Alps and Sanctuaries of Piedmont and the Canton Ticino | Page 6

when one is staying right in the middle of it, or
when one is on foot, is one thing, and mountain scenery as seen from
the top of a diligence very likely smothered in dust is another. Besides I
do not think he will like the St. Gothard scenery very much.
It is a pity there is no mental microscope to show us our likes and
dislikes while they are yet too vague to be made out easily. We are so
apt to let imaginary likings run away with us, as a person at the far end
of Cannon Street railway platform, if he expects a friend to join him,
will see that friend in half the impossible people who are coming
through the wicket. I once began an essay on "The Art of Knowing
what gives one Pleasure," but soon found myself out of the diatonic
with it, in all manner of strange keys, amid a maze of metaphysical
accidentals and double and treble flats, so I left it alone as a question
not worth the trouble it seemed likely to take in answering. It is like
everything else, if we much want to know our own mind on any
particular point, we may be trusted to develop the faculty which will
reveal it to us, and if we do not greatly care about knowing, it does not
much matter if we remain in ignorance. But in few cases can we get at
our permanent liking without at least as much experience as a
fishmonger must have had before he can choose at once the best bloater
out of twenty which, to inexperienced eyes, seem one as good as the
other. Lord Beaconsfield was a thorough Erasmus Darwinian when he
said so well in "Endymion": "There is nothing like will; everybody can
do exactly what they like in this world, provided they really like it.
Sometimes they think they do, but in general it's a mistake." {1} If this
is as true as I believe it to be, "the longing after immortality," though
not indeed much of an argument in favour of our being immortal at the
present moment, is perfectly sound as a reason for concluding that we
shall one day develop immortality, if our desire is deep enough and
lasting enough. As for knowing whether or not one likes a picture,
which under the present aesthetic reign of terror is de rigueur, I once
heard a man say the only test was to ask one's self whether one would
care to look at it if one was quite sure that one was alone; I have never

been able to get beyond this test with the St. Gothard scenery, and
applying it to the Devil's Bridge, I should say a stay of about thirty
seconds would be enough for me. I daresay Mendelssohn would have
stayed at least two hours at the Devil's Bridge, but then he did stay such
a long while before things.
The coming out from the short tunnel on to the plain of Andermatt does
certainly give the pleasure of a surprise. I shall never forget coming out
of this tunnel one day late in November, and finding the whole
Andermatt valley in brilliant sunshine, though from Fluelen up to the
Devil's Bridge the clouds had hung heavy and low. It was one of the
most striking transformation scenes imaginable. The top of the pass is
good, and the Hotel Prosa a comfortable inn to stay at. I do not know
whether this house will be discontinued when the railway is opened,
but understand that the proprietor has taken the large hotel at Piora,
which I will speak of later on. The descent on the Italian side is
impressive, and so is the point where sight is first caught of the valley
below Airolo, but on the whole I cannot see that the St. Gothard is
better than the S. Bernardino on the Italian side, or the Lukmanier, near
the top, on the German; this last is one of the most beautiful things
imaginable, but it should be seen by one who is travelling towards
German Switzerland, and in a fine summer's evening light. I was never
more impressed by the St. Gothard than on the occasion already
referred to when I crossed it in winter. We went in sledges from
Hospenthal to Airolo, and I remember thinking what splendid fellows
the postillions and guards and men who helped to shift the luggage on
to the sledges, looked; they were so ruddy and strong and full of health,
as indeed they might well be--living an active outdoor life in such an
air; besides, they were picked men, for the passage in winter is never
without possible dangers. It was delightful travelling in the sledge. The