142 
THE GKAND CASO^T DISTRICT. 
liarsli and trivial have grace and meaning; that forms which seemed grotesque 
are full of dignity; that magnitudes which had added enormity to coarse- 
ness have become replete with strength and even majesty; that colors which 
had been esteemed unrefined, immodest, and glaring, are as expressive, 
tender, changeful, and capacious of effects as any others. Great innova- 
tions, whether in art or literature, in science or in nature, seldom take the 
world by storm. They must be understood before they can be estimated, 
and must be cultivated before they can be understood. 
It is so with the Grand Canon. The observer who visits its command- 
ing points with the expectation of experiencing forthwith a rapturous exal- 
tation, an ecstasy arising from the realization of a degree of grandeur and 
sublimity never felt before, is doomed to disappointment. Supposing him 
to be but little familiar with plateau scenery, he will be simply bewildered. 
Must he, therefore, pronounce it a failure, an overpraised thing? Must he 
entertain a just resentment towards those who may have raised his expecta- 
tions too high ? The answer is that subjects which disclose their full power, 
meaning, and beauty as soon as they are presented to the mind have very 
little of those qualities to disclose. Moreover, a visitor to the chasm or to 
any other famous scene must necessarily come there (for so is the human 
mind constituted) with a picture of it created by his own imagination. He 
reaches the spot, the conjured picture vanishes in an instant, and the place 
of it must be filled anew. Surely no imagination can construct out of its 
own material any picture having the remotest resemblance to the Grand 
Canon. In truth, the first step in attempting a description is to beg the 
reader to dismiss from his mind, so far as practicable, any preconceived 
notion of it. 
Those who have long and carefully studied the Grand Canon of the 
Colorado do not hesitate for a moment to pronounce it by far the most sub- 
lime of all earthly spectacles. If its sublimity consisted only in its dimen- 
sions, it could be sufficiently set forth in a single sentence. It is more than 
200 miles long, from 5 to 12 miles wide, and from 5,000 to 6,000 feet deep. 
There are in the world valleys which are longer and a few which are deeper. 
There are valleys flanked by summits loftier than the palisades of the Kai- 
