OLD ALPINE JOTTINGS. 



TWENTY years ago, at the instance of Mr. Macmil- 

 lan, I threw these " jottings " together for his excel- 

 lent magazine. In surveying them I notice, what is 

 confirmed by a larger survey, that my life, in regard 

 to working power and consequent enjoyment, has been 

 one of ups and downs. Intellectual work has its de- 

 lights and drawbacks. Strain and worry of mind are 

 admitted causes of physical disturbance, and of them 

 I have had my share. " Materialism " is also better 

 understood than it used to be; and no man subject to 

 a weak digestion with periodic loss of sleep will be in- 

 disposed to assign to material things a transcendental 

 value. They act upon body and mind ; predisposing the 

 organ of intellect and imagination to give to current 

 events, especially on wakeful nights, an over-brilliant 

 colouring. For such derangements I know nothing 

 better than a dose of the glaciers under the condition, 

 however, that they have an organism needing purifica- 

 tion and repair, but otherwise sound all round, to act 

 upon. The reader would err if he imagined that the 

 " lowness of spirits " revealed here and there in these 

 " jottings " was a permanent lowness. The contem- 

 plated abandonment of the Alps was all moonshine. 

 Seven years after my "leave-taking" I built my aerie 



429 



