'Wouldst thou,' said he, 'be spoken for to the king, or to the captain of the host ?'--What an offer was that, to gratify her ambition or flatter her pride!--'I dwell,' said she, 'among mine own people.' What a characteristic answer! all history furnishes no parallel to it.
"I too dwell 'among my own people:' my affections are there, and there also is the sphere of my duties; and if I am depressed by the thoughts of parting from 'my people,' I will do you the justice to believe, that you would rather bear with its effects, than witness the absence of such natural affection.
"But this is not the sole cause: independently of some afflictions of a clerical nature in my late parish, to which it is not necessary to allude, the contemplation of this vast and fathomless ocean, both from its novelty and its grandeur, overwhelms me.

At home I am fond of tracing the Creator in his works.

From the erratic comet in the firmament, to the flower that blossoms in the field; in all animate, and inanimate matter; in all that is animal, vegetable or mineral, I see His infinite wisdom, almighty power, and everlasting glory.
"But that Home is inland; I have not beheld the sea now for many years.
I never saw it without emotion; I now view it with awe.

What an emblem of eternity!--Its dominion is alone reserved to Him, who made it.
Changing yet changeless--ever varying, yet always the same.

How weak and powerless is man! how short his span of life, when he is viewed in connexion with the sea! He has left no trace upon it--it will not receive the impress of his hands; it obeys no laws, but those imposed upon it by Him, who called it into existence; generation after generation has looked upon it as we now do--and where are they?
Like yonder waves that press upon each other in regular succession, they have passed away for ever; and their nation, their language, their temples and their tombs have perished with them.