This recess shall be my dining-hall . And what the feast ? A few biscuits made savory by soaking them in sea-water , a tuft of samphire gathered from the beach , and an apple for the dessert . By this time the little rill has filled its reservoir again , and as I quaff it I thank God more heartily than for a civic banquet that he gives me the healthful appetite to make a feast of bread and water . Dinner being over , I throw myself at length upon the sand and , basking in the sunshine , let my mind disport itself at will . The walls of this my hermitage have no tongue to tell my follies , though I sometimes fancy that they have ears to hear them and a soul to sympathize . There is a magic in this spot . Dreams haunt its precincts and flit around me in broad sunlight , nor require that sleep shall blindfold me to real objects ere these be visible . Here can I frame a story of two lovers , and make their shadows live before me and be mirrored in the tranquil water as they tread along the sand , leaving no footprints . Here , should I will it , I can summon up a single shade and be myself her lover . -- Yes , dreamer , but your lonely heart will be the colder for such fancies . -- Sometimes , too , the Past comes back , and finds me here , and in her train come faces which were gladsome when I knew them , yet seem not gladsome now . Would that my hiding-place were lonelier , so that the Past might not find me ! -- Get ye all gone , old friends , and let me listen to the murmur of the sea -- a melancholy voice , but less sad than yours . Of what mysteries is it telling ? Of sunken ships and whereabouts they lie ? Of islands afar and undiscovered whose tawny children are unconscious of other islands and of continents , and deem the stars of heaven their nearest neighbors ? Nothing of all this . What , then ? Has it talked for so many ages and meant nothing all the while ?
No ; for those ages find utterance in the sea 's unchanging voice , and warn the listener to withdraw his interest from mortal vicissitudes and XXXXX the infinite idea of eternity pervade his soul .
deem ere flit leaving let live made make meant summon