"The mountains from their heights reveal to us two truths"

"And this is a peculiar thing I have noticed in all mountains, and have never been able to understand ─ namely, that if you draw a plan or section to scale, your mountain does not seem a very important thing. One should not, in theory, be able to dominate from its height, nor to feel the world small below one, nor to hold a whole countryside in one's hand ─ yet one does. The mountains from their heights reveal to us two truths. They suddenly make us feel our insignificance, and at the same time they free the immortal Mind, and let it feel its greatness, and they release it from the earth. But I say again, in theory, when one considers the exact relation of their height to the distances one views from them, they ought to claim no such effect, and that they can produce that effect is related to another thing ─ the way in which they exaggerate their own steepness."

~Hilaire Belloc: The Path to Rome. 

Photo: Grimsel Pass