Dull! As well describe
the rush of the turbulent Strand or the populous splendour of Regent
Street by that word! I have always held that a man cannot be considered
as educated if he is unable to wait an hour in a railway-station for a
train without _ennui_. What is education good for if it does not give us
resources which may enable us to gather delight or instruction from
every sight and sound that may fall on our nerves? The most melancholy
spectacle in the world is presented by the stolid citizen who yawns over
his _Bradshaw_ while the swift panoramas of Charing Cross or Euston are
gliding by him. Men who are rightly constituted find delight in the very
quietude and isolation of sea-life; they know how to derive pure
entertainment from the pageant of the sky and the music of winds and
waters, and they experience a piquant delight by reason of the contrast
between the loneliness of the sea and the eager struggling life of the
City. Proceeding, as is my custom, by examples, I shall give precise
descriptions of specimen days which anybody may spend on the wandering
wastes of the ocean. "All things pertaining to the life of man are of
interest to me," said the Roman; and he showed his wisdom by that
saying.
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