human
The hills have their fascination; it's a thing I know, she said, to draw the helmsman out.
gpt
I think I should like the sea, too; but at first sight it's charm isn't quite so plain.
human
You have started him, interposed Carroll.
gpt
He won't refuse that challenge.
human
Well, he declared,
gpt
Is it always a struggle?
human
Always. The sea's as treacherous as the winds that vex it, pitiless, murderous. When you have only sail to trust to, you can never relax your vigilance; you must watch the varying drift of clouds and the swing of the certain tides. There's nothing and nobody to fall back upon when the breeze pipes its challenge; you have sloughed off civilization and must stand or fall by the raw natural powers with which man is born, and chief among them is the capacity for brutal labor. The thrashing sail must be mastered; the tackle creaking with the strain must be hauled in. Perhaps, that's the charm of it for some of us whose lives are pretty smooth--it takes one back, as I said, to the beginning.
gpt
But haven't human progress and machines made life more smooth for everybody?
human
Oh, no; I think that can never be done. So far, somebody pays for the others' ease. At sea, in the mine and in the bush man still grapples with a rugged, naked world.