us as we view the
mountain. We are uplifted. The entire scale of being is raised. Our
outlook on life seems all at once to have been heightened. And not
only is there this sense of elevation: we seem purified also.
Meanness, pettiness, paltriness seem to shrink away abashed at the
sight of that radiant purity.

The mountain has made appeal to, and called forth from us all that is
most pure and most noble within us, and aroused our highest
aspirations. Our heart, therefore, goes out lovingly to it. We long to
see it again and again. We long to be always in a mood worthy of it.
And we long to have that fineness of soul which would enable us to
appreciate it still more fully. Glowing in the heart of the mountain is
the pure flame of undaunted aspiration, and it sets something aglow
in our hearts also which burns there unquenchably for the rest of our
days. We see attainment of the I highest in the physical domain, and
it stirs us to achieve the highest in the spiritual. Between ourselves
and the mountain is the kinship of common effort towards high ends.
And it is because of this kinship that we are able to see such lofty
Beauty in the mountain.

For only a few minutes are we granted this heavenly vision. Then
the veil is drawn again. But in those few minutes we have received
an impression which has gone right down into the depths of our soul
and will last there for a lifetime.

* * *

On other occasions the mountain is not so reserved, but reveals itself
for whole days in all its glory. The central range of the Himalaya
will be arrayed before us in its full majesty from one horizon to the
other without a cloud to hide a single detail. We see the lesser
ranges rolling up, wave after wave, in higher and higher effort
towards the culminating line of peaks. And along this central line
itself all the lesser heights we see converging on the supreme peak
of Kinchinjunga. The scene, too, will be dazzling in the glorious
sunshine and suffused with that purply-blue translucent atmosphere
which gives to the whole a fairy-like, ethereal aspect.

And on this occasion we have no hurried glimpse of the mountain.
We have ample time to contemplate it, looking at it, turning away
from it to rest our souls from so deep an emotion, looking at it again,
time after time, till we have entered into its spirit and its spirit has
entered into us. And always our eyes insensibly revert to the
culminating-point--the summit of Kinchinjunga itse