I thought, for instance,
of showing them how this ocean that lay watchful and ready all about our
island, all about the earth, was but a visible type or symbol of two other
oceans, one very still, the other very awful and fierce; in fact, that
three oceans surrounded us: one of the known world; one of the unseen
world, that is, of death; one of the spirit--the devouring ocean of
evil--and might I not have added yet another, encompassing and silencing
all the rest--that of truth! The visible ocean seemed to make war upon the
land, and the dwellers thereon. Restrained by the will of God and by him
made subject more and more to the advancing knowledge of those who were
created to rule over it, it was yet like a half-tamed beast ever ready to
break loose and devour its masters. Of course this would have been but one
aspect or appearance of it--for it was in truth all service; but this was
the aspect I knew it must bear to those, seafaring themselves or not, to
whom I had to speak. Then I thought I might show, that its power, like that
of all things that man is ready to fear, had one barrier over which no
commotion, no might of driving wind, could carry it, beyond which its
loudest waves were dumb--the barrier of death.
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