OF RICHARD JEFFERIES 



THE fervour of the sunbeams 

 descending in a tidal flood 

 rings on the strung harp of 

 earth. It is this exquisite undertone, 

 heard and yet unheard, which brings the 

 mind into sweet accordance with the 

 wonderful instrument of nature. — 'The 

 Life of the Fields': The Pageant of 

 Summer. 



MANY times the bees have re- 

 turned to their hives, and 

 thus the index of the day 

 advances. It is nothing to the green- 

 finches ; all their thoughts are in their 

 song-talk. The sunny moment is to 

 them all in all. So deeply are they rapt 

 in it that they do not know whether it 

 is a moment or a year. There is no 

 clock for feeling, for joy, for love. . . . 

 Each moment, as with the greenfinches, 

 is so full of life that it seems so long and 

 so sufficient in itself. Not only the days, 



53 



