Page:Whymper - Scrambles amongst the Alps.djvu/147

Rh feel this, and his interest in descriptions of such places is usually very small, unless he supposes that the situations are perilous. They are not necessarily perilous, but I think it is impossible to avoid giving such an impression if the difficulties are particularly insisted upon.

A painstaking writer is therefore liable to be misunderstood in at least two ways. If he skips the difficulties, fearing, perhaps, to be charged with tediousness, he lays himself open to the imputation of being unobservant, or simply stupid; or, if he chronicles each step, and works out each difficulty, he is exposed to the risk of being accused either of frightful exaggeration, or of getting into utterly unjustifiable situations. I do not wish to be charged with one or the other of these things, and shall therefore explain myself more fully.

Places such as this gully have their charm, so long as a man feels that the difficulties are within his power; but their enchantment vanishes directly they are too much for him, and when he feels this they are dangerous to him. The line which separates the difficult from the dangerous is sometimes a very shadowy, but it is not an imaginary, one. It is a true line, without breadth. It is often easy to pass and very hard to see. It is sometimes passed unconsciously, and the consciousness that it has been passed is felt too late; but so long as a man undertakes that which is well within his power, he is not likely to pass this line, or, consequently, to get into any great danger, although he may meet with considerable difficulty. That which is within a man's power varies, of course, according to time, place, and circumstance, but, as a rule, he can tell pretty well when he is arriving at the end of his tether; and it seems to me, although it is difficult to determine for another, even approximately, the limits to which it is prudent for him to go, that it is tolerably easy to do so for one's-self. But (according to my opinion) if the doubtful line is crossed consciously, deliberately, one passes from doing that which is justifiable to doing that which is unjustifiable, because it is imprudent.