1 88 THE EULOGY OF RICHARD JEFFERIES. 



some of us the picture is always being im- 

 proved by the addition of another blade of 

 grass, another dead leaf, or the ear of a hare 

 visible among the turnip-tops ; others are 

 fatigued by these little details. Jefferies is 

 too full for them. 



Another thing against him in the minds of 

 the frivolous is that you cannot skip in reading 

 JefFeries. To take up a volume is to read it 

 right through from beginning to end. You 

 can no more skip JefFeries than you can skip 

 Emerson. Now, most readers like to rush a 

 volume. You cannot rush JefFeries. I defy 

 the most rapid reader to rush Jefferies. You 

 might as well try to rush the Proof of the 

 Binomial Theorem. Others - there are who 

 like to be made to laugh or to cry. This man 

 never laughs. You may, perhaps, put down 

 the book and smile at the incongruities of the 

 rustic talk, but you do not laugh. Hardy's 

 rustics will make you laugh a whole summer's 

 day through, but Jefferies' rustics never. He 

 is always in earnest. Hardy is a humorist; 

 Jefferies is not. And, worst sin of all in him 

 who courts popularity, he makes his readers 



