" This
vanity and presumption is now punished, and, I acknowledge, justly. I
should have left it to Providence. Wise are the ways of the Almighty,
and salutary all His dispensations to man. Were we not continually put
in mind of an overruling Providence by reverses of this kind, the human
heart, exalted with its own consequence, would soon cease to implore
protection from on high.
I feel solitary. The loud dashing of the waves on shore, and the
darkness and dreariness of all without my tent, conspire to give a
saddened train to my reflections. I endeavored to divert myself, soon
after landing, by a stroll along the shore. I sought in vain among the
loose fragments of rock for some specimens worthy of preservation. I
gleaned the evidences of crystallization and the traces of organic forms
among the cast-up fragments of limestone and sandstone. I amused myself
with the reflection that I should, perhaps, meet you coming from an
opposite direction on the beach, and I half fancied that, perhaps, it
would actually take place.
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