A ship...

What is dying? I am standing on a sea shore. A ship sails to the morning breeze and starts for the ocean. She is an object of beauty and I stand watching her till at last she fades on the horizon, and someone at my side says, "She is gone". Gone where? Gone from my sight, that is all; she is just as large in masts, hull and spars as she was when I saw her, and just as able to bear her load of living freight to its destination.

The diminished size and total loss of sight is in me, not her; and just at the moment when someone at my side says, "She is gone", there are others who are watching her coming, and other voices take up a glad shout, "There she comes" - and that is dying.

Bishop Brent