406 CHAMOIS HUNTING. 



ness of power, an exulting joy that, vast as was that ocean, 

 my human mind could still encompass it, — in thought 

 could traverse it to its very utmost verge : — a great re- 

 joicing, deep and unspeakable, that I, even I, was able 

 to take in such immensity. 



And this effect, the grandest appearances of Nature 

 always produce in me. They do not crush the mind into 

 nothingness, but cause it rather to feel 



"An equal among mightiest energies." 



They incite it to action, and call on it to put forth its 

 strength. For then, when thus face to face with sub- 

 limity, one mighty sensation, like an instinct, becomes 

 always suddenly quick within it, — a glad, triumphant con- 

 sciousness of inalienable divinity. 



But there are besides many other minor sources of 

 joy, for the mountains form an exclusive world of their 

 own, — a world with its own delights, phenomena, and 

 wonders ; and not only the things themselves, but even 

 their very names have often a strange charm, that awakens 

 the fancy and sets it busily to work. For he who lives 

 constantly with Nature, watching all her moods, nor 

 loving her less, but rather the more, for her changing 

 and waywardness, will not give to familiar things, and to 

 places that are dear to him, a barren name ; but remem- 

 bering each as connected with an event — call it how he 

 will — the word he chooses will have a meaning, a signi- 

 ficance. The wider our world, the less sympathy have 

 we for individual objects ; but if we make a valley our 

 home, we become as intimate with every part, and with 

 aj 1 belonging to the dale, as we are with the children, 

 and the men and women that inhabit it. And, where 

 this is the case, such objects become a part of us ; they 

 live in our heart, and we invest them with attributes, and 

 we speak of them almost as though they had feelings 



