Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1885-05-02

BYOLrvER WENDELL HOLMES.

The Ocean says to the dweller on Its
shores:
You are neither welcome nor unwei-
come. do not trouble myself with the
living tribes that come down to my wa
tiers. have my own people. an oidsr
race than yours, that grow to migntier ui-
nensions than your mastodons ana eie-
plants; more numerous than all tne
sxarms that fill the air or move over inc
thin crust Of the earth. Who are you that
build your gay palaces on my margin!
see your white faces rs saw the dark
/ faces OF the tribes that came before you
as ] shall look upon the unknown family
of mankind that will come after you. Ana
what il YOUR whole human family bu:
parenlhesis in single page OF my history |!
The raindrops stereoiyped themselves on
nv be aches before living creature left
his footprints there. This horseshoe crab
| fling at your feet is of older lineage than
your Adam.-unless. perhaps, you count
your Adam as one Of his descendants.
What feeling have for you? Not scorn.
mot hafrpd,-not love.-not lOaihlng.-
No lind ference, Indifference to
YOU and your affairs, that is my feeling.
sav rather absence of feeling. AS regards
YOU. Oh yes, will lap your feet ! will
cool YOU in the hot summer days. 1 VIII
bear you up in my strong arms.l VIII rock
Won on nv rolling fluctuations like babe
| in his cradle. Am | not gentle? Am !
not kindp Am | not harmlessP But
bark, The wind is rising, and the wind
and / are rough play mates! What do
YOU say 10 my voice now? DO you see
my foaming lipsP Do you feel The
rocks ,rs mble as my great pillows crash
against them Is not my anger terrible as
dash your argosy, your thunder Dear
ing frigaie, into fragments as you would
crack an eggshel No, not anger; deaf
blind, unhe, ding indifference.-Ihat is all
Out Of me all things arose; sooner or
later. into me all things suhside. All
changes around me. change not. look
not al YOU, vain man, ard Your frall. tran
STORY concerns. save in momentary gimp
SIS: | look on the white face OF my dead
mistress. whom follow as the bridegroom
follows the bier OF her who has changed
Ter nuptial raiment for the shroud.
"Ye whose thoughts are Of eternity.
come dwell at my side. Continents and
isles grow old, and waste and di-appenr.
The hardest rock crumbles; vegetable anc
animal Kingdoms come into being, wax
great, decline and perish, to give way to
others. even as human dynasiies and ma
lions and races come and go. Look on
me Time writes no wrinkle" on my
forehead Listen to me! All tongues are
spoken on nv shores, but have only one
language: the winds taught me their vow
els the crags and the sands schooled me
in my rough or smooth consonants. Few
words are mine, but | have whispered
them and sung them and shouted them to
men of all tribes from the time when the
first wild wanderer strayed into my awful
presence. Have you q grief that gnaws
at your heart-strings? Come with it TO
my shore, as of old he priest of far-dart-
ing Apollo carried his rage and anguish t"
the margin of the loud-roaring sea.
There. if anywhere. you will forget your
private and short-llved woe, for my voict
speaks to the infinite and the eternal in
your consciousness. MAY atlantic.