as belonging to another earth, the habitations of another race of
beings
The simile is telling here. We will discover in the next chapter that the
Alps can, indeed, support another "race" of beings. Yet, however much
human imagination may discern in these altitudes the possibility of a
transcendence of the human condition, neither a human nor another kind of
being can effectually manage to do so. Moreover, "another race" of
beings, if brought down from an imaginary conception to the solid ground
of normative human existence would be considered, like Victor's Creature,
alien and hounded from human society. The conflict between the
unrestricted imagination and human society is total.
