but
we all know how proverbially short is the distance between the sublime
and the ridiculous. And I venture to submit to the private personal
thought of each of you whether it be not merely the horror of the
subject and of the conception, and the almost stupefying grandeur of the
poetry, which separates this idea from the grotesque; and whether, if
the thing be to be touched at all, the old Irish fabulist has not
produced a conception both more tender and more truly tragic.

They then go for three days southward and find a small precipitous rocky
island, quite round, and about one furlong in circumference. Here they
find a narrow landing-place, and dwelling on the summit an hermit aged
one hundred and forty years, of which he had passed ninety in the
island. He had no clothes except his own hair, which was long and white.
He was an Irishman named Paul, and had known Patrick. For thirty years
he had lived on fish brought him by a beast, presumably an otter, in its
fore-paws, along with fuel wherewith to cook it, and which he kindled by
striking a flint, and for sixty years upon the water of a spring. He
gave them of the water of the spring, and bade them go their way,
telling them that in forty days they would keep the Passover as usual,
and so also Pentecost, and thereafter would they find 'the land holier
than all lands.'

They remained therefore on the open sea during all Lent, living only on
the water of the hermit's spring, and passed Easter and Pentecost in the
usual places. But this was the last time. Their provider came to them
and said, 'Get ye up into the ship and fill your bottles with the water
of this fountain. I also now will be the companion and leader of your
journey, for without me ye cannot find the land which ye seek, even the
land which is promised unto the Saints.' As they embarked, all the white
birds sang in chorus, 'The God of our salvation make your way
prosperous' (Ps. lxvii. 20, Vulg.). They went to their provider's island
and there took in provision for other forty days and set forth. And now
comes the discovery of the Land of Promise, which I had better read in
full:--

'And when forty days were past, and the evening was drawing on, a great
darkness covered them, so that scarcely could one see another. Then the
provider saith to holy Brendan, "Father, knowest thou what is this
darkness?" The Saint saith, "Brethren, I know not." Then saith the
other, "This darkness is round about that isla