although Darwin's _Origin of Species_ did not appear until 1859.


CXXIII

"Again the mysterious play of mighty cosmic forces arrests his thought.
Everything in the material universe is changing, transient; all is in a
state of flux, of motion, of perpetual disintegration or re-integration.
But there is one thing fixed and abiding--that which we call spirit--and
amid all uncertainty, one truth is certain--that to a loving human soul a
parting which shall be eternal is unthinkable."--_Elizabeth R. Chapman_.

4. STILLNESS. Hallam Tennyson remarks that balloonists say that even in
a storm the middle sea is noiseless. It is the ship that is the cause of
the howling of the wind and the lashing of the storm.

4. CENTRAL SEA. Far from land.

8. LIKE CLOUDS, ETC. A reference to geological changes.