Page:Life in the Old World - Vol. I.djvu/98

114 perceived a word—I perceived them even from my earliest youth, powerful but indistinct, and although the fogs of life and the anguishes of the heart may have dimmed them, yet have I seen them again and again, like heavenly stars gleaming through earthly clouds, and now I have come to Switzerland to endeavor to attain to a clearer comprehension.

In the morning I shall set out on my long journey to the primeval home of Swiss liberty, and to the source of the Rhone. Perhaps they will aid me in finding the primal word of Protestanism!

Farewell, peaceful valleys! Good, simple, cordial human beings, farewell!

Hasli valley and the Swedish emigrants—Rosenlaui—Grimsel—Gloomy scene—The source of the Rhone—The Forest Cantons—Grutli and its heroes—Life in Schwytz—Two types of Conservatism—Sunday on Rhigi—Nicholas de Flue—Life in Zürich—Einsiedeln, its pilgrims and teachers—Zwingli—My home in Zürich—Journey to Basle—Missionary Institution and Missionaries. , August 21st.—The nearer you approach the High Alps, the more is the soul penetrated with unusual emotions at the sight of the grandeur of nature. The thought of its creation untold ages before that of mankind, and the sense of its immovable stability, leads the mind to draw a melancholy