A COLLECTING DAY ABOVE AROLLA 75 



The Matterhorn, arrogant and terrible, has splendour and 

 generosity ; the Wetterhorn is obviously good-tempered ; 

 Mont Blanc and Mont Rose are two stout and cosy 

 dowagers, Mrs. White and Mrs. Pink ; even the Weiss- 

 horn has in its beauty an energetic fury that suits well 

 with a pilgrim on the Way — although that energy be 

 sometimes turned to evil. And Fuji-yama is surely not 

 so much mountain as Bodhisatta. Very near the close of 

 its journey is Fuji-san, and no one could be surprised to 

 discover, some morning, that it had faded out during the 

 darkness, and passed away into the Peace, which is Nirvana. 

 But about the Dent Blanche there is a cold and sluggish 

 malice, unsleeping, unhasting, which owns no kindred 

 with the stolid, fund-holding respectability of Mrs. White, 

 the fierce nobleness of the Weisshorn, or the divine tran- 

 quillity of Fuji-san. The Dent Blanche, as far as hills 

 can have a heart, has an evil, unfriendly heart, which 

 is very far indeed from learning that Love Catholic, 

 which is the way of Release. The Dent Blanche, indeed, 

 has beauty for its only merit, and therein lies its salva- 

 tion. For it is unorthodox folly to say that handsome is 

 as handsome does, and that plain faces can hide lovely 

 souls. If the soul be lovely, the face must have its beauty 

 too, by the law of inevitable consequence, that we call 

 Karma, even though that beauty be rare, exotic, hard to 

 see. And, on the other hand, nothing beautiful can ever 

 be altogether evil, since beauty can only co-exist with 

 inner loveliness, or the possibility of inner loveliness, no 

 matter how remote, how deeply buried in vanity, malice, 

 and frivolity. And therefore, in the enormous course of 

 years, there is as sure an ultimate hope for the beautiful 

 Dent Blanche as for any beautiful man or woman who has 

 ever followed desire through selfishness and treachery. 

 For in the very fact of outward beauty lies the promise of 

 inward good. The seed is there, though many a load of 



