Old, frozen institutions of human
selfishness to resist the influence which he is now breathing through
the human heart, to liberate the captive, to free the slave, and to
turn the ice of long winters into rivers of life for the new heaven
and the new earth.
All this we know is coming, but we long to see it now, and breathe
forth our desires with the Hebrew prophet, "O that thou wouldst rend
the heavens, that thou wouldst come down, that the mountains might
flow down at thy presence."
I had, while upon this field of ice, that strange feeling which often
comes over one, at the sight of a thing unusually beautiful and
sublime, of wanting, in some way, to appropriate and make it a part of
myself. I looked up the gorge, and saw this frozen river, lying
cradled, as it were, in the arms of needle-peaked giants of
amethystine rock, their tops laced with flying silvery clouds. The
whole air seemed to be surcharged with tints, ranging between the
palest rose and the deepest violet - tints never without blue, and
never without red, but varying in the degrees of the two. It is this
prismatic hue diffused over every object which gives one of the most
noticeable characteristics of the Alpine landscape.
This sea of ice lies on an inclined plane, and all the blocks have a
general downward curve.
I told you yesterday that the lower part of the glacier, as seen from
La Flegere, appeared covered with dirt. I saw to-day the reason for
this. Although it was a sultry day in July, yet around the glacier a
continual high wind was blowing, whirling the dust and _debris_
of the sides upon it. Some of the great masses of ice were so
completely coated with sand as to appear at a distance like granite
rocks. The effect of some of these immense brown masses was very
peculiar. They seemed like an army of giants, bending forward, driven,
as by an invisible power, down into the valley.
It reminds one of such expressions as these in Job: -
"Have the gates of death been open to thee, or hast thou seen the
doors of the shadow of death?" One should read that sublime poem in
such scenes as these. I remained on the ice as long as I could
persuade the guides and party to remain.
Then we went back to the house, where, of course, we looked at some
wood work, agates, and all the et cetera.
Then we turned our steps downward. We went along the side of the
glacier, and I desired to climb over as near as possible, in order to
see the source of the Arveiron, which is formed by the melting of this
glacier.
