“The Pacific Ocean: Part 2”
“The surf’s ever-recurring liquid whisper sounded like a hush-a-bye-baby lullaby purred by some invisible but all-loving mother to soothe his soul into gentle release. What deep satisfaction he found in this perpetual advance and recession, which nothing could stop, which would continue evermore; though man might laugh or cry or fight or die, this flow and ebb would play on for a thousand million years. Though wars raged and populations starved; though crafts reached other planets and carried explorers to them; though cities fell in rubbled stacks as Gaia’s muscles shuddered; though discoveries extended the longevity of the human body to centuries; though atmospheres got poisoned by the beta-radiative isotopes released by fissile explosions: still the sea would run up to the land like a curious child and then retreat like that same child in doubting shyness.”