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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
south-east , announced a ' blow / as the sailors called it ; and after taking in the smaller canvass , and reefi ng the larger , the ship turned her broad beam to the one side , and dipped her bulwarks in the water on the other , making a steep hill of her flat decks , * and as I had not yet found my sea-legs , mocking every attempt I made to stand or move without clinging to ropes or cleats , to catch at which I pitched as courage-gathering intervals permitted . And when the sea was up , how terribly grand it appeared to be ! as the green hills rose higher and higher , hills chasing hills , and bounding after each other , in magnificent delight ! The whole sea was alive—as one vast spirit that
threw its ten thousand huge limbs out and abroad into its cloud-encompassed domain , tossing its mighty arms aloft , and now sweeping its hands along the verge of the horizon , elevating * them as if to crush , by a ponderous stroke , the adventurous but feeble intruder on their path , and dropping the upheaved limb for the purpose of lifting her
out of the gulf , and over the sparkling , foam-splintered crests , and dashing her down again , to leave her as the sport of each succeeding billow ; each in turn sweeping on with destruction in its sinews , and each in turn , as the crushing blow was pending , in the very act of falling , mercifully stooping to lift the trembling victim out of its course ; then rolling onwards till it seemed to sink in the slumber of
fatigue , and all smoothing their monster gambols into repose as they melted in the distant horizon sky . The first feelings on beholding such a scene are fearful ; the gazer gasps in the inevitability of destruction , and wonders at escape ; each buoyant uprising of the ship seems to drag him from a depth of death ; another , and another , and another green hill , in densely sounding inarch , comes on , and then looks toppling downwards on him , and ere he can shriek , ' we are
lost , ' the masts are upwards soaring , as they d pierce the moon : less and less the danger dims ; the ocean music , as it roars , and howls , and screams through the invisible strings of its mighty harp , and wailing faints among the cordage of the bark , becomes a lullaby to terror , and dread is rocked to rest . Thus , by * the aid of use / confidence triumphs over fear , and that which lately shook us with alarm ,
now bids the spirit spring elastic in enjoyment . The leaping hills of waters yield to the fancy , the ship is mistress of their strength as she rides a moment on their arched backs , and laughs as she scatters the foam from their crests , then swings herself down into the deep gorge , and , with the impetus , remounts and laughs again amid the cloud of spray that breaks and flashes forth its million globules of light that radiate around the lady of the billows .
So it was now ; so with my feelings I soon learned to look saucily on the yea . A sort of braggart spirit rose in me , as the ship lifted me with her in her overtopping sovereignty of the billows . I fancied myself their master ; an impertinence which they retaliated by slapping my face with a cold slice of wave that took away my breath , and
drenched me from head to foot , and then rolled on in contempt of my discomfort , not deigning to cast a look back at the effects of their reproof , and heedless , too , of the rough laugh which their malicious sport drew from the sailors . Still I held on to a belaying-pin , ensconced under the lee of the bulwark , and peeping above it to catch occasional
Untitled Article
Autobiography of Pel Verjuice . 701
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1833, page 701, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2624/page/41/
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