ii6 THE EULOGY OF RICHARD JEFFERIES. 



is no longer a question which is asked, an 

 answer which has to be whispered on account 

 of its great temerity: it is a doctrine openly 

 held and openly taught. But Jefferies was 

 the first to find it out. He heard the whisper 

 in the cottage and in the village ale-house; 

 the reeds beside the brook whispered it to him. 

 If, he thinks, every labouring man had his 

 allotment, he would cease to desire the general 

 division of the land. 



" If it is possible to find ground near enough 

 to the residence of the population to be practi- 

 cally useful as cemeteries, there can be no 

 valid reason why spaces should not be avail- 

 able for a system of gardens. Numerous com- 

 panies have been formed for the purpose of 

 supplying the workmen with houses ; the 

 building societies and their estates are situated 

 outside the city, but within easy reach by rail. 

 Why should not societies exist and flourish for 

 the equally useful object of providing the work- 

 man with a garden? If the plan of universal 

 division of land were thoroughly carried out, 

 it follows that the cities would disappear, 



