sh
was more to my taste than one of mackerel. The great weight of a catch
of this kind when the net was full was almost too much for the ten or
twelve men engaged in drawing it up; then (to the sound of deep curses
from those of the men who were not religious) the net would be opened
and the great crystalline hemispheres, hyaline blue and delicate
salmon-pink in colour, would slide back into the water. Such rare and
exquisite colours have these great glassy flowers of ocean that to see
them was a feast; and every time a net was hauled up my prayer--which I
was careful not to repeat aloud--was, Heaven send another big draught of
jelly-fish!

The sun, sinking over the hills towards Swyre and Bridport, turned
crimson before it touched the horizon. The sky became luminous; the
yellow Chesil Bank, stretching long leagues away, and the hills behind
it, changed their colours to violet. The rough sea near the beach
glittered like gold; the deep green water, flecked with foam, was
mingled with fire; the one boat that remained on it, tossing up and down
near the beach, was like a boat of ebony in a glittering fiery sea. A
dozen men were drawing up the last net; but when they gathered round to
see what they had taken--mackerel or jelly-fish--I cared no longer to
look with them. That sudden, wonderful glory which had fallen on the
earth and sea had smitten me as well and changed me; and I was like some
needy homeless tramp who has found a shilling piece, and, even while
he is gloating over it, all at once sees a great treasure before
him--glittering gold in heaps, and all rarest sparkling gems, more than
he can gather up.

But it is a poor simile. No treasures in gold and gems, though heaped
waist-high all about, could produce in the greediest man, hungry for
earthly pleasures, a delight, a rapture, equal to mine. For this joy was
of another and higher order and very rare, and was a sense of lightness
and freedom from all trammels as if the body had become air, essence,
energy, or soul, and of union with all visible nature, one with sea and
land and the entire vast overarching sky.

We read of certain saints who were subject to experiences of this kind
that they were "snatched up" into some supramundane region, and that
they stated on their return to earth that it was not lawful for them
to speak of the things they had witnessed. The humble naturalist and
nature-worshipper can only witness the world glorified--transfigured;
wha