The Lightening Of The Sea
T. DeWitt Talmage
Job, 41: 32: "He maketh a path to shine after him."
If for the next thousand years ministers of religion should preach from this Bible there will yet be texts unexpounded and unexplained and unappreciated. What little has been said concerning this chapter in Job from which my text is taken, bears on the contro- versy as to what was really the leviathan described as disturbing the sea. What creature it was I know not. Some say it was a whale. Some say it was a crocodile. My own opinion is, it was a sea-monster now extinct. No creature now floating in Mediterranean or Atlantic waters corresponds to Job's description.
What most interests me is that as it moved on through the deep it left the waters flashing and re- splendent. In the words of the text, "He maketh a path to shine after him." What was that illumined path? It was phosphorescence- You- find it in the wake of a ship in the night, especially after rough weather. Phosphorescence is the lightning of the sea. That this figure of speech is correct in describing its appearance I am certified by an incident. After cross- ing the Atlantic the first time and writing from Basle, Switzerland, to an American magazine an account of my voyage, in which nothing more fascinated me than the phosphorescence in the ship's wake, I called it The Lightning of the Sea. Returning to my hotel, I found a book of John Ruskin, and the first sentence my eyes fell upon was his description of phospho- rescence, in which he called it "The Lightning of the Sea." Down to the post-office I hastened to get the manuscript, and with great labor and some expense got possession of the magazine article and put quota- tion marks around that one sentence, although it was as original with me as with John Ruskin.
I suppose that nine-tenths of you living so near the sea-coast have watched this marine appearance called phosphorescence, and I hope that the other tenth may some day be so happy as ...
T. DeWitt Talmage
Job, 41: 32: "He maketh a path to shine after him."
If for the next thousand years ministers of religion should preach from this Bible there will yet be texts unexpounded and unexplained and unappreciated. What little has been said concerning this chapter in Job from which my text is taken, bears on the contro- versy as to what was really the leviathan described as disturbing the sea. What creature it was I know not. Some say it was a whale. Some say it was a crocodile. My own opinion is, it was a sea-monster now extinct. No creature now floating in Mediterranean or Atlantic waters corresponds to Job's description.
What most interests me is that as it moved on through the deep it left the waters flashing and re- splendent. In the words of the text, "He maketh a path to shine after him." What was that illumined path? It was phosphorescence- You- find it in the wake of a ship in the night, especially after rough weather. Phosphorescence is the lightning of the sea. That this figure of speech is correct in describing its appearance I am certified by an incident. After cross- ing the Atlantic the first time and writing from Basle, Switzerland, to an American magazine an account of my voyage, in which nothing more fascinated me than the phosphorescence in the ship's wake, I called it The Lightning of the Sea. Returning to my hotel, I found a book of John Ruskin, and the first sentence my eyes fell upon was his description of phospho- rescence, in which he called it "The Lightning of the Sea." Down to the post-office I hastened to get the manuscript, and with great labor and some expense got possession of the magazine article and put quota- tion marks around that one sentence, although it was as original with me as with John Ruskin.
I suppose that nine-tenths of you living so near the sea-coast have watched this marine appearance called phosphorescence, and I hope that the other tenth may some day be so happy as ...
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