The Alps

HOME UNIVERSITY LIBRARY OF MODERN KNOWLEDGE Editors : HERBERT FISHER, M.A., F.B.A., LL.D. Prof. GILBERT MURRAY, D.Litt., LL.D., F.B.A. Prof. J. ARTHUR THOMSON, M.A., LL.D. Prof. WILLIAM T. BREWSTER, M.A. (Columbia University, U.S.A.) LONDON WILLIAMS AND NORGATE
First printed July 1914
For the early chapters of this book I have consulted, amongst other authorities, the books mentioned in the bibliography on pp. 251-254. It would, however, be ungracious if I failed to acknowledge my indebtedness to that most readable of historians, Mr. Gribble, and to his books, The Early Mountaineers (Fisher Unwin) and The Story of Alpine Climbing (Nelson). Mr. Gribble and his publisher, Mr. Unwin, have kindly allowed me to quote passages translated from the works of the pioneers. Two friends, experts in the practice and history of mountaineering, have read the proofs and helped me with numerous suggestions.
Volumes bearing upon the subject, already published in the library, are —
7. Modern Geography. By Dr. Marion Newbigin. ( Illustrated. )
36. Climate and Weather. By Prof. H. N. Dickson. ( Illustrated. )
88. The Growth of Europe. By Prof. Grenville Cole. ( Illustrated. )
Rousseau is usually credited with the discovery that mountains are not intrinsically hideous. Long before his day, isolated men had loved the mountains, but these men were eccentrics. They founded no school; and Rousseau was certainly the first to popularise mountains and to transform the cult of hill worship into a fashionable creed. None the less, we must guard against the error of supposing that mountain love was confined to the few men who have left behind them literary evidence of their good taste. Mountains have changed very little since man became articulate, and the retina of the human eye has changed even less. The beauty of outline that stirs us to-day was implicit in the hills “that shed their burial sheets about the march of Hannibal.” It seems reasonable to suppose that a few men in every age have derived a certain pleasure, if not from Alpine travel at least from the distant view of the snows.