The next morning his body was found in a
freshwater cistern which had been built in a hollow between the rocks.
There were some who thought that his death might have been accidental,
but old Doctor Bowditch said, "My friends, there was only too much
reason for it." Of all the wrecks on that dangerous coast was not this
the most piteous and tragical! William Hunt narrowly missed being one of
the greatest of painters. Though some of his portraits are wretched
failures, there are others of his pictures that might grace any gallery
in Europe.
Mountain air is better than sea air, both for those who are well and
strong, and generally speaking for invalids; but people go to the sea
because they like it,--for love of the dark blue ocean. Few things are
more monotonous than sailing in a yacht. It is a confining sort of
existence, subjects of conversation soon become exhausted, there are
many inconveniences about it, and being becalmed in a ground swell is
worse than riding in a stage coach on a hot and dusty road; yet how many
men prefer spending their summer vacation in this manner to any other.
It is that rolling, lisping, gurgling, mysterious, unfathomable unity
which attracts them. Earth is the masculine element, sea the feminine;
and all the cycles and epicycles of organic nature have resulted from
these two. It develops imagination and romance in persons who would
never have been suspected of possessing either.
Pages:
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240