204 THE EULOGY OF RICHARD JEFFERIES. 



three in 1883, two in 1884, one in 1885, one 

 in 1886, and two, which appeared after his 

 death, in the year 1887. 



In June of 1883 he offers a manuscript 

 which, he says, he has been meditating for 

 seventeen years. In that case he must have 

 begun to think of it at eighteen. This, if one 

 begins to consider, is by no means improb- 

 able. On the contrary, I think it is extremely 

 probable, and that Jefferies meant his words 

 to be taken literally. The thoughts of a boy 

 are long thoughts. Sometimes one remembers, 

 by some strange trick of memory it shows 

 how the past never dies, but may be recalled 

 at any moment a train of thought which filled 

 the mind on some day long passed away, when 

 one was a lad of eighteen; a child; almost 

 an infant. At such a moment one is astonished 

 to remember that this thought filled the brain 

 so early. As for the age of adolescence, there 

 is no time when the brain is more active to 

 question, to imagine, to create, to inform; 

 none, when the mind is more eager to arrive 

 at certainty ; none, more hopeful of the future ; 

 none, more anxious to arrive at the truth. 



