And so they did yesterday, and the day before; and so
they did centuries ago, when the Danes swept past them, battleworn,
and sad of heart for the loss of the magic raven flag, from the fight
at Appledore, to sit down and starve on 'the island of Bradanrelice,
which men call Flat Holms.' Ay, and even so they leapt and fell,
before a sail gleamed on the Severn sea, when the shark and the
ichthyosaur paddled beneath the shade of tropic forests--now scanty
turf and golden gorse. And so they will leap and fall on, on,
through the centuries and the ages. O dim abyss of Time, into which
we peer shuddering, what will be the end of thee, and of this
ceaseless coil and moan of waters? It is true, that when thou shalt
be no more, then, too, 'there shall be no more sea;' and this ocean
bed, this great grave of fertility, into which all earth's wasted
riches stream, day and night, from hill and town, shall rise and
become fruitful soil, corn-field and meadow-land; and earth shall
teem as thick with living men as bean-fields with the summer bees?
What a consummation! At least there is One greater than sea, or
time: and the Judge of all the earth will do right.
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