Between two rows of houses, the glimpse of a river terminates my street; the enormous silver current smokes, and great ships with white sails move across the splendid gap with a smooth and superb grace. I see before me the very River of Life whose image I borrowed when a child, to discourse of Morality. But today, stubborn swimmer though I am, I no longer cherish any hope of landing flat on my face among the reeds in the slime of the other bank, under the salutation of the palms, in a silence interrupted only by the cry of a parrot. Although the shrill cascade invites me, drumming upon the gravel behind the fleshy foliage of the magnolia; although the fabulous boughs are bending beneath their weight of myrobalans and of pomegranates; I will think of them no more--turning my glance to a more angelic science, to this mystic garden which is offered for my enjoyment and my recreation! THE EARTH VIEWED FROM THE SEA Arriving from the horizon, our ship is confronted by the wharf of the Earth; and the continent, emerging, spreads its immense architecture out before us. In the morning distinguished by one great star, as I mount the gangway the earth’s blue apparition appears before my eyes. To defend the sun against the pursuit of the restless ocean, this continent has established the deep-set solidity of its ramparts. Their breaches open into a happy countryside. For a long time in the full daylight we follow the frontier of another world. Carried along by the trade-winds, our ship veers and rebounds upon the resilient abyss to which it confides its whole weight. I am caught up to the Azure, I am stuck there like a cask. Captive of the infinite, suspended at the intersection of sky and water, I see below me all the somber Earth laid out like a chart--the whole world, humble and enormous! My separation from it is irrevocable. All things are far from me, and only sight connects me with them. It will never again be vouch-safed me to set my foot on the solid earth, to construct with my hands a dwelling of wood and stone, to eat in peace food cooked at the domestic fire. Soon we will turn our prow toward the shoreless sea; and, under an immense spread of sail, our advance into the midst of eternity will be shown only by our signal lights. SALUTATION And again I am permitted to salute this land similar to Gessen and Canaan. Tonight, as our ship tossed in the wheat-colored moonlight, at the entrance to the river, what a sign the Dog-Star was to me, low beyond the sea; the golden watchman at the foot of a stretch of stars, glowing splendor at the far horizon! These flowing waters having led us into the heart of the countryside, I disembark, and on my road I see below me the image of the round sun repeated in the fields, ruddy in the green rice.