Show As Caesar Saw The English Coast CoastIn In a letter etter written during the World war cvar the late Joseph Conrad spoke of the str strange sense of finality finality finality final final- ity that the unlighted coast of the North sea gave a a. seaman I came ashore bringing with me strongest of all the Impression of ofa ofa ofa a great darkness I do not riot mean darkness in a a symbolic or spiritual sense Indeed one couldn't x ne coi come couce In contact with the watchers of that darkness and the workers therein otherwise than spiritually strength strength- ened What I mean Is the fact It Itself Itself It- It self seif the fact of darkness spread pread over the land and water of old civilization such euch as wrapped up early mariners' mariners landfalls on their voyages of exploration To him who had been accustomed accustomed accustomed tomed to ta behold after long long- sea passages passages passages pas pas- sages the shadowy contours of the English coast illuminated festally interminably unfailingly as If for fora a sleepless feast or for sleepless toll toil the Impression was was waif powerful powerful- like a revelation of some orne deeper truth Fires in the night are the sign of mankind's life lite to in ln eye at sea There were no such signa signs anywhere One seemed to have ones one's being In the very center of Illusory ap ap- ap The very silence so profound profound pro pro- found around us as to seem boundless bound bound- less and harmonizing m marvelously with the spirit of the hour was lot true to the usual meaning it conveys conveys conveys con con- veys to 10 a human mind that of be- be ir cut off from front catlon with Its kind Surely neither n-elther Caesars Caesar's Cae Cae- sar's sars galleys nor the ships of the Danish rovers had ever found on their approach ach this land so absolutely absolutely and scrupulously lightless as this From From the Boston |