Woods, villages, cottages, and churches, surrounded it in most pleasing variety of prospect.

Beyond this lay a large fleet of ships of war, and not far from it another of merchantmen, both safe at anchor, and covering a tract of the sea of several miles in extent.

Beyond this, again, I saw the fortifications, dockyards, and extensive public edifices of a large seaport town.

The sun shone upon the windows of the buildings and the flags of the ships with great brightness, and added much to the splendour of the view.
I thought of the concerns of empires and plans of statesmen, the fate of nations and the horrors of war.

Happy will be that day when He shall make wars to cease unto the end of the earth, and peace to be established in its borders.
In the meantime, let us be thankful for those vessels and instruments of defence, which, in the hands of God, preserve our country from the hand of the enemy and the fury of the destroyer.