CO ATE FARM. 47 



and Jefferies but the greatest of them all is 

 Jefferies. No one before him has so lived 

 among the fields ; no one has heard so clearly 

 the song of the flowers and the weeds and the 

 blades of grass. The million million blades 

 of grass spoke to Jefferies as the Oak of 

 Dodona spoke through its thousand leaves. 

 "When he went home he sat down and was 

 inspired to translate that language, and to tell 

 the world what the grass says and sings to 

 him who can hear. 



He who met the great God Pan face to face 

 fell down dead. Still, even in these days, he 

 who communes with the Sylvan Spirit pre- 

 sently dies to the ways of men, while his 

 senses are opened to see the hidden things of 

 hedge and meadow ; while his soul is uplifted 

 by the beauty and the variety and the order 

 of the world ; by the wondrous lives of the 

 creatures, so full of peril, and so full of joy. 

 Then, if he be permitted to reveal these 

 things, what can we who receive this revela- 

 tion give in exchange ? What words of praise 

 and gratitude can we find in return for this 

 unfolding of the Book of Fleeting Life ? 



