ON THE HEIGHTS. 79 



face of a projecting cliff ; sometimes one plunges 

 into the very heart of the shadows as they gather 

 over the rocky channel of the brook that later will 

 run foaming down to the valley. Step by step one 

 widens his horizon, although it is only at intervals 

 that he is able to note his progress upward.) At 

 the base of the mountain one saw only a circle of 

 hills, and the long sweep of wooded slopes which 

 converge in the valley ; gradually the horizon 

 widens as one climbs beyond the summit lines of 

 the lower hills ; at turns in the path, where it 

 crosses some rocky declivity, one looks out upon a 

 landscape into which some new feature enters with 

 every new outlook; one range of hills after another 

 sinks below the level of vision, and discloses another 

 strip of undiscovered country beyond ; and so one 

 climbs, step by step, into the glory of a new world. 

 The solitude, the silence, the radiant beauty of the 

 morning, the expanding sweep of hills and valleys 

 at one s feet, fill one with eager longing for the un 

 broken circle of sky at the summit, and prepare one 

 for the thrill of joy with which the soul answers 

 the outspread vision. 



At last only a few rocks interpose between the 

 summit and the last resting-place. I wait a mo 

 ment longer than I need, as.6oae pushes back for 

 an instant the cup from which he has long desired 

 to drink. I even shun the noble vistas that open 

 on either side, postponing to the moment of perfect 

 achievement the partial successes already won. 



