"Petrarch's 1336 ascent of Mount Ventoux provides an example. He initially had no other purpose in climbing than experiencing some of the "delight" he found in wandering "free and alone, among the mountains, forests, and streams." After an all-day effort, Petrarch and his brother gained the summit.
"The great sweep of view spread out before me," Petrarch wrote to a friend, and "I stood like one dazed." Clouds floated beneath his feet, and on the horizon he could see the snow-covered Alps. Had he descended from the mountain at this point Petrarch might have retained an undiminished sense of enjoyment in the view, but it occurred to him to look at the copy of Saint Augustine's Confessions he was accustomed to carry. By chance he opened to the passage that admonished men not to take joy in mountains or scenery but rather to look after their salvation. Petrarch responded as a Christian: "I was abashed, and ... I closed the book, angry with myself that I should still be admiring earthly things who might long ago have learned ... that nothing is wonderful but the soul." After this he hurriedly left the peak, "turned my inward eye upon myself," and returned to his inn, muttering imprecations at the way the world's beauty diverted men from their proper concerns."
- Roderick Frazer Nash, Wilderness and the American Mind.
