VI MOUNTAINS 235 
sea. Beyond is the range which divides the 
Valais from Italy. Sweeping round, the 
vision meets an aggregate of peaks which look 
as fledglings to their mother towards the 
mighty Dom. Then come the repellent crags 
of Mont Cervin; the ideal of moral savagery, 
of wild untameable ferocity, mingling involun- 
tarily with our contemplation of the gloomy 
pile. Next comes an object, scarcely less 
grand, conveying, it may be, even a deeper 
impression of majesty and might than the 
Matterhorn itself —the Weisshorn, perhaps 
the most splendid object in the Alps. But 
beauty is associated with its force, and we 
think of it, not as cruel, but as grand and 
strong. Further to the right the great 
Combin lifts up his bare head; other peaks 
crowd around him; while at the extremity of 
the curve round which our gaze has swept 
rises the sovran crown of Mont Blanc. And 
now, as day sinks, scrolls of pearly clouds 
draw themselves around the mountain crests, 
being wafted from them into the distant air. 
They are without colour of any kind; still, by 
grace of form, and as the embodiment of | 
