Sanders' Union Fourth Reader Part 75

3. _These three things_ form the gamut by which the Infinite speaks to our souls. Nevertheless, let us point out some very notable differences.

The _Air-ocean_ is so mobile that we can scarcely examine it. It deceives; it decoys; it diverts; it dissipates, and breaks up our chain of thought.

4. For an instant, it is an immense hope, the day of all infinity; anon, it is not so; all flies from before us, and our hearts are grieved, agitated, and filled with doubt. Why have I been permitted to see for a moment that immense flood of light? The memory of that brief gleaming must ever abide with me, and that memory makes all things here on earth look dark.

5. The _fixed Ocean of the mountains_ is not thus transient or fugitive; on the contrary, it stops us at every step, and imposes upon us the necessity of a very hard, though wholesome gymnastic. Contemplation here has to be bought at the price of the most violent action. Nevertheless, the opacity of the earth, like the transparency of the air, frequently deceives and bewilders us. Who can forget that for ten years, Ramon, in vain, sought to reach Mount Perdu though often within sight of it?

6. Great, _very great_, is the difference between the elements; the earth is mute and the ocean speaks. The ocean is a voice. It speaks to the distant stars; it answers to their movements in its deep and solemn language. It speaks to the earth on the sh.o.r.es, replying to the echoes that reply again; by turns wailing, soothing, threatening--its deepest roar is presently succeeded by a sad, pathetic silence.

7. And it especially addresses itself to man. It is creation's living eloquence. It is Life speaking to Life. The millions, the countless myriads of beings to which it gives birth, are its words. All these, mingled together make the unity, the great and solemn voice of the ocean. And "what are those wild waves saying?" They are talking of _Life,--of Immortality._

8. An indomitable strength is at the bottom of Nature--how much more so at Nature's summit, the Soul! And it speaks of partnership, of union.

Let us accept the swift exchange which, in the individual, exists between the diverse elements; let us accept the superior Law which unites the living members of the same body--Humanity; and, still more, let us accept and respect the supreme Law which makes us co-operate with the great Soul, a.s.sociated as we are--in proportion with our powers--with the loving harmony of the world--copartners in the life of G.o.d.

QUESTIONS.--1. What are three great forms of Nature? 2. What is said of the Air-ocean? 3. How does the Ocean address itself to man?

LESSON CVIII.

MO NOP' O LIZED, engrossed.

CEL' E BRA TED, praised; talked of.

PO' TENT LY, powerfully.

MAR' I TIME, pertaining to sea.

SA GAC' I TY, acuteness.

IN TRE PID' I TY, daring valor.

SAN' GUINE, b.l.o.o.d.y; cruel.

EC CEN TRIC' I TY, peculiarity, oddity.

WA' RI NESS, cautiousness.

ED' I BLE, eatable.

E MAN' CI PA TED, freed; liberated.

IN TER ME' DI ATE, lying between.

DEV AS TA TING, laying waste.

DOUB' LE, sail around.

[Headnote 1: BASQUES, (_basks_), an ancient and peculiar people, living on the slopes of the Pyrenees Mountains.]

[Headnote 2: BRE' TON, a native of Brittany, an ancient province in France.]

[Headnote 3: NOR' MAN, that is, Northman, a name given to the ancient inhabitants of Norway, Denmark, and Sweden, and afterward to their descendants who settled in the north of France.]

THE WHALE AND THE WHALER.

FROM THE FRENCH OF MICHELET.

1. Who opened up to men the great distant navigation? Who revealed the ocean, and marked out its zones and its liquid highways? Who discovered the secrets of the globe? _The Whale and the Whaler!_ And all this before Columbus and the famous gold-seekers, who have monopolized all the glory, found again, with much outcry about their discovery, what had so long before been discovered by the whalers.

2. That crossing of the ocean, which was so boastfully celebrated in the fifteenth century, had often been made, not only by the narrow pa.s.sage between Iceland and Greenland, but, also, by the open sea; for the Basques [Headnote 1] went to Newfoundland. The smallest danger was the mere voyage; for these men, who went to the very end of the _then_ known world, to challenge the whale to single combat, to steer right away into the Northern sea, to attack the mighty monster, amid darkness and storms, with the dense fog all around, and the foaming waves below,--those who could do this, were not the men to shrink from the ordinary dangers of the voyage.

3. n.o.ble warfare! Great school of courage! That fishery was not _then_, as it is _now_, an easy war to wage, made from a distance, and with a potently murderous machine. No; the fisher then struck with his own strong hand, impelled and guided by his own fearless heart, and he risked life to take life. The men of that day killed but few whales; but they gained infinitely in maritime ability, in patience, in sagacity, and in intrepidity. They brought back _less_ of oil; but _more, far more_ of glory.

4. Every nation has its own peculiar genius. We recognize each by its own style of procedure. There are a hundred forms of courage, and these graduated varieties formed, as it were, another heroic game. At the North, the Scandinavian, the rude race from Norway to Flanders, had their sanguine fury. At the South, the wild burst, the gay daring, the clear-headed excitement, that impelled, at once, and guided them over the world. In the center, the silent and patient firmness of the Breton [Headnote 2], who yet, in the hour of danger, could display a quite sublime eccentricity. And, lastly, the Norman [Headnote 3]

wariness, considerately courageous; daring all, but daring all for success. Such was the beauty of man, in that sovereign manifestation of human courage.

5. We owe a vast deal to the whale. But for it, the fishers would still have hugged the sh.o.r.e; for, almost every edible fish seeks the sh.o.r.e and the river. It was the whale that emanc.i.p.ated them, and led them afar. It led them onward, and onward still, until they found it, after having almost unconsciously pa.s.sed from one world to the other. Greenland did not seduce them; it was not _the land_ that they sought; but _the sea, and the tracks of the whale_.

6. The ocean at large is its home, and _especially_ the broad and open sea. Each species has its especial preference for this or that lat.i.tude,--for a certain zone of water, more or less cold. And it was _that_ preference which traced out the great divisions of the Atlantic.

The tribe of inferior whales, that have a dorsal fin, are to be found in the warmest and in the coldest seas,--under the line and in the polar seas.

7. In the great intermediate region, the fierce Cachalot inclines toward the south, devastating the warm waters. On the contrary, the Free Whale fears the warm waters,--we should rather say, that they did, formerly, fear them,--they have become so scarce. They are never found in the warm southern current; it is _that_ fact that led to the current being noticed, and thence to the discovery of the _true course from America to Europe_. From Europe to America, the trade winds will serve us.

8. If the Free Whale has a perfect horror of the warm waters, and can not pa.s.s the equator, it is clear that he can not double the southern end of America. How happens it, then, that when he is wounded on one side of America, in the Atlantic, he is sometimes found on the other side of America, and in the Pacific? _It proves that there is a north-western pa.s.sage_. Another discovery which we owe to the whale, and one which throws a broad light alike on the form of the globe, and the geography of the seas!

9. By degrees, the whale has led us everywhere. Rare as he is at present, he has led us to both poles, from the uttermost recesses of the Pacific to Behring's Strait, and the infinite wastes of the Antarctic waters. There is even an enormous region that no vessel, whether war-ship or merchantman, ever traverses, at a few degrees beyond the southern points of America and Africa. No one visits that region but the whaler.

QUESTIONS.--1. What has been done by the whaler? 2. By whom had Newfoundland been discovered? 3. What is said of the courage of the whaler? 4. What proof is given that there is a north-western pa.s.sage, by water, from the Atlantic to the Pacific?

LESSON CIX.

THRALL' DOM, bondage; slavery.

IG NO' BLE, mean; degraded.

HORDE, clan; tribe.

FEUD' AL, pertaining to military tenure.

DES' POTS, tyrants.

PAL' TRY, mean; contemptible.

RAP' INE,(_rapin;_) plunder; violence.

FOR SOOTH', in truth; in fact.

RUF' FIAN, robber; cut-throat.

SERV' ILE, slavish; cringing.

LIM' NERS, painters.

DIS CI' PLE, learner; follower.

CORSE, corpse; dead body.

BRAWL, wrangle; contention.

DIS TAIN' ED, sullied; stained.

ECH' O ED, resounded.

RIENZI'S ADDRESS TO THE ROMANS.

[Footnote: RI EN' ZI, the last of the Roman Tribunes, was born in Rome about the year 1310. He was a.s.sa.s.sinated Oct. 8th, 1354 He was a person of extraordinary eloquence. In his day, Rome was a prey to contending factions of n.o.bles. This kept the city in constant turmoil, and subjected the people to continual abuse and tyranny. It was the endeavor of Rienzi to arouse them to a resolution to be free.]

MISS MITFORD.

1. Friends!

I come not here to _talk_. You know too well The story of our thralldom. We are _slaves!_ The bright sun rises to his course, and lights A race of _slaves!_ He sets, and his last beam Falls on a _slave_: not such as, swept along By the full tide of power, the conqueror leads To crimson glory and undying fame; _But base, ign.o.ble slaves!_ slaves to a horde Of petty tyrants, feudal despots, lords, Rich in some dozen paltry villages; Strong in some hundred spearmen; only great In that strange spell,--_a name_.