46 THE EULOGY OF RICHARD JEFFERIES. 



a stranger to their ambitions, ignorant of their 

 crooked ways, their bickerings, and their plea- 

 sures. One must have quick and observant 

 eyes, trained to watch and mark the infinite 

 changes and variations in Nature, day by day ; 

 one must go to Nature's school from infancy 

 in order to get this power. Nay ; one must 

 never cease to exercise this power, or it will be 

 lost ; it must be continually nourished and 

 strengthened by being exercised. If one who 

 has this power should go to live in the city, 

 his eyes would grow as sluggish and as dim as 

 ours ; his ear would be blunted by the rolling 

 of the carts, and his mind disturbed by the 

 rush and the activity of the crowd. Again, if 

 one who had this power should abandon the 

 simple life, and should deaden his senses with 

 luxury, sloth, and vice, he would quickly lose 

 it. He must live apart from men ; all day 

 long the sun must burn his cheek, the wind 

 must blow upon it, the rain must beat upon 

 it ; he must never be out of reach of the 

 fragrant wild flowers and the call and cry of 

 the birds. Of such men literature can show 

 but two or three Gilbert White, Thoreau, 



