To seem in danger, yet to feel secure; Trifling with terror, while they strive to shun The curling billows; laughing as they run; 50 They know the neck that joins the shore and sea, Or, ah! how changed that fearless laugh would be. Observe how various parties take their way, By sea-side walks, or make the sand-hills gay; There group'd are laughing maids and sighing swains, And some apart who feel unpitied pains: Pains from diseases, pains which those who feel To the physician, not the fair, reveal; For nymphs (propitious to the lover's sigh) Leave these poor patients to complain and die. 60 Lo! where on that huge anchor sadly leans That sick tall figure, lost in other scenes; He late from India's clime impatient sail'd, There, as his fortune grew, his spirits fail'd; For each delight, in search of wealth he went, For ease alone, the wealth acquired is spent-- And spent in vain; enrich'd, aggriev'd, he sees The envied poor possess'd of joy and ease; And now he flies from place to place, to gain Strength for enjoyment, and still flies in vain. 70 Mark, with what sadness, of that pleasant crew, Boist'rous in mirth, he takes a transient view, And, fixing then his eye upon the sea, Thinks what has been and what must shortly be: Is it not strange that man should health destroy, For joys that come when he is dead to joy? Now is it pleasant in the summer-eve, When a broad shore retiring waters leave, Awhile to wait upon the firm fair sand, When all is calm at sea, all still at land; 80 And there the ocean's produce to explore, As floating by, or rolling on the shore; Those living jellies[58] which the flesh inflame, Fierce as a nettle, and from that its name; Some in huge masses, some that you may bring In the small compass of a lady's ring; Figured by hand divine--there's not a gem Wrought by man's art to be compared to them; Soft, brilliant, tender, through the wave they glow, And make the moon-beam brighter where they flow. 90 Involved in sea-wrack, here you find a race, Which science, doubting, knows not where to place; On shell or stone is dropp'd the embryo-seed, And quickly vegetates a vital breed[59]. While thus with pleasing wonder you inspect Treasures the vulgar in their scorn reject, See as they float along th' entangled weeds Slowly approach, upborne on bladdery beads; Wait till they land, and you shall then behold The fiery sparks those tangled frons' infold, 100 Myriads of living points[60]; th' unaided eye Can but the fire and not the form descry. And now your view upon the ocean turn, And there the splendour of the waves discern; Cast but a stone, or strike them with an oar, And you shall flames within the deep explore; Or scoop the stream phosphoric as you stand,