212 NATURAL BEAUTY 



If I am asked, What is the use of climbing this 

 highest mountain? I reply, No use at all : no more 

 use than kicking a football about, or dancing, or 

 playing on the piano, or writing a poem, or painting 

 a picture. The geologist predicts to a certainty that 

 no gold will be found on the summit, and if gold did 

 exist there no one would be able to work it. Climb- 

 ing Mount Everest will not put a pound into any- 

 one's pocket. It will take a good many pounds out 

 of people's pockets. It will also entail the expen- 

 diture of much time and necessitate the most careful 

 forethought and planning on the part of those who 

 are organising the expedition. And it will mean 

 that those who carry it out will have to keep them- 

 selves at the very highest pitch of physical fitness, 

 mental alertness, and moral courage and endurance. 

 They will have to be prepared to undergo the 

 severest hardships and run considerable risks. And 

 all this, I say, without the prospect of making a 

 single penny. So there will be no use in climbing 

 Mount Everest. If the ascent is made at all it will 

 be made for the sheer love of the thing, from pure 

 enjoyment — the enjoyment a man gets from pitting 

 himself against a big obstacle. 



But if there is no use, there is unquestionably 

 good in climbing Mount Everest. The accomplish- 

 ment of such a feat will elevate the human spirit. 

 It will give men — and especially us geographers — a 

 feeling that we really are getting the upper hand on 

 the Earth, that we are acquiring a true mastery of 

 our surroundings. As long as we impotently creep 

 about at the foot of these mighty mountains and 

 gaze on their summits without attempting to ascend 



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