Stevenson is saying that when we take a bird’s-eye view, we see everything in a grand perspective. From there, much of what we humans do seems trivial or unimportant. We feel aloof from the rest of humanity, much as Apollo felt when he looked down on humans from atop Mount Olympus. Stevenson likens the man’s Apollo-like view to the pleasure he found in the northern Scottish landscape.
Stevenson used the allusion to Apollo to say that when we look at our experiences from a new perspective, we find unexpected pleasure and experience personal growth. He assumes his readers will be familiar with Apollo and the allusion to him will help them understand his new view of this landscape.
