Mont Blanc and Chamouni

Mont Blanc was before us, but it was covered with cloud; its base furrowed with dreadful gaps, was seen above. Pinnacles of snow intolerably bright, part of the chain connected with Mont Blanc, shone through the clouds at intervals on high.

The immensity of these aërial summits excited, when they suddenly burst upon the sight, a sentiment of extatic wonder, not unallied to madness. And remember this was all one scene, it all pressed home to our regard and our imagination.

Though it embraced a vast extent of space, the snowy pyramids which shot into the bright blue sky seemed to overhang our path. Nature was the poet, whose harmony held our spirits more breathless than that of the divinest.