190 THE EULOGY OF RICHARD JEFFERIES. 



speaking only of honourable houses is what 

 proportion of a book's returns, or what sum, 

 should be paid to a publisher for his trouble. 

 Now, I have learned enough of the sale of 

 Jefferies' books, and of the sums which he 

 received for them, to be satisfied that his 

 publishers' services were by no means exorbi- 

 tantly paid by the sale of his books, and that 

 no more, from a business point of view, could 

 have been given. That is to say, if more had 

 been given, it would have been as a free gift, 

 or act of charity, which this author would 

 have spurned. All these things, however, he 

 could not understand, perhaps because they 

 were never explained to him. 



I have been told by one who knew Jefferies 

 from boyhood that he was indolent, and would 

 never have worked had it not been for necessity. 

 His writings do not convey to me the idea of 

 an indolent man. On the contrary, they are 

 those of a man of an intellect so active that he 

 must have been compelled to work. Yet one 

 can understand that he could not work, after 

 making the grand discovery of what his work 

 should be, until his brain was overflowing 



