10 LIFE OF HORACE BENEDICT DE SAUSSURE 



count by no means least the lofty and broken ridges of the mountains, 

 their inaccessible precipices, the vastness of the slopes that rise heaven- 

 ward, the steep crags, the shady woods.' 



In the Pilatus pamphlet l Gesner is equally emphatic. Here 

 are a few sentences taken from several pages of a eulogy of 

 mountaineering, wholly modern in the note they strike despite 

 the trammels of a dead language to which Gesner succeeds in 

 giving singular vivacity. In one sentence he celebrates the 

 holiday humours often made a reproach by dyspeptic reviewers 

 to the writers of Alpine articles. In the next he is anticipating 



Shelley's 



* . . . deep music of the rolling world, 

 Kindling within the strings of the waved air 

 ^Bolian modulations.' 



But let him speak for himself : 



' The agreeable conversation of companions, their quips and jests, 

 will give pleasure ; then the delicious songs of the birds in the woods, 

 and finally the very silence of the solitude. Here there can be no 

 sounds to vex or harass the ears, no city riots or noise, no human 

 strife. Here in the deep and solemn silence on the topmost crests of the 

 mountains you mil seem to yourself almost to catch the music, if such 

 there be, of the heavenly orbs.* 



' Let us conclude, therefore, that mountain walks, taken with 

 friends, so long as the mind and body are capable of profiting by them, 

 and the weather is suitable, afford the greatest possible enjoyment 

 and the most delightful gratification to the senses. But there are no 

 beds, feather mattresses, pillows ! Oh you mollycoddle ! (mollem et 

 ejfeminatum hominem). Hay will serve for all ; hay soft and fragrant, 

 a heap of various grasses and fragrant flowers. Your sleep will be 

 the healthier and more refreshing. You will have hay for a pillow 

 to your head, for a mattress to your body, and you will even spread 

 it over you for a coverlet.' 



May we not claim Gesner as the spiritual father of all Alpine 

 Clubs ? What would we give for him to have lived to tell us the 



1 Descripiio Montis Fracti, 1551. 



8 Auditum suaves sociorum sermones, joci, facetiaeque, oblectabunt: et 

 avicularum in silvis suavissimi cantus, et ipsum denique solitudinis silentium. 

 Nihil hie auribus raolestum esse potest, nihil importunum, nulli tumultus aut 

 etrepitus urbani, nullae hominum rixae. Hlc in profundo et religiose quodam 

 silentio ex pracaltis montium jugis, ipsam fere coelestium, si quae est, orbium 

 harmoniam exaudire tibi videberis. 



