The spectacle of nature interests only contemplative and religious minds powerfully.

Mine was neither the one nor the other.

My habits of analysis and observation make me find more attraction in a characteristic face than in a magnificent landscape; I prefer the exercising of thought to the careless gratification of ecstasy, the study of flesh and soul to earthly horizons, of human passions to a perfectly pure atmosphere.
"I met at Geneva an Englishman, who was as morose as myself.

We vented our spleen in common and were both bored together.

We travelled thus through the Oberland and the best part of Valais; we were often rolled up in our travelling robes in the depths of the carriage, and fast asleep when the most beautiful points of interest were in sight.
"From Valais we went to Mont-Blanc, and one night we arrived at Chamounix--" "Did you see any idiots in Valais ?" suddenly interrupted Marillac, as he filled his pipe the second time.
"Several, and they were all horrible." "Do you not think we might compose something with an idiot in it?
It might be rather taking." "It would not equal Caliban or Quasimodo; will you be so kind as to spare me just now these efforts of imagination, and listen to me, for I am reaching the interesting part of my story ?" "God be praised!" said the artist, as he puffed out an enormous cloud of smoke.
"The next day the Englishman was served with tea in his bedroom, and when I asked him to go to the 'Mer de Glace' he turned his head toward the wall; so, leaving my phlegmatic companion enveloped in bedclothes up to his ears, I started alone for the Montanvert.
"It was a magnificent morning, and small parties of travellers, some on foot, others mounted, skirted the banks of the Arve or climbed the sides of the mountain.