THE GARDEN OF THE SEA.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 948, 15 October 1910, Page 9

THE GARDEN OF THE SEA.

)\- One sometimes: hears, from /persons of ;.'; if? tho Chillier .typo of culture the remark ; • :'.'.th«t;plain cpunt-ry people do .iiot appro- ;[.• eiate. the' beauty "of the :countr|\ 1 This -is ' an error rooted .in the intellectual: pride . \ of.. fficdiocrity; and •is • one of .'the. many ■;examples of' a truth in the idea that ex: ' 3 tremes Thus to appreciate the ''JrVirtues' of! the m;ob xne: must eitherf:be. a level with '.ik. (asi I am) or boreally,; ' rjjSHgh up/;l!ibe\the: ; saints^,-V : 'lt''is 'roiighly- '. .'the same; with' aesthetics; slang.' arid rude dialect .canbe 1 : relished ?• by ' a'.really literary taste'; hut not • by. a ... merely bookish taste. And when these, ■ cultivated cranks say that; rustics do' ' jl:; i\li6£ talk of '.Nature in.; an !■ appreciative. • . way, they really mean that they do I': ''^wt;^lkVin.tja , '.bob]dsh , vwray;!'.-' .They..-do, 1 nottaJk bookishly'about ; clouds ,•or 'I;.'; stpnesj or pigs, or slugs, -j>r ■ horses, ■ or- ')(•■ anything you please. They talk ,pig- .' gishly; about pigs, ' and " sluggishly, I : suppose, .about slugsy and are -refresh"j|i.ingly; horsey- about; horses. 1 - ' They spiak i' in a stony way of stones;, they, speak i: In a'cloudy way. of clouds, and this is ; surely the right way. And: if- by any .);■ .clmnce.-a 3impli. ; intelUgent piirson from tho| country comes in contact: with any ;; aiipect of -Nature 'unfamiliar ■(tnd' arfesting', such 1 a 1 person's comment is' always . worth remark.. ..It .is sometimes an epigram, . and -at worst ■ it' is never ■ a quotation. ... Consider, for. instance, ;wli.it T wastes.' <ff ■ wordy imitation, and ambiguity the ; ordinary.; educated ; in {t,he;Vbig towns could, pour'out on tho subject of the, sea. A country girl I know in. tho county of. Buckingham: had never; seen . ' the; sea in 'her life until, the''other--'day. When sho was asked what sho thought ; Df it' she said it was liko cauliflowers." Now that is a piece of pure vivid, entirely independent, , and original,, and perfectly.. truo. ; I >had, . always:been haunted : with an:analogous' kinship which I could never - locate; . . cabbages jalways;:.remind me of the soa, ~. ' and the' sea always reminds mo of cabbages; 'It -is / partly, -perhaps,V' the yemed mingling of violet and green, as : in., tho sea a purple that, is almost ".dark ;; ';red may • mix -with. a ,'green that ■ 'is J; almost yellow; arid;still; be the blue,sea :as a .whole. -.But-jit is.more thorgraiid ■ curves of the "cabbage;, that curl over cavornously like wave's, and it is partly ~ again' that • dreamy'' repetition, as ■of a pattern, that'.'made.Vtwo: great poots, Aeschylus aridvShakes'poare", use a word : like "multitudinous" of the ocean. ' But just whero my fancy. bolted tho .' Buckinghamshire' young' woman Crushed (so to speak) ,te my imaginative rescue. Cauliflowers are. twenty times better than cabbages, for they show the wave breaking as. well as curling, and the efflorescence of ; the branching foam, blind, bubbling, and opaque. Moro- ,- . .over, ''.the., strong linos of life are suggested ; the arches of the rushing waves have all tho rigid energy of green

I stalks, lis if tho whole sea were one great ..green plaiit with one immenso white flower rOoted in tho abyss. • ' Now a large number of delicate and Superior persons would refuyv.to see : ■the force in that kitchen ;'g&rdc'n com-, parison,' bccauso it is; not connected ; with any of the' ordinary ,', maritime -sentiments, as stated 7in: books and ; sonjjs. The aesthetic amatour- would : say that lie knew. 1 what large and philor • sophtcal thoughts he ought -to''have 'by., : the boundless depp. He w.ould say that 'he was not a greengrocer'who would : think'first of greens. 1 ' "'ld which' I ■ : reply, like. Hamlet,'apropos of a., .'parallel profession, "I would you '.so honest, a nianY' ■ Themention • of Hamlet reminds hie, 1 ' by.'the''way,- that besides .the girl who had i never seen . tlie sea 'I knew a'girl, who .lieyfcr seen.-a stage-play. .She was taken:" to. "Hamlet," and, she said' it was Very .; sad. '.There is.another, case qf going to . the primordial point -which'; is ovorlaifl . '.By learning and secondary, impressions. We' arc so used to thinking of Hamlet as a problem that we sometimes quito * forgot ,it is atragedy,,jiist as we are so.'used to thinking of tlic sea-as ! .'vast and vague'that wo' scarcely, .noticed 'when it is .white and green: . , : .'. But .there, is another quarrel- involved m'whicli the young gentleman of; cul-ture-comes into violent collision with ■the'young'lady "of-the cauliflowers. The first essential.; of. the : merely Vbookish ; view of ' the sea is that' it -is '..boundless, : , and gives a sentiment, of infinity. Now ; i.t is qiiito - certain, I ' think,' ' that the ■ cauliflower' simile was partly..; created • ;'by exactly the opposite., impression, the . ; impression of .boundary and of barrier. , i The girl thought of it as a field of vege-: , •tables, even as a yard of vegetables. . .The right. The; , ocean only . 'suggests infinity' when you .cannot. seo : v ijt";: a. sea : mist- may seem-.endless, but "riot a sea. ' So far from' being vague and .vanishing; the sea is the. one hard straight line in Nature. It is the one : ifilaiiii limit ;- ; the -only'. Ming, that' God : .lias.'mado that really looks like a wall.' .to the sea. not only sun. and. cloud, are, : chaotic, and. doubtful; 1 ~; b ufc y solids mountains and.'.--'standing .-.forests : may -bo-said to.;melt and fade and flee- . .iii '; the ;preseiide :of. that 16hely. iron line. , ; The /old naval 'phrase, that the; seas are. • England's, bulwarks,.is. no.t .a frigid and . artificial metaphor.; it..came .the. head of . genuiiie; sea-dog, 'when' ho ' was genuinely, looking at tho sea. For ■; the .edge of tho sea is like ; the edge :of, . ; ,a* : .sword ;' it is'sharp,; military; and de--. cisive,; it really looks like a bolt or.bar,-: . and!: hot: like a;'mere' expansion.. It : hangs in' heaven, 1 grey,;'or : ; green, y or. -blue,. changing 'in-'colour)-'but;.; changeless in form, behind'-all' the slippery ! contour's of the: land ; and all .the savage softness of. tho; forests, like: the .scales, of.' - God held .e,ven. It hangs,'" a perpetual ; reminder of that divine irea'sin; and ' ' ji^6B.;wWbh'. ,f abidesy.bcHin3 all compromises and all legitimate • variety,;. ' the onestraight line; the limit 'of. the intellectthe dark'-.and ultimate dogma' bf.tlie. world.—G. 'K. Chesterton,' in'the ; "Daily News." ; - -' ■ - .- ?' i