rownish tinge
and making it glitter like steel.

Half a mile to the south, the coast is covered by a line of rocks that
extends to the sea. In order to reach them, we should have been
compelled to tramp as we had already done that morning. We were tired,
and it was far; but a temptation seemed to push us forward. The breeze
played in the cracks of the rocks and wrinkled the surface of the pools;
the sea-weed, cleaving to the sides of the cliff, shook in the wind, and
from the part of the sky where the moon was to rise, a pale light spread
over the waters. It was the hour when the shadows lengthen. The rocks
appeared larger, and the breakers a deeper green. The sky seemed to
expand, and all nature assumed a different appearance.

So we started, without giving a thought to the incoming tide or whether
or not we should find later a way to get back to land. We wished to
enjoy our pleasure to the fullest extent. We seemed lighter than in the
morning, and ran and jumped without the slightest feeling of fatigue. An
abundance of animal spirits impelled us onward and we felt a peculiarly
robust twitching in our muscles. We shook our heads in the wind and
touched the grasses with our fingers. We breathed the salt air of the
ocean, and noted and assimilated every color, every sunbeam, every
sound, the design of the seaweed, the softness of the sand, the hardness
of the rocks that echoed under our footsteps, the height of the cliffs,
the fringe of the waves, the accidents of the coast, and the voice of
the horizon; and the breeze that passed over our faces like intangible
kisses, the sky with its passing clouds, the rising moon, the peeping
stars. Our souls bathed in all this splendour, and our eyes feasted on
it; we opened our ears and nostrils wide; something of the very life of
the elements, forced from them undoubtedly by the attraction of our
eyes, reached us and was assimilated, so that we were able to comprehend
them in a closer relation and feel them more keenly, thanks to this
complex union.

By thus entering and penetrating into nature, we became a part of it,
diffused ourselves in it, and were claimed by it once more; we felt that
it was overpowering us, and we rejoiced; we desired to be lost in it, to
be borne away, or to carry it away with us. As in the raptures of love,
one wishes more hands with which to caress, more lips with which to
kiss, more eyes with which to see, more soul with which to worship;
spreading o