How else, from capture of the giant-spray,
Hurt-free escapest thou, slight ocean-flower?
—As if Arachne wove, thus faultless lay
The full-develop’d forms of fairy-bower;
—Who that beholds thee thus, nor with dismay
Recalls thee struggling thro’ the storm’s dark hour![101]
[101] Poems and Translations from Schiller.
MARRIAGE OF THE SEA.
The doge of Venice, accompanied by the senators, in the greatest pomp, marries the sea every year.
Those who judge of institutions by their appearance only, think this ceremony an indecent and extravagant vanity; they imagine that the Venetians annually solemnize this festival, because they believe themselves to be masters of the sea. But the wedding of the sea is performed with the most noble intentions.
The sea is the symbol of the republic: of which the doge is the first magistrate, but not the master; nor do the Venetians wish that he should become so. Among the barriers to his domination, they rank this custom, which reminds him that he has no more authority over the republic, which he governs with the senate, than he has over the sea, notwithstanding the marriage he is obliged to celebrate with her. The ceremony symbolizes the limits of his power, and the nature of his obligations.