Stationary stationery
profile entries links :)
recent entries
  • #7. Star Help
  • #6. More Moon Help
  • #5. Moon Help
  • #4. Old Sun Help
  • #3. The Sun's Great Horses
  • #2. The Man who Needed 452,696 Barrels of Water
  • #1. Why Written
  • Among the Forces (by Henry White Warren)
  • We have the facts and we're voting Yes!
  • Chase this light.


  • archives
  • February 2006
  • March 2006
  • April 2006
  • May 2006
  • June 2006
  • July 2006
  • August 2006
  • September 2006
  • October 2006
  • November 2006
  • December 2006
  • January 2007
  • March 2007
  • April 2007
  • May 2007
  • June 2007
  • February 2008
  • March 2008
  • April 2008
  • May 2008
  • June 2008
  • July 2008
  • August 2008
  • November 2008
  • January 2009
  • February 2009
  • March 2009
  • April 2009
  • May 2009
  • June 2009
  • July 2009
  • August 2009
  • September 2009
  • October 2009
  • November 2009
  • January 2010
  • February 2010
  • March 2010
  • May 2010
  • July 2010
  • August 2010
  • January 2011
  • February 2011


  • credits
    layout: lyricaltragedy
    inspiration: reversescollide

    Weblog Commenting and Trackback by HaloScan.com
    11 July 2008 @ 12:20 AM

    // #8. Help from Insensible Seas

    Suppose one has been at sea a month (haha Harry on reservice). He has tacked to every point of the compass, been driven by gales, becalmed in doldrums. At length Euroclydon leaps on him, and he lets her drive. And when for many days and nights neither sun nor stars appear, how can he tell where he is, which way he drives, where the land lies?

    There is an insensible ocean. No sense detects its presence. It has gulf streams that flow through us, storms whose waves engulf us, but we feel them not. There are various intensities of its power, the north end of the world not having half as much as the south. There are two places in the north half of the world that have greater intensity than the rest, and only one in the south. It looks as if there were unsoundable depths in some places and shoals in others.

    The currents do not flow in exactly the same direction all the time, but their variations are within definite limits.

    How shall we detect these steady currents when wind and waves are in tumultuous confusion? They are always present. No winds blow them aside, no waves drench their subtle fire, no mountains make them swerve. But how shall we find them?

    Float a bit of magnetic ore in a pail of water, or suspend a bit of magnetized steel by a thread, and these currents make the ore or needle point north and south. Now let waves buffet either side, typhoons roar, and maelstroms whirl; we have, out of the invisible, insensible sea of magnetic influence, a sure and steady guide. Now we can sail out of sight of headlands. We have in the darkness and light, in calm and storm, an unswerving guide. Now Columbus can steer for any new world.

    Does not this seem like a spiritual force? Lodestone can impart its qualities to hard steel without the impairment of its own power. There is a giving that does not impoverish, and a withholding that does not enrich.

    Wherever there is need there is supply. The proper search with appropriate faculties will find it. There are yet more things in heaven and earth than are dreamed of in our philosophy.