The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1882-06-17
TIN MOnOtOnOus Sea.

Alike rom end to end, from horizon to
horizon, with no break it its absolute
horizontal tlamess, no mountain or val
ley or depession to mar its homogeneous
level it dfights one by its solemn same
ness, and " the ease with which we can
follow the one long boundary curve
where itssedge stands off sharply and
distinctly fDm the limiting sky. 1t can
not be dernd that if you stand quite
close to it, q the shore, you may get va
riety in its rases of billow or calm, and
that is the spect oftenest given us by
marine painers, who may be supposed
to know bes, about the proper feelings
on the subjec. But then these marine
painters do MT really paint the sea, they
paint bit of ,hore, with huge rocks or
Cornish lions n the foreground, and the
big waves dasling themselves furiously
to pieces in their endless attack upon the
hostile coast. That is fine sight, no
doubt, one of the finest sights that man
can look upon; but s not specially dis
tinctive of the sea initself. 1t is an ac-
cident of the point where sea and land
meet as enemies, mo- the essential and
central fact of the sets own personal ex-
istence. The grand value of the ocean
as an element of scenery lies rather in
this very monotony and infnity of same
ness. BY contrast with the land it is de-
lightful to look upon that vast sheet of
UNMARRIED water, ever the same through
out its limitless expanse, and without a
single salient point in any direction
which will enable one to divide it men
tally into parts and frictions. 1t is q
picturable, conceivable realizable whole
beside the infinitely diversified mass of
a aas 9pr Ps%dsEed brains fail sntFe
tend that he has fairly consistent pict-
ure in his mind-not of all England, but
of the country for a single square mile
around him, and at the same time, can
any man deny that he has fairly consis-
tent picture in his mind of the entire
ocean?
This view of the question, paradox
ical though it sounds, is also, we
fatter ourselves, that of the greatest
and truest poets. Do not the Greeks
dwell ever on the contrast between the
varied aspect of the land and the
level monotony of the barren water?
Was not that the notion in the mind of
Homer when he made his Achilles sit
down tearfully beside the shore of the
boundless unvintaged sea? Is it not the
central idea of all episodes in the Odessy?
Does it not inspirethe Atys of Catullua
as he looks across the solitary, lonely
deep from the Phrygian precinct of Cy-
belle? Nay, even in the Miltonic pict-
ure, the sea of liquid fire seems to stand
out in like manner from the crags and
precipices of the solid. hell. There is
hardly poet who does not use the in
terminable UNMARRIED sea as a foil to the
perpetual variety and diversity of the
infinitely detailed land. Indeed, the
difficulty is rather to account for the
common saying that the sea is so change
full, when one thinks for moment how
obvious and grand mon0tony must
really be to everyone. The true sub.
Unity of the ocean is derived, not from
its puny waves, mere surface agitations
after all, but from its vast unbroken and
interchangeable expanse. Yet somebody
once ventured upon the bold paradox
that the sea was always changing,
never the same; and everybody went on
repeating it after him till the paradox
had become platitude, and the simple
statement of the real fact now seems
paradoxical in its turn. Pail Mall Gu
zoffo