ALPINE SCULPTURE. 251 



period when almost all the mountains were covered 

 with ice and snow, and when, consequently, the quan- 

 tity of moraine-matter derived from the naked crests 

 cannot have been considerable. 



The erosion theory ascribes the formation of Alpine 

 valleys to the agencies here briefly referred to. It 

 invokes nothing but true causes. Its artificers are 

 still there, though, it may be, in diminished strength; 

 and if they are granted sufficient time, it is demon- 

 strable that they are competent to produce the effects 

 ascribed to them. And what does the fracture theory 

 offer in comparison? From no possible application of 

 this theory, pure and simple, can we obtain the slopes 

 and forms of the mountains. Erosion must in the 

 long run be invoked, and its power therefore conceded. 

 The fracture theory infers from the disturbances of the 

 Alps the existence of fissures; and this is a probable 

 inference. But that they were of a magnitude suffi- 

 cient to produce the conformation of the Alps, and 

 that they followed, as the Alpine valleys do, the lines 

 of natural drainage of the country, are assumptions 

 which do not appear to me to be justified either by 

 reason or by observation. 



There is a grandeur in the secular integration of 

 small effects implied by the theory of erosion almost 

 superior to that involved in the idea of a cataclysm. 

 Think of the ages which must have been consumed in 

 the execution of this colossal sculpture. The question 

 may, of course, be pushed further. Think of the ages 

 which the molten earth required for its consolidation. 

 But these vaster epochs lack sublimity through our 

 inability to grasp them. They bewilder us, but they 

 fail to make a solemn impression. The genesis of the 

 mountains comes more within the scope of the intel- 

 lect, and the majesty of the operation is enhanced by 



