36 THE MOUNTAINS 



I catch the deeper spirit of the fantastic 

 story, an intense mountain-regard, a real 

 heart-bearing toward the mountains. 

 These Navajos love the mountains and 

 idealize the mountains and respond to all 

 the intimations of the mountains. In- 

 deed, the response of these Indians is not 

 essentially unlike the transcendental re- 

 sponse made by our modern mountain- 

 interpreters to the mountains in "their 

 mystery." This point could be proven, 

 I think, by wide-range quotation and 

 searching analysis, taking as material, 

 such prose as Ward's chapter on "The 

 Glory of Mount Washington," and such 

 poetry as the Chamouni "Hymn" by 

 Samuel Taylor Coleridge. 



Now an important question springs up, 

 namely, "What is the true meaning of all 

 this mountain-enthusiasm?" 



My own answer, after long considera- 

 tion of the question and longer experience 

 with the mountains, can be stated briefly 

 in this way: Men have, beyond their per- 



