careful to exact
that much toll from them year by year. But having paid that toll,
they have risen by a process of steady, long persistence, and have
maintained themselves in their exalted position by sheer firmness
and tenacity of character. And as, dripping with warm moisture and
carrying with them in any available crevice graceful ferns and trees,
they rise above us high up into the clouds, and form the buttresses of
those snowy peaks of which we catch occasional glimpses, we are
impressed not only with the height of the aspiration those peaks
embody, but with the strength and persistency of purpose which was
necessary to carry the aspiration into effect.

Overpowered, indeed, we feel at times--shut in and overshadowed
by what seems so infinitely greater than ourselves. The roaring river
fills the centre of the gorge. The precipitous cliffs rise sheer on
either hand. We seem for the moment too minute to cope with such
titanic conditions. But sometimes by circumventing the cliffs and
after a long tedious detour appearing high above them, sometimes
by blasting a passage across their very face, we have proved
ourselves able to overcome them. They no longer affright us. And as
we return down the valley after a journey to its upmost limit, it is
with nothing but sheer delight that we look upon these cliffs. They
simply impress us with the strength that must go along with
elevation of purpose if that purpose is to be achieved. Unbuttressed
by these staunch cliffs the mountains could never have reached their
present height. We glory, then, with the cliffs in their solidity and
strength as they proudly face the world. And we recognise that in
this firmness and consistency of purpose lies their especial Beauty.

* * *

In contrast with the swirling river and hard, rugged cliffs we, quite
close to them, and hidden away in a modest tributary of a tributary
in the quiet forest depths, will happen upon some deep sequestered
pool which imbues us with a sense of the delicacy and reserve of
Nature. We here see her in a peculiarly tender aspect. The pool is
still and clear. The lulling murmurs of a waterfall show whence it
draws its being. A gentle rivulet carries the overbrim away. It is
bounded by rocks and boulders green with exquisite ferns and
mosses. Overhanging it are weeping palms with long straight leaves.
Trees, with erect stems as tall as Nelson's Column, strain upward to
the light. Butterflies in numbers flutter nois