation. On the
morning OF our first Sabbath out, the in
creased chilliness OF the atmosphere gave
limitations Of proximity to these ice-moun.
tains, which ere noon stood round US, at
safe distance, rearing their majestic sum-
mits, crowned with innumerable gems.
They were Of every shape, from pyramid
to the Grecian temple-of the vhiiesi
white, and seemed alabaster palaces. tenn
pies and monuments, not in motion, but TO
stand firm, based in the depth Of the deep,
and pointing 10 the sun tina, gilded the tow
ers.
But, to pass from the lofty scenery of
Nature to scene Of moral su5imitv-
more pleasing than his migh,iest works to
the God Of Nature, who listens to the Sab
bath bell no less complacently when i,
swings at the masthead Of an humble ship.
than when rung out TO far hills from the
temple spire-Ie, me take you into the sa.
loon ofihe /" America, where the Captain
sits in the centre with the Bible and Prayer
Book before him, surrounded by his Off
GERS and his hardy sailors, washed and
neatly a,tired, on the one hand, and the
congregation on the o,her-llke a father
in the midst of household. In a clear,
rich voice, he reads the service of the Eng
ish Church, following it with a welI-se.
Iectedand impressive sermon. The hearty
responses Of the seamen-the blessed proof
that, at least. once in the week they are
reminded Of and directed 10 the sailors
truest Friend, could not but touch the
Christian heart, and more than one Of that
company of worshiPPers felt deeply.as they
were leaving the land oil religious liberty,
" how blessings brighten as they take their
fight"