CHAPTER II 



SPRING IN THE ALPS 



IF comparisons are often odious, it is because they 

 often serve to very small purpose, and often lead 

 to much injustice. Prejudice usually plays a con- 

 spicuous part in them ; predilections already exist, 

 and our comparisons are thus rendered markedly 

 unscientific. In nothing is this more true than in 

 attempting comparison between spring in the Swiss 

 Alps and spring in England. The Englishman 

 will vaunt his spring to you as something incom- 

 parable. Well, he is right in a sense. Let him 

 leave it at that : it is incomparable. It is incom- 

 parable just as the Alpine spring is incomparable. 

 Conditions are so different that it is useless and 

 unjust to go into comparisons with any idea of 

 putting one above the other in the end. Each is 

 best in its way ; each is unique ; each is fascinating 

 and wholly delightful. As well say that a cat is 

 | wrong because it does not wag its tail with pleasure 

 like a dog as say that an English spring stands 



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