Read "Scrambles Amongst the Alps in the Years 1860-69" by Edward Whymper online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
"Men willingly believe what they wish. " Caesar
Freethinking mountaineers have been latterly in the habit of going up one side of an Alp and coming down the other, and calling the route a pass. In this confusion of ideas may be recognised the result of the looseness of thought which arises from the absence of technical education. The true believer abhors such heresies, and observes with satisfaction that Providence oftentimes punishes the offenders for their greediness by causing them to be benighted. The faithful know that passes must be made between mountains, and not over their tops. Their creed declares that between any two mountains there must be a pass, and they believe that the end for which big peaks were created -- the office they are especially designed to fulfil -- is to point out the way one should go. This is the true faith, and there is no other.