As we shoved away from this rocky coast, before sunrise, the smaller bittern, the genius of the shore, was moping along its edge, ...or stood probing the mud for its food, with ever an eye on us, though so demurely at work, or else he ran along over the wet stones like a wrecker in his storm-coat, looking out for wrecks of snails and cockles. Now away he goes, with a limping flight, uncertain where he will alight, until a rod of clear sand amid the alders invites his feet; and now our steady approach compels him to seek a new retreat. It is a bird of the oldest Thalesian school, and no doubt believes in the priority of water to the other elements; the relic of a twilight antediluvian age which yet inhabits these bright American waters with us Yankees. There is something venerable in this melancholy and contemplative race of birds, which may have trodden the earth while it was yet in a slimy and imperfect state. Perchance their tracks, too, are still visible on the stones.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
We want some coat woven of elastic steel, stout as the first, and limber as the second. We want a ship in these billows we inhabit.... An angular, dogmatic house would be rent to chips and splinters, in this storm of many elements. No, it must be tight, and fit to the form of man, to live at all; as a shell is the architecture of a house founded on the sea.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I made my song a coat Covered with embroideries... Out of old mythologies From heel to throat; But the fools caught it, Wore it in the world's eyes As though they'd wrought it. Song, let them take it For there's more enterprise In walking naked.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Saul clothed David with his armor; he put a bronze helmet on his head and clothed him with a coat of mail. David strapped Saul's s...word over the armor, and he tried in vain to walk, for he was not used to them.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt....LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if ...anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well...LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »