About: The Sea Lions by James Fenimore Cooper
THE SEA LIONS
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[Transcriber's note: It appears that the author _may have_ used 'and " interchangeably throughout this text to mean "minutes" whereastraditionally, ' is used to mean minutes and " seconds. Not knowingthe author's intent, I have left these characters as they were in theoriginal.]
THE SEA LIONS;
or, The Lost Sealers.
By J. Fenimore Cooper.
Daughter of Faith, awake, arise, illume The dread unknown, the chaos of the tomb Melt, and dispel, ye spectre doubts that roll Cimmerian darkness o'er the parting soul
_Campbell._
_Complete in One Volume._
1860.
Preface.
If any thing connected with the hardness of the human heart could surpriseus, it surely would be the indifference with which men live on, engrossedby their worldly objects, amid the sublime natural phenomena that soeloquently and unceasingly speak to their imaginations, affections, andjudgments. So completely is the existence of the individual concentratedin self, and so regardless does he get to be of all without thatcontracted circle, that it does not probably happen to one man in ten,that his thoughts are drawn aside from this intense study of his ownimmediate wants, wishes, and plans, even once in the twenty four hours, tocontemplate the majesty, mercy, truth, and justice, of the Divine Beingthat has set him, as an atom, amid the myriads of the hosts of heaven andearth.
The physical marvels of the universe produce little more reflection thanthe profoundest moral truths. A million of eyes shall pass over thefirmament, on a cloudless night, and not a hundred minds shall be filledwith a proper sense of the power of the dread Being that created all thatis there not a hundred hearts glow with the adoration that such an appealto the senses and understanding ought naturally to produce. Thisindifference, in a great measure, comes of familiarity; the things that weso constantly have before us, becoming as a part of the air we breathe,and as little regarded.
One of the consequences of this disposition to disregard the AlmightyHand, as it is so plainly visible in all around us, is that ofsubstituting our own powers in its stead. In this period of the world, inenlightened countries, and in the absence of direct idolatry, few men areso hardy as to deny the existence and might of a Supreme Being; but, thisfact admitted, how few really feel that profound reverence for him thatthe nature of our relations justly demands! It is the want of a due senseof humility, and a sad misconception of what we are, and for what we werecreated, that misleads us in the due estimate of our own insignificance,as Compared with the majesty of God.
Very few men attain enough of human knowledge to be fully aware how muchremains to be learned, and of that which they never can hope to acquire.We hear a great deal of god like minds, and of the far reaching facultieswe possess; and it may all be worthy of our eulogiums, until we compareourselves in these, as in other particulars, with Him who produced them.Then, indeed, the utter insignificance of our means becomes too apparentto admit of a cavil.
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