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Introductory Note. |
XI |
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When merely read, these chanties cannot be fully or fairly appreciated, but when wedded to their appropriate " Music of the Waters," they will doubtless convey to the soul of the landsman somewhat of that interest and satisfaction which they have long afforded to the " toilers of the deep " all round the world.
To those who have wandered much over our little globe —especially to those who have done so in ships and seen something of the wonderful works of God in the deep, and become familiar with the hopes, joys, sorrows, sins, and sufferings of the sailor in his selected home—these " chanties " will assuredly bring back, like a half-forgotten —yet never-to-be-forgotten—dream, many a pleasant memory of tramping round the capstan, and heaving at the windlass, and yarns told in low tones when sails were flapping idly, and the starry host was mirrored grandly in the sleeping sea. No puny invention of man—steam or electric—will ever take the romance out of the sea ! Everything here is relative. Man may modify his conditions. Some "old things may pass away and some things may become new; but, as the great vault of heaven and the mighty ocean will remain unchanged and unchangeable from age to age, so will the music of the waters, not less than the music of the land, continue to well up in human souls, to gladden, strengthen and revive them, until that time comes when all music shall flow into one grand harmony of praise to our God and to the Lamb.
R. M. Bali.antyne. |
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Harrow-on-the-Hill, June, 1887. |
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