MOUNTAIN GRANDEUR 95 



justice, simply because paints and canvas are 

 mediums far too coarse in which to reproduce the 

 impression which such brilliance of light acting on 

 a medium so fine as the thin air produces. The 

 great Russian painter Verestchagin once visited 

 Darjiling, and took his seat to paint the scene. 

 He looked and looked, but did not paint. His 

 wife kept handing him the brush and paints. But 

 time after time he said : " Not now, not now ; it 

 is all too splendid." Night came and the picture 

 never was painted. And it never could be painted, 

 though great artists most assuredly could at least 

 point out to us in their pictures the subtler glories 

 which are to be seen, and which we expect them to 

 indicate to us. 



So the view of the snows from Darjiling, grand 

 and almost overpowering though it is, has warmth 

 in it too. The main impression is one of magni- 

 tude and amplitude, of vastness and immensity, 

 and withal of serene composure. The first view of 

 the mountain seen through a rent in the clouds was 

 perhaps more uplifting, though this view excites a 

 sense of elevation also, for the eye is continually 

 being drawn to the highest point. But in this full 

 view the impression of breadth and bigness of scale 

 is combined with the impression of height. The 

 dimensions of life in every direction seem to be 

 enlarged. We seem to be able to look at things 

 from a broader, bigger point of view, as well as a 

 higher. We ourselves and the world at large are 

 all on a larger scale than we had hitherto suspected. 

 And w r hile on a broader scale, we feel that things 



