n the world, and to be able to
communicate to them something of the joy I was then feeling in
beholding it. I was highly privileged in having this opportunity of
witnessing a Tibetan sunset's splendours. I was yearning for others
to share my enjoyment with me.

The white radiance of the glacier region instils into us a sense of
purity, and without the purity of heart which that stern region exacts
we cannot see the sunset's glory in all its fulness. But now in these
Tibetan sunsets we have not purity alone, but warmth and richness
as well. They give an impression of infinity of glory. We catch
alight from their consuming glory, and our hearts flame up in
correspondence with them. The fervent glow in the Heart of Nature
kindles a like glow in our own hearts; and we are enraptured by the
Beauty.

On our misty island we are apt to connect sunsets with coming
darkness and a black end of things. And in gazing on them we are
prone to have a sense of sadness mingled with our joy. They seem to
mean for us a passage from light to darkness, and from life to death.

But in the deserts we have no such feeling. As day imperceptibly
fades away it is not black darkness that succeeds, but a light that
enables us to see farther, a mellower light that enables us to see the
Universe at large. From this earthly life we are transported to a
higher, intenser, ampler life among the stars.

And it is in the desert that we best live among the stars. In Europe
we look up into the sky between trees and houses; and among the
clouds and through a murky atmosphere we see a few stars. Even
when we have a clear sky we seldom get a chance of seeing the
whole expanse of the heavens all the way round. And even if we get
this rare chance of a clear sky and a wide horizon we do not live
with the stars in the open the night through and night after night.

In the Gobi Desert I had this precious opportunity. And I had it
when my whole being was tuned up to highest pitch. I was not in the
limp state of one who steps out into his garden and looks up casually
to the stars. I was tense with high enterprise. I was passing through
unknown country on a journey across the Chinese Empire from
Peking to India. I was keen and alive in every faculty, in a state of
high exhilaration, and both observant and receptive. It was a rare
chance, and much I wish now I had made more of it.

My party in crossing the Gobi Desert consisted only of a Chinese
guide, a Chinese s