Sea. Just before he left he said, "After I am gone to-day, I want you
to read Schiller's poem of the 'Ring of Polycrates,' if you do not
recall it too distinctly. You will know then how I feel about my
visit." He repeated also some English hexameters he had essayed from
the first book of the Iliad. He believes the work may be still more
perfectly done than has ever yet been achieved. We drove to Gloucester
wrapped in a warm sea fog. His enjoyment of the green woods and the
sea breeze was delightful to watch. "Ay me! ay me! woods may decay,"
but who can dare believe such life shall cease from the fair world!

Seeing the Portland steamer pass one night, a speck on the horizon,
bearing as he knew his daughter and her husband, he watched it long,
then said, "Think of a part of yourself being on that moving speck."

The Sunday following that visit he wrote from Portland:--
"Church bells are ringing; clatter of church-going feet on the
pavement; boys crying 'Boston Herald;' voices of passing men and
women: these are the sounds that come to me at this upper window,
looking down into the street.

"I contrast it all with last Sunday's silence at Manchester-by-the-
Sea, and remember my delightful visit there. Then comes the thought of
the moonlight and the music and Shelley's verses,--

"'As the moon's soft splendor
O'er the faint, cold starlight of heaven
Is thrown;'

and so on