Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-06-01
Contrast Between the Earth aud the
Ocean.

Ocean.
Annexed Is q translation frem Michelet .
Great, very great, is the difference be-
tween the earth and the ocean. The earth
is dumb; the ocean speaks. The ocean it.
self is q voice. 1t speaks to the distant stars,
and their movements with its grave
and solemn tongue. With a pathetic accent
speaks it to the shores of the earth, convers-
ing with their echoes; plaintive now, and
low menacingly. But it is to man, above
all, that he addresses his voice. As he is the
teeming crucible where creation has COM
menced, and continues in its fulles. power,
so he possesses all its living power; and
when be speaks, it is life addressing life.
The beings which by millions and millions
OF millions are born in its deeps, are his
words. The sea Of milk from which they
rise, the fruitful marine jelly, even while vet
~unorganized, white and foaming, has a voice.
And all together, mingled into one, are the
grand voice of the ocean. And of what
speaks the ocean, 1t speaks of life, the
eternal metamorphosis. 1t speaks of the
fluid existence, and puts to shame the petri-
fed ambitions of life upon the earth. Of
what speaks the ocean OF immortality.
An indomitable power of vitality is at the
base of nature. How much more, then, in
its higher region, the soul2 OF what speaks
the ocean, OF solidarity. Let us accept
the law of rapid interchange which, in the
individual, exists between his various ele-
ments. Let US accept the superior law
which unites the living members of the same
body, humanity. And sbove all, the SUI
pIeme law which makes us cooperate with
the grand soul. which associates US, accord
ing to our degrees, with the living harmony
Of the world, makes us partners in the life Of
God.
Very distinctly does the oceans voice,
which people are 50 apt to consider only a
confused murmur, articulste these serious
words. But a man does not readily com.
prebend them when he first arrives on the
coast-weAry, exhausted, prosicised, and
deafened by vulgar sounds. By these means
the highest sense of life, even with the best,
becomes degraded. He is, as it were, on his
guard against it. And what now, shall
have an influence over him Nature? Not
yet. SofteDed by the influence of family
ties-by the innocence Of his child, by the
tenderness Of his wife-he begins gradually
to recover an interest in the cause Of human
ity. And il is on the sea-coast that we are
able to perceive that there is no distinction
of the sex in human souls. She, the wife,
is more touched by the aspect of the sea it..
self the poetry Of the infinite; but the man
with its dangers, its daily drama, the float.
ing destiny of the families entrusted 10 its
charge. Although q woman may be very
tender to individual miseries, she gives but
slight attention to those of classes.
Every laborious man, on the other hand,
who visits the sea coast, fixes his chief at
tention on the life Of the men who make
their living thereon the fishermen and
mariners, who, for SO small a reward, endure
so rough and hazardous a life. l see such a
man, while his wife is rising and dressing
their child, wandering on the shore. 1t is a
cold morning, after a night in which there
has been much rain. One by one the fish
ing. boats return, with every thing about
them soaked and chilled. The clothes of
the fishermen are, TO his eyes, disgusting.
He finds that their young children have also
passed the night;on the sea. And what have
tbeybrought back with them7 Not much
but they have preserved their lives. During
the violent gale Of the night the boats shipped
foods Of water, and destruction was every
moment at hand. And nov, what an occasion
Is this for the man who was yesterday com
planning SO bitterly Of his lot, TO turn upon
himself and say, "How much happier is my
portion in life than theirs."-Ths Sea.