rolling one over the other, as if impelled by a superior force to
overwhelm the spot on which I stood. My nostrils involuntarily
inhaled the saline vapours which arose from the dispersed particles
of the foaming billows, or from the weeds scattered on the shores.
My mind suggested a thousand vague reflections, pleasing in the hour
of their spontaneous birth, but now half forgot, and all indistinct:
and who is the landman that can behold without affright so singular
an element, which by its impetuosity seems to be the destroyer of
this poor planet, yet at particular times accumulates the scattered
fragments and produces islands and continents fit for men to dwell
on! Who can observe the regular vicissitudes of its waters without
astonishment; now swelling themselves in order to penetrate through
every river and opening, and thereby facilitate navigation; at other
times retiring from the shores, to permit man to collect that
variety of shell fish which is the support of the poor? Who can see
the storms of wind, blowing sometimes with an impetuosity
sufficiently strong even to move the earth, without feeling himself
affected beyond the sphere of common ideas? Can this wind which but
a few days ago refreshed our American fields, and cooled us in the
shade, be the same element which now and then so powerfully
convulses the waters of the sea, dismasts vessels, causes so many
shipwrecks, and such extensive desolations? How diminutive does a
man appear to himself when filled with these thoughts, and standing
as I did on the verge of the ocean! This family lived entirely by
fishing, for the plough has not dared yet to disturb the parched
surface of the neighbouring plain; and to what purpose could this
operation be performed! Where is it that mankind will not find
safety, peace, and abundance, with freedom and civil happiness?
Nothing was wanting here to make this a most philosophical retreat,
but a few ancient trees, to shelter contemplation in its beloved