Its soiled masses contrast with the dazzling whiteness
of the upper regions, just as human virtue exposed to the wind and
dust of earth, with the spotless purity of Jesus.
[Illustration: _of a long view of mountains with glacial valley in
foreground. What follows is a rough ASCII interpretation_:
1
/\
/\ /\_/ \ 2
/\/\ __ /\/\_ /'\/\/ \__/ \ \_/\
'/\ _/ / / \ 4_ / \_3_
'' / \ | _/ __ __ 5 / \
\, / ___,,__ ____,___/ / \
_ \__ - ' _/ \ ' - ' | \____,|
\ /9/ __/ |\ | \ \\ \ |
\/ |/ | \ \ \\ \|
_ | \ | \ \_ 7 \\ \\6
\ \ 8 \__ \ \_ \\ \\
\_ \ \ \===-' - ' - - >
' - - -\=====================\ streams
//
settlement ||
\ \_
> >
trees / /
EXPLANATION OF ILLUSTRATION.
1. Mont Blanc. 2. Deme de Goute. 3. Aiguille de Goute. 4. Grand
Plateau. 5. Les Grands Mulets. 6. Glacier de Tacconnaz. 7. Glacier de
Boisson. 8. Mer de Glace. 9. Montauvert.]
These mulets, which at this distance appear like black points, are
needle cliffs rising in a desert of snow, thus -
[Illustration: _of narrow jagged dark rocks about 70 feet across at
the base and rising to about 80 feet from the base._]
Coming down I mentally compared Mont Blanc and Niagara, as one should
compare two grand pictures in different styles of the same master.
Both are of that class of things which mark eras in a mind's history,
and open a new door which no man can shut. Of the two, I think Niagara
is the most impressive, perhaps because those aerial elements of foam
and spray give that vague and dreamy indefiniteness of outline which
seems essential in the sublime. For this reason, while Niagara is
equally impressive in the distance, it does not lose on the nearest
approach - it is always mysterious, and, therefore, stimulating. Those
varying spray wreaths, rising like Ossian's ghosts from its abyss;
those shimmering rainbows, through whose veil you look; those dizzying
falls of water that seem like clouds poured from the hollow of God's
hand; and that mystic undertone of sound that seems to pervade the
whole being as the voice of the Almighty, - all these bewilder and
enchant the discriminative and prosaic part of us, and bring us into
that cloudy region of ecstasy where the soul comes nearest to Him whom
no eye hath seen, or can see. I have sometimes asked myself if, in the
countless ages of the future, the heirs of God shall ever be endowed
by him with a creative power, by which they shall bring into being
things like these? In this infancy of his existence, man creates
pictures, statues, cathedrals; but when he is made "ruler over many
things," will his Father intrust to him the building and adorning of
worlds? the ruling of the glorious, dazzling forces of nature?
At the foot of the mountain we found again our company of strawberry
girls, with knitting work and goat's milk, lying in wait for us. They
knew we should be thirsty and hungry, and wisely turned the
circumstance to account.
