Year: 1860

There are many kinds of stiffness There is
the silence of u study or library-as it were the
calm, reflective broodng of thought, a quiet
shed from the spiritual presence Of the gifted


minds of other times. and which always soothes


the spirits, and refrcshes the heart. There is the


hush Of the summer woods, a silence that seems


TO reproach US as though we had startled some


boiler presence from its proper solitude by our
profane intrusion. There is the stiffness of the
city streets at midnight the more impressive
from our knowledge of the restless life and
busy passions that only sumber near, and which


a few hours will waken to intense and noisy toll.


There is the silence Of grand cathedral in its


week day emptiness, in which we recognize the
solcmnity Of its consecratcd uses, and which we


fear instinctively to desecrate by loud or care


less speech. And there is a stiffness in room
of death, which throws a sudden spell over


levity itself, too mysterious and strange for our


anal ysis. Bnt the silence Of the ocean is different


from all How thrilling, how overpowering is it


when the night shadows have settled deep over
the waves, and the sky and the sea are alone


together. 1T is the type of silence it is eternity
communing with its material symbol; it is voice
less, being dumb from reverent consciousness of
its own myStery-mute order gazing into the
bosom Of mute lawlessness!


For how many ages have those countless lights
looked down upon the sea- observed its stormy


and its noiseless WRATH witnessed the dark gath


erlng and spent energy Of the tempests, or seen
their own dim radiance mirriod in its peaceful
depths. How many tragedies have they not
looked down intO-the midnight murder and the
midnight wreck how many shricks Of wild un-
chastened terror how many calm and trusting
prayers from morals sinking for the last time in
the remOrselets waves, have ascended towards


them, equally unech0ed from its still aud solemn
vault. The ocean is the realm Of an awful 81
lence. It's waves lift themselves up nOiselessly
to the impulse of the winds, but few feet


fla off Of tbo It's Gill


currents flow unnoticed and unbroken. like the
constant purposes Of Providence below the APP
parent chance and tumull of buman history.


Especially is the desert silence of the ocean


impressive to the soul of the novice on its waves,


for the first time cut off from the channels of in
telligence and from the intercourse with the


world. The breeZes that travel from the Eastern


Ilemis phere bring no tidings with them of the
course of revolution and the fate Of Kingdoms.
In our musings and eager hypothesis about the


progress of freedom, and the triumph of right,
how does the sea mock us with its seemingly
conscious and intentional Indifference to the des-


tiny of man, as though it would say to us, "Vain
child of "a year, another century perhaps, and


these Kingdoms will have gOne while the play of
my billuws shall be as fresh when the ships of
Tarshisb, and tie Grecan fleets toated over them


in safety or sank into their bosom" The winds


that blow from home watt no tidings of the stea-
dy changes with which the shortest absence
startes the heart. They give us no hint of the
death Of friends they whisper not word of the
departure of the gifted and good, whose genius
was attuned to harmony with every force and
element of nature, whose friendship was one of
the choicest pleasures of existence. They breathe
not lisp of the sorrows Of others to which we
would respond by answering sympathy. The
sea is the throne of silence Upon it we are
thrown on our own resources and there is health
for our moral nature in its quiet, chastcnng, /
elevating influence The silence of the great
deep suggests thoughts Of the Infinite and Sub
lime.-EIchGnge.