Page:Duty and Inclination 2.pdf/219

Rh of danger, but from being in a situation to witness one of the grandest, most magnificent, and most solemn scenes in creation—a storm at sea!

The vessel pitched with violence upon the black tumultuous waves, which, returning with a resistless force, curled and foamed upon the deck: after which, receding, they seemed to gather themselves together, opening to the view a tremendous abyss! The thunder roared, the lightning flashed! its pale beams gleamed around, and rendered still more awful the intermediate gloom. Most horrid was the tumult, the contention, of the infuriated elements!

Upon an occasion so momentous, it was necessary that all hands should be employed: the officers, with one accord, lent their assistance with the agility of experienced seamen. Douglas might also, and with some skill, have exerted himself, but his once athletic frame seemed nerveless, his once muscular arm refused its office, shrinking relaxed beneath the ropes; but, in proportion to this outward diminution of strength, the soul had assumed new energies; unappalled, he surveyed a scene of the most stupendous magnitude, instilling high and vast conceptions of the majesty, sublimity, and immensity of the Sovereign Disposer of all things. Douglas had never felt sensible of