Joseph Edgar Chamberlin

“ In looking at mountains—most mountains—one sees beauty of an inspiring, an emotional sort. In looking from the summit of a mountain one sometimes indeed sees great beauty, but the impression of that beauty is overlaid by the sense of vastness, a feeling of awe, a sort of shudder at so much grandeur. The emotion excited by the scene is not one of æsthetic delight, but one of deep wonder. One goes to the mountain top for a revelation, not for simple delight, surely not for rest—and this the Nomad ventures to say in despite of Goethe, who said "Ueber allen Gipfeln ist Ruhe." ”

“ It was Cardigan, in western New Hampshire—a real and very beautiful mountain, seemingly of volcanic origin, which stands alone in the midst of a lovely lake country, and whose granite summit rises clean and dome-like above the rich timber that envelops its sides. And after the ascent had been made, and the wanderer's feet found themselves once more back in the valley, the Nomad was compelled to admit that the emotional experience abundantly justified the climb. ”

“ As he looked at this lake, the Nomad was strangely impressed with the probability that if he kept on over the granite dome to the tip of the lesser dome at the summit, he would presently be blown into the waters of that lake. It might be a pleasant journey of some fifteen miles through the air with a cool watery plunge at the end—but then the Nomad's promise to Luisita came into his mind. "No risk"—that was it. The Nomad crept into the lee of a rounded rock, at the foot of which grew masses of red bear-berries, and also many more big fat blueberries than he could eat, and thought about it all. ”