206 



NATURE FOR ITS OWN SAKE 



of sterner stuff. How like steel or flint that 

 base supporting the Jungfrau ! Those who 

 cut the tunnels through Mt. Cenis and St. 

 Gothard found out how compactly that wall 

 of the Alps was put together, and of what 

 rock quality it was built. It would seem as 

 though those strata were laid, one upon an- 

 other, with the aim and the design of their en- 

 during forever. 



And how could the frame itself have been 

 planned better ? Arched at every point by the 

 great rock-beds of plain or mountain, it is 

 more cohesive than any dome of human ma- 

 sonry, be it of the Pantheon, or of Hagia 

 Sophia, or of the Taj Mehal. The architect- 

 ural drum is but a half-globe placed like an 

 inverted cup upon supporting walls and mem- 

 bers, but the earth is as complete in its rotun- 

 dity as in its continuity. Braced by its own 

 curve, the atmospheric pressure from without 

 has as little power to crush it in as the possi- 

 ble gases and vapors from within to bulge it 

 out. Doubtless, ages ago, when the earth was 

 soft and pliable, its whirling motion through 

 space made it round, much as the rain-drop 

 rounds itself by passing through the air ; and 

 now that it has hardened, it is not likely to lose 



