Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
- INTRODUCTION TO THIS VOLUME
- BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
- Modern Painters, Vol. IV. (CONTAINING THE TEXT OF ALL THE EDITIONS)
- PREFACE
- PART V “OF MOUNTAIN BEAUTY”
- CHAP. I OF THE TURNERIAN PICTURESQUE
- CHAP. II OF TURNERIAN TOPOGRAPHY
- CHAP. III OF TURNERIAN LIGHT
- CHAP. IV OF TURNERIAN MYSTERY:—FIRST, AS ESSENTIAL
- CHAP. V OF TURNERIAN MYSTERY:—SECONDLY, WILFUL
- CHAP. VI THE FIRMAMENT
- CHAP. VII THE DRY LAND
- CHAP. VIII OF THE MATERIALS OF MOUNTAINS:—FIRST, COMPACT CRYSTALLINES
- CHAP. IX OF THE MATERIALS OF MOUNTAINS:—SECONDLY, SLATY CRYSTALLINES
- CHAP. X OF THE MATERIALS OF MOUNTAINS:—THIRDLY, SLATY COHERENTS
- CHAP. XI OF THE MATERIALS OF MOUNTAINS:—FOURTHLY, COMPACT COHERENTS
- CHAP. XII OF THE SCULPTURE OF MOUNTAINS:—FIRST, THE LATERAL RANGES
- CHAP. XIII OF THE SCULPTURE OF MOUNTAINS:—SECONDLY, THE CENTRAL PEAKS
- CHAP. XIV RESULTING FORMS:—FIRST, AIGUILLES
- CHAP. XV RESULTING FORMS:—SECONDLY, CRESTS
- CHAP. XVI RESULTING FORMS:—THIRDLY, PRECIPICES
- CHAP. XVII RESULTING FORMS:—FOURTHLY, BANKS
- CHAP. XVIII RESULTING FORMS:—FIFTHLY, STONES
- CHAP. XIX THE MOUNTAIN GLOOM
- CHAP. XX THE MOUNTAIN GLORY
- APPENDIX
- Plate section
CHAP. XIV - RESULTING FORMS:—FIRST, AIGUILLES
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
- INTRODUCTION TO THIS VOLUME
- BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
- Modern Painters, Vol. IV. (CONTAINING THE TEXT OF ALL THE EDITIONS)
- PREFACE
- PART V “OF MOUNTAIN BEAUTY”
- CHAP. I OF THE TURNERIAN PICTURESQUE
- CHAP. II OF TURNERIAN TOPOGRAPHY
- CHAP. III OF TURNERIAN LIGHT
- CHAP. IV OF TURNERIAN MYSTERY:—FIRST, AS ESSENTIAL
- CHAP. V OF TURNERIAN MYSTERY:—SECONDLY, WILFUL
- CHAP. VI THE FIRMAMENT
- CHAP. VII THE DRY LAND
- CHAP. VIII OF THE MATERIALS OF MOUNTAINS:—FIRST, COMPACT CRYSTALLINES
- CHAP. IX OF THE MATERIALS OF MOUNTAINS:—SECONDLY, SLATY CRYSTALLINES
- CHAP. X OF THE MATERIALS OF MOUNTAINS:—THIRDLY, SLATY COHERENTS
- CHAP. XI OF THE MATERIALS OF MOUNTAINS:—FOURTHLY, COMPACT COHERENTS
- CHAP. XII OF THE SCULPTURE OF MOUNTAINS:—FIRST, THE LATERAL RANGES
- CHAP. XIII OF THE SCULPTURE OF MOUNTAINS:—SECONDLY, THE CENTRAL PEAKS
- CHAP. XIV RESULTING FORMS:—FIRST, AIGUILLES
- CHAP. XV RESULTING FORMS:—SECONDLY, CRESTS
- CHAP. XVI RESULTING FORMS:—THIRDLY, PRECIPICES
- CHAP. XVII RESULTING FORMS:—FOURTHLY, BANKS
- CHAP. XVIII RESULTING FORMS:—FIFTHLY, STONES
- CHAP. XIX THE MOUNTAIN GLOOM
- CHAP. XX THE MOUNTAIN GLORY
- APPENDIX
- Plate section
Summary
§ 1. I have endeavoured in the preceding chapters always to keep the glance of the reader on the broad aspect of things, and to separate for him the mountain masses into the most distinctly comprehensible forms. We must now consent to take more pains and observe more closely.
§ 2. I begin with the Aiguilles. In Fig. 24, p. 212, at a, it was assumed that the mass was raised highest merely where the elevating force was greatest, being of one substance with the bank or cliff below. But it hardly ever is of the same substance. Almost always it is of compact crystallines, and the bank of slaty crystallines; or if it be of slaty crystallines the bank is of slaty coherents. The bank is almost always the softer of the two.
Is not this very marvellous? Is it not exactly as if the substance had been prepared soft or hard with a sculpturesque view to what had to be done with it; soft, for the glacier to mould and the torrent to divide; hard, to stand for ever, central in mountain majesty?
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- The Works of John Ruskin , pp. 216 - 240Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010First published in: 1904