42 THE EULOGY OF RICHARD JEFFERIES. 



dead and swept away, hamlet and cottage, 

 hillside and coppice, field and hedge. 



" I think I have heard that the oaks are 

 down. They may be standing or down, it 

 matters nothing to me ; the leaves I last saw 

 upon them are gone for evermore, nor shall I 

 ever see them come there again ruddy in 

 spring. I would not see them again even if I 

 could ; they could never look again as they used 

 to do. There are too many memories there. 

 The happiest days become the saddest after- 

 wards ; let us never go back, lest we too die. 

 There are no such oaks anywhere else, none so 

 tall and straight, and with such massive heads, 

 on which the sun used to shine as if on the 

 globe of the earth, one side in shadow, the 

 other in bright light. How often I have 

 looked at oaks since, and yet have never been 

 able to get the same effect from them ! Like 

 an old author printed in other type, the words 

 are the same, but the sentiment is different. 

 The brooks have ceased to run. There is no 

 music now at the old hatch where we used to 

 sit in danger of our lives, happy as kings, on 



