The New Hampshire Gazette And General Advertiser

An ADDRESS to the SEA.

SAIL! thou inexhaustible source
of wonder and contemplation!

Sail! thou multitudinous ocean!
whose waves chase one another down
like the generations of men, and after
a momentary space, are immersed
forever in oblivion!--Thy fluctuating
waters wash the varied shores
of the world, and while they disjoin
nations, whom a nearer connection
would involve in eternal war, they
circulate their arts and their labours,
and give health and plenty to mankind.

How glorious!--how awful are
the Scenes thou displayest!--Whether
we view thee when every wind
is hushed,--when the morning sun
silvers the level line of the horizon
--or when its evening track is marked
with flaming gold, and thy unrippled
bosom reflects the radiance of the
overarching heavens!--or whether

we behold thee in thy terrors!--when
the black tempest sweeps thy swelling
billows, and the boiling surge
mixes with the clouds--when death
rides the storm--and humanity drops
a fruitless tear for the toiling mariner
whose heart is sinking with dismay!--And yet, mighty deep!

'tis thy surface alone we view.--
Who can penetrate the secrets of
thy wide domain? What eye can
visit thy immense rocks and caverns?
that teem with life and vegetation?

-Or search out the myriads of objects,
whose beauties lie scattered
over thy dread abyss?--The mind
staggers with the immensity of her
own conceptions, and when she contemplates the flux and reflux of thy
tides, which from the beginning of
the world were never known to err,
how does she shrink at the idea of
that Divine Power, which originally
laid thy foundations so sure, and
whose omnipotent voice hath fixed
the limits where thy proud waves
shall be stayed.

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