SPRING IN THE ALPS 19 



To the right all purple and white, to the left all 

 rose and gold, with blue of the heavens' own hue 

 scattered everywhere ! Although Nature * never 

 yields to sentiment any point of profit ' although 

 Nature may, in herself, be devoid of every particle 

 of sentiment yet her effect is to produce in us 

 abundant sentiment. After all, with humanity as 

 with flowers, bewitching loveliness is the outcome 

 of stern and practical necessity ; and sentiment, 

 really, there is not in the durable fabric of creation. 

 But however that may be, here is a scene to 

 dream amid, if ever there were one ! Here is 

 occasion for ' that undisturbed silence of the heart 

 which alone is perfect eloquence.' One feels with 

 Hazlitt that these flowers are sweetest without 

 comment ; that one wants to see one's ' vague 

 notions float like the down of the thistle before 

 the breeze, and not to have them entangled in the 

 briars and thorns of controversy.' Silence here, 

 indeed, is golden. Surely here, if anywhere, the 

 pettiness of men should evaporate, the character 

 expand, and larger ideas take possession of the soul. 

 * Not to everyone,' writes Mr. John Galsworthy 

 'not to everyone is it given to take a wide view 

 of things, to look over the far, pale streams, the 

 purple heather and moonlit pools of the wild 



