72 ILLINOIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 
he hears music, is a desideratum. To go about the earth 
blindly, unintelligent as to the meaning of its surface configu- 
ration, is to cut off one of the great pleasures of life, and espe- 
cially one of the great pleasures of travel. 
Since all men are always in touch with at least a limited part 
of the land surface, and most of them in touch with enough of 
it to find lasting enjoyment in it if they are taught to see what 
it means, how can we justify ourselves, if we withhold this re- 
source from this and coming generations? 
Prompted by the attitude of mind which mountains inspire, I 
have repeatedly watched their effect on groups of students who, 
for the first time, live in them long enough to have their influ- 
ence felt; and I have seen, or thought I saw, how littlenesses 
and meannesses drop away, and how the nobler qualities come 
to the fore. John Muir has made much of this idea in one con- 
nection and another, and I think he is entirely right. To many 
men, mountains are as inspiring, as uplifting, as soul-stirring, 
as great essays or great poems are to others. Is it not just as 
great a mistake to leave the one out of consideration, as the 
other? To the average young man at least, I suspect that the 
mountains are quite as much of an intellectual and moral 
tonic, as the best that he finds on the printed page. 
What has been said of the mountains might be said, with 
modifications, of other parts of the earth. If there are those 
who think the landscape of an unrelieved tract like that about 
Chicago unlovely, I think this feeling would be changed com- ~ 
pletely, if the grand march of events which has made that sur- 
face what it is, were understood. While it can never have the 
charm to the eye that some other sort of surface has, it has its 
own elements of attractiveness, its own beauty, to the eye 
which really sees. When men belittle the attractions of the 
level prairie, they advertise their ignorance. One may not 
choose to read poetry all the time. With equal education in the 
two, I am confident that the normal man could live contentedly 
with the plains longer than with poetry—even of the best. 
The sea has a charm for almost every soul, but he who gets 
only what the eye records of color and movement, fails of the 
larger meaning, which, to beauty, adds grandeur. What does 
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