THE BEAUTY 19 



beauty of the mountains in his region, 

 answered: "Wal, yes, but if I'd had the 

 sortin' of these hills I'd made 'em a little 

 peaheder." 



Once I myself had this naive prefer- 

 ence for the mountain-pyramid, but now 

 I discover a peculiar beauty in those 

 along flowing lines which are the artistic 

 outcome of ages of abrasion. For in- 

 stance, take Mount Kinsman. What an 

 exquisite skyline ("in cadence swinging 

 like an ocean swell"), and especially is it 

 exquisite over against a dark stretch of 

 nimbus cloud! Here we have just the 

 combination of massive base and out- 

 reaching lines and solemn color which, in 

 this Franconia region, appealed to the 

 sensitive, introspective genius of our most 

 original writer in the realm of creative 

 fancy — Nathaniel Hawthorne. 



Mountain-form, though, is only the be- 

 ginning of mountain-beauty. Thomas 

 Starr King (called "the American Rus- 

 kin," although, at times, he is more nearly 



