342 ON MOUNTAINS AND MANKIND. 



and particularly in the very lofty ranges by which the Vallais is on all 

 sides surrounded, wonders of nature offer themselves to our view and 

 admiration. With my countrymen, many of them have through 

 familiarity lost their attraction; but foreigners are overcome at the 

 mere sight of the Alps, and regard as marvels what we through habit 

 pay no attention to." 



Mr. Coolidge, in his singularly interesting footnotes, goes on to 

 show that the books that remain to us are not isolated instances of a 

 feeling for mountains in the age of the Renaissance. The mountains 

 themselves bear, or once bore, records even more impressive. Most of 

 us have climbed to the picturesque old castle at Thun and seen beyond 

 the rushing Aar the green heights of the outposts of the Alps, the 

 Stockhorn, and the Niesen. Our friend Marti, who climbed the 

 former peak about 1558, records that he found on the summit " tituli, 

 rythmi, et proverbia saxis inscripta una cum imaginibus et nominibus 

 auctorum. Inter alia cujusdam docti et montium amoenitate caj)ti 

 observare licebat illud : 



""^O T(^v opoov e'poos apiffTog.'^'' 



" The love of mountains is best." In those five words some Swiss 

 jDrofessor anticipated the doctrine of Ruskin and the creed of Leslie 

 Stephen, and of all men who have found mountains the best compan- 

 ions in the vicissitudes of life. 



In the annals of art it would be easy to find additional proof of the 

 attention paid by men to mountains three to four hundred years ago. 

 The late Josiah Gilbert, in a charming but too little-known volume, 

 Landscape in Art, has shown hoAV many great ])ainters depicted in 

 their backgrounds their native hills. Titian is the most conspicuous 

 example. 



It will perhaps be answered that this love of mountains led to no 

 practical result, bore no visible fruit, and therefore can have been but 

 a sickly plant. Some of my hearers nuiy feel inclined to point out 

 that it was left to the latter half of the nineteenth century to found 

 climbers' clubs. It would take too long to adduce all the i)ra('(ical 

 reasons which delayed the appearance of these fine fruits of i)oace and 

 an advanced civilization. I am content to remind \"ou that the love 

 of mountains and the desire to climb them aiv distinct tastes. Tliey 

 are often united, but their union is accidental, not essential. A i)as- 

 sion for golf does not necessarily argue a love of levels. 1 would sug- 

 gest that more outward and visible signs than is generally imagined 

 of the familial- i-clations between nuMi and mountains in early times 

 may be found. The choicest spots in the Alj)ine region — C'hamonix, 

 Engelberg, Disentis, Einsiedlen, l*esio, the (Jrande Chartreuse — were 

 seized on by recluses; the Alpine Baths were in full swing at quite 



