A COLLECTING DAY ABOVE AROLLA 175 
‘The Matterhorn, arrogant and terrible, has splendour and 
generosity ; the Wetterhorn is obviously good-tempered ; 
Mont Blanc and Mont Rose are two stout and cosy 
dowagers, Mrs. White and Mrs. Pink; even the Weiss- 
horn has in its beauty an energetic fury that suits well 
with a pilgrim on the Way—although that energy be 
sometimes turned to evil. And Fuji-yama is surely not 
so much mountain as Bodhisatta. Very near the close of 
its journey is Fuji-san, and no one could be surprised to 
discover, some morning, that it had faded out during the 
darkness, and passed away into the Peace, which is Nirvana. 
But about the Dent Blanche there is a cold and sluggish 
malice, unsleeping, unhasting, which owns no kindred 
with the stolid, fund-holding respectability of Mrs. White, 
the fierce nobleness of the Weisshorn, or the divine tran- 
quillity of Fuji-san. The Dent Blanche, as far as hills 
can have a heart, has an evil, unfriendly heart, which 
is very far indeed from learning that Love Catholic, 
which is the way of Release. The Dent Blanche, indeed, 
has beauty for its only merit, and therein lies its salva- 
tion. For it is unorthodox folly to say that handsome is 
as handsome does, and that plain faces can hide lovely 
souls. If the soul be lovely, the face must have its beauty 
too, by the law of inevitable consequence, that we call 
Karma, even though that beauty be rare, exotic, hard to 
see. And, on the other hand, nothing beautiful can ever 
be altogether evil, since beauty can only co-exist with 
inner loveliness, or the possibility of inner loveliness, no 
matter how remote, how deeply buried in vanity, malice, 
and frivolity. And therefore, in the enormous course of 
years, there is as sure an ultimate hope for the beautiful 
Dent Blanche as for any beautiful man or woman who has 
ever followed desire through selfishness and treachery. 
For in the very fact of outward beauty lies the promise of 
inward good. The seed is there, though many a load of 
