Phantastes - Chapter 18

I don't have much to say about this chapter. It concludes the weary battle with depression as he brings an end by diving into the waters, only to be lifted out. This is yet another episode in the book of a sudden, seemingly unpredictable change in scenery as he goes from being underground to being in this desolate sea, and then as he is rescued by a boat the scenery changes again to the flow of water like the flow of time, reviewing his past life. And thus the water proves to not be the waters of death ("passing through the river" is a recurring metaphor for death in classical literature) but the waters of time, flowing on and on.