What a sight, thought I, must this be
in a south-easter! The rocks were as large as those of Nahant or
Newport, but, to my eye, more grand and broken. Beside, there was a
grandeur in everything around, which gave almost a solemnity to the
scene: a silence and solitariness which affected everything! Not a
human being but ourselves for miles; and no sound heard but the
pulsations of the great Pacific! and the great steep hill rising
like a wall, and cutting us off from all the world, but the "world
of waters!" I separated myself from the rest and sat down on a rock,
just where the sea ran in and formed a fine spouting horn. Compared
with the plain, dull sand-beach of the rest of the coast, this
grandeur was as refreshing as a great rock in a weary land. It was
almost the first time that I had been positively alone- free from the
sense that human beings were at my elbow, if not talking with me-
since I had left home. My better nature returned strong upon me.
Everything was in accordance with my state of feeling, and I
experienced a glow of pleasure at finding that what of poetry and
romance I ever had in me, had not been entirely deadened by the
laborious and frittering life I had led.
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