TACOMA AND THE INDIAN LEGEND OF HAMITCHOU 



And, studying the light and the majesty of Tacoma, 

 there passed from it and entered into my being, to 

 dwell there evermore by the side of many such, a 

 thought and an image of solemn beauty, which I could 

 thenceforth evoke whenever in the world I must have 

 peace or die. For such emotion years of pilgrimage 

 were worthily spent. If mortal can gain the thoughts 

 of immortality, is not his earthly destiny achieved ? 

 For, when we have so studied the visible poem, and 

 so fixed it deep in the very substance of our minds, 

 there is forever with us not merely a perpetual posses- 

 sion of delight, but a watchful monitor that will not 

 let our thoughts be long unfit for the pure companion- 

 ship of beauty. For whenever a man is false to the 

 light that is in him, and accepts meaner joys, or chooses 

 the easy indulgence that meaner passions give, then 

 every fair landscape in all his horizon dims, and all 

 its grandeurs fade and dwindle away, the glory vanishes, 

 and he looks, like one lost, upon his world, late so 

 lovely and sinless. 



While I was studying Tacoma, and learning its 

 fine lesson, it in turn might contemplate its own image 

 far away on the waters of Whulge, where streams 

 from its own snows, gushing seaward to buffet in the 

 boundless deep, might rejoice in a last look at their 

 parent ere they swept out of Puyallop Bay. Other 

 large privilege of view it had. It could see what I 

 could not, Tacoma the Less, Mt. Adams, meritori- 

 ous but clumsy ; it could reflect sunbeams gracefully 

 across a breadth of forest to St. Helen's, the vestal 

 virgin, who still kept her flame kindled, and proved 

 her watchfulness ever and anon. Continuing its pan- 

 oramic studies, Tacoma could trace the chasm of the 

 Columbia by silver circles here and there, could 

 see every peak, chimney, or unopened vent, from Kul- 

 shan to Shasta Butte. The Blue Mountains eastward 

 were within its scope, and westward the faint-blue 

 levels of the Pacific. Another region, worthy of any 



39 



