ls, still stood out on the right. Night came on.... In the
Munsterthal, through which we came, everything was lofty, but
more within the mind's power of comprehension than these. In
comparison with the immensities, one is, and must remain, too
small.

And after visiting the Berne glacier from Thun (Oct. 14):

It is difficult to write after all this ... the first glance from
the mountain is striking, the district is surprisingly extensive
and pleasant ... the road indescribably beautiful ... the view
from the Lake of Brienz towards the snow mountains at sunset is
great.

More eloquent is the letter of October 3rd, from the Munsterthal:

The passage through this defile roused in me a grand but calm
emotion. The sublime produces a beautiful calmness in the soul,
which, entirely possessed by it, feels as great as it ever can
feel. How glorious is such a pure feeling, when it rises to the
very highest without overflowing. My eye and my soul were both
able to take in the objects before me, and as I was preoccupied
by nothing, and had no false tastes to counteract their
impression, they had on me their full and natural effect. When we
compare such a feeling with that we are sensible of, when we
laboriously harass ourselves with some trifle, and strain every
nerve to gain as much as possible for it, and, as it were, to
patch it out, striving to furnish joy and aliment to the mind
from its own creation; we then feel sensibly what a poor
expedient, after all, the latter is....

When we see such objects as these for the first time, the
unaccustomed soul has to expand itself, and this gives rise to a
sort of painful joy, an overflowing of emotion which agitates the
mind and draws from us the most delicious tears.... If only
destiny had bidden me to dwell in the midst of some grand
scenery, then would I every morning have imbibed greatness from
its grandeur, as from a lonely valley I would extract patience
and repose.

One guesses in the dark about the origin and existence of these
singular forms.... These masses must have been formed grandly and
simply by aggregation. Whatever revolutions may subsequently have
up-heaved, rent, and divided them ... the idea of such nightly
commotions gives one a deep feeling of the eternal stability of
the masses.... One feels deeply convinced th