340 ON MOTNTAINS AND MANKIND. 



Parnassus, for llic home of poetr}'. Tlu'y found in the cliffs of 

 Delphi a dwelliuii- for their greatest oracle and a center for their, 

 patriotism. One who has lately stood on the toiD of Parnassus and 

 seen the first rays of the sun as it springs from the waves of the 

 .Egean strike its snows, while Attica and 15(rotia and EulKiea still lay 

 in deep shadow under his feet, will appreciate the famous lines of 

 Sophocles, wdiich I wull not quote, as I am uncertain how you may 

 pronounce (jreek in this university. You may remember, too, that 

 Lucian makes Hermes take Charon, Avlien he has a day out from hell, 

 to the twin-crested summit and show him the panoranui of land and 

 sea, of rivers and famous cities. The Vale of Tempe, the deep gap 

 between Olympus and Ossa, beautiful in its great red cliffs, fountains, 

 and spreadiirg plane trees, was part of a Ivoman's classical tour. 

 The superb buttresses in which Taygetus breaks dow'n on the valley 

 of the P]urotas w-ere used by the Spai'tans for other purposes besides 

 the disposal of criminals and weakly babies. The middle regions — 

 the lawns above the Langada Pass, "" virginibus bacchata Lacienis 

 Taygeta " — are frequented to this day as a summer resort by Spartan 

 damsels. The very top, the great rock that from a height of 8,000 

 feet looks down through its woods of oaks and Ale])po pines on the 

 Iwin bays of the southern sea, is a place of immemorial pilgrimages. 

 It is now occupied by a chapel framed in a tiny court, so choked with 

 snow at the beginning of June that I took the ridge of the chapel 

 roof for a dilapidated stoneman. 1 have no tim(> to-day to look for 

 evidence in classical literature, to refer to the discriminating epithets 

 applied in it to mountain scenes. 



A third race destined ajjparently to play a great part in the 

 Avorld's history — the Japanese — are ancient mountain lovers. We 

 are all aware that Fusiyama to the Japanese is (as Ararat to the 

 Armenians) a national synd)ol ; that its ascent is constantly made 

 by bands of jDilgrims; that it is depicted in every aspect. Those Avho 

 have read the pleasant book of Mr. Weston, who. as English chaplain 

 for some years at Kobi, bad exceptional ()i)p<)rtunities of travel in 

 the interior, will remember how often he met with shrines and tem- 

 ples on the summits of the mountains, and how he found pilgrims 

 who fre(|tiented (hem in the belief that tiiey fell there more I'eadily 

 into sj)iritual tran<'es. The .Jai)anese minister when he attended 

 Mr. AVeston's lecture at the Alpine Clul), told us that his countrymen 

 never climbed mountains without a sei-ious — that is to say, a relig- 

 ious — object. 



India anil China would add to my evidence had I knowledge and 

 time enough to refer to their literature. 1 remember Tennyson 

 pointing out to me, in a volume of translations from the Chinese, a 

 poem, w^ritten about the date of our King Alfred, in praise of a 

 picture of a mountain lan(lscai)e. liut I must return to the six- 



