The path to the Pinnacle was as old as man in America. The outcropping layers of stone, which made a rough natural stairway, in places was worn deep by the Indians and those who before them had trod its windings and on the highest point built their signal fires. Now white settlers coming through the Gap, mounted to the summit by the same trail and looked over the Valley and the lesser mountains to the northward into the land of promise; and then back the way they had come towards their old home. “Dorothy, when you visit a place like this do you take in the view as you climb? I do not like to raise my eyes from the path until I reach the top; therefore I see first the footworn stones, which have the polish of a floor worn smooth by countless feet, though this path’s surface is worn by the feet of uncounted generations. “When I first come upon a peak, which like this over-towers its fellows, in thought I always entreat: Speak, gray mountain head! You know the past, which to me is speechless! Do not thy members reach inward to the spirit of the mountain, which like a great beast of burden has lain asleep for a million years, yet has a heart of life? Tell of those who have gone before; of the sun worshippers, who from your apex, making of an attribute a god, have glorified the day, God’s first creation; of the Indians, creatures of the forest shade, as silent as its shadows; who, coming into the bright light of your summit, from this wider vista, have felt more completely the power and dignity of God and lacking a better name have called him the Great Spirit; of the white man, the servant of ten talents, who, having bitten deeper into the fruit of the tree of knowledge and knowing the true God, must be lifted in spirit above the earth and things earthly as from this altar he looks out and sees that which though of the earth is not earthly, and things above which though of the heavens are not heavenly. When I go into the high places of the mountains I feel I am led of the Spirit that I may be near the Lord and receive from Him my commandments. Such places are either shrines of worship, or sanctuaries where God abides. “I look out and at first view see the earth below, the tree and mountain tops, the clouds, the azure under-pinions of the everlasting wings; then, if my thoughts are clear as crystal, the veil may be rent, and I may see His face through a haze of glory. “Dorothy, when you come as today, I feel that you too are led of the Spirit and that our spirits in unison offer praise to God. I am glad that mind and spirit are in communion and I recall that God hath said that man shall not travel the way alone and hath made for each his helpmate. If you are not to be, God hath not yet shown her face to me in life or dream; nor has fancy painted any other or fairer vision than thy sweet face.”