And when he has unthinkingly destroyed it,
future generations lament his action and take measures to preserve
what remains. Advertisements, also, show us daily that nearly all
countries--and it seems more especially new countries like Canada
and New Zealand--regard Natural Beauty as one of their most
valuable assets. And the reason why the Natural Beauty of the Earth
is deemed so valuable a characteristic of its features is not hard to
understand when we come to reflect. It is because Beauty is a
quality which appeals to the universal in man--appeals to all men for
all time, and appeals to them in an increasing degree. It is something
which all men can admire and enjoy. And the more they enjoy it the
more they want to get others to share in their enjoyment. Also the
more Natural Beauty they see, the more, apparently, there is to see.
Poets in their poems, and painters in their pictures, are continually
pointing out to us less keen-sighted individuals new beauties in the
features of the Earth. The mineral wealth of the Earth has its limits;
even the productivity, though perennially renewed, is not unbounded.
But the Natural Beauty is inexhaustible. And it is not only
inexhaustible: it positively increases and multiplies the more we see
of it and the more of us see it. So it has good claim to be considered
the most valuable characteristic of the Earth.

And if Beauty should prove to be its most valuable characteristic, it
follows that knowledge of it is the knowledge about the Earth which
is most worth having. It will certainly be the case that knowledge of
other characteristics may be of more value to particular men for a
special purpose for the time being. If an engineer has to build a
railway, knowledge of the exact height above sea-level of various
points and of the general configuration of the ground is of more
value than knowledge of its beauty. But for the engineer himself,
when he is not thinking of his railway, and for mankind in general,
knowledge of the beauty may be the more valuable kind of
knowledge.

For years I was employed in exploring the region where three
Empires meet, where the Himalaya, the Hindu Kush, and mountains
which form the Roof of the World converge. I had to report on the
extent to which it afforded a barrier against the advance of Russia
towards India, and wherein it would lie the most appropriate
boundary between India and Russia, between India and China, and
between Russia and China.