Year: 1875

pations have long confined him to the
unexhilarating atmosphere Of library,
there is something unspeakably delight
full in sea voyage, Increasing years,
if they bring little else that is agreeable
with them, bring to some of US immunity
from seasickness. The regularity of
habit on board ship, the absence of
dinner parties, the exchange CT the
table in the close room for the open
deck, under an awning, and the ever
blowing breeze which the motion of the
vessel forbids to sink intopa calm, give
vigor to the tired system, restore the
conscious enjoyment of elastic health,
and even mock US for the moment with
the belief that age is an illusion, and
that the wild freshness" of the morning
of life has not yet passed away forever.
About our heads ia the arch of the sky,
around us the ocean rolling free and
fresh as it rolled a million years ago,
and our spirits catch contagion from
the elements. Our step on the boards
RECEIVERS its buoyancy. We are rocked
to rest at night by gentle movement,
which soothes us into the dreamless
sleep of childhood, and we wake with
the certainty that we are beyond the
reach of the postman. We are shut of,
as in Catholic retreat, from the wor-
ries and anxieties of the world No
Times upon the breakfast table calls our
thoughts to the last news from Spain or
St. Petersburg, or the vehemently ex'
pressed nothings Of last nights debate in
Parliament Once, indeed, when we
we're crossing the Atlantic in a Cunard
steamer, the steward entered the saloon
with pile of fresh damp sheets under
his arm. "Has it come to this? | said
to myself HAS Yankee enterprise in
vaded even the ocean, and robbed us
even of our ten days respite from the
leading articles and the latest inteli
gence2" But the steward was playing
pleasantly with the spiritual appetite Of
the passengers. He had kept back hall
the stock which he had brought with him
from Liverpool, and bad preserved it be
tween moistened blankets if the reality
was beyond our reach we might stay our
hunger with the imaginary substitute
This was the explanation of the mystery;
the waste of waters was still unconquered
and such of us as priced our briet inter.
val of tranquility were left undisturbed


We are speaking at present. however,
not of the stormy passage across what
the Americans call the herring-pond, but
of the delicious latitudes of the trades
where the water is sapphire blue, where
soft airs breathe lightly on the surface
and the sharp jerk of the angry wave is
never felt; where the aying-6sh spring
from under the bows on either side the
ship like lines OF spreading foam; where
you sleep with your doors and windows
wide open, sheet the heaviest covering
you can bear, and the air is sweet anC
cool as in that far distant land where
Menelaus dwells because he was the son
in-law OF Zeus-


Where never falls or rain, or hail, or snow
And ever of the sea the whispering breeze


blow"


Here newspapers, here letters ever
from those who are nearest TO us are al
intrusion into the session of sweet, 81
lent thought which has been snatcheC
out of the tumult of our ordinary exis
tence. We enter the world alone, We
leave it alone There is always part o
our being into which those who are dearel
to us than our own lives are yet unable
to enter. The solitary side Of our ma
ture demands leisure for reflections upor
subjects on which the dash and whirl o
daily business, so long as its clouds rist
thick about us, forbid the intellect t,
fasten itself.


The mind nevertheless, cannot stead,
itself by its single strength; we requir,
companions-but companions which in
trude upon us only when we invite them
we require books, and the choice is
serious one. OF novels in the cabin Ii
brary there is always a liberal supply
Passengers provide themselves with shil
ling and sixpence editions, which ar
strewed about the benches and tn
hatchways, and by those whose future i
still land of hope and uncertainty ar
greedily perused. AS we grow old, how
ever, the class of novels which we rea
with interest rapidly diminishes, Th
love-agonies Of the Fredericks aud Do
rotheas cease to be absorbing, as the pos
sibilities Of such excitemeuts for oul
selves have set below our horizon. A
the crisis Of the lovers fortunes we il
cline to the parental view Of the situs