THE COUNTRY LIFE. 225 



spirits. It appeared to him, I think, that if 

 we could only write near enough to the facts, 

 and yet with no pedestrian calm, but ardently, 

 we might transfer the glamour of reality direct 

 upon our pages ; and that, if it were once thus 

 captured and expressed, a new and instructive 

 relation might appear between men's thoughts 

 and the phenomena of nature. This was the 

 eagle that he pursued all his life long, like a 

 schoolboy with a butterfly net. Hear him to 

 a friend : ' Let me suggest a theme for you 

 to state to yourself precisely and completely 

 what that walk over the mountains amounted 

 to for you, returning to this essay again and 

 again until you are satisfied that all that was 

 important in your experience is in it/ ' 



It was not until JefFeries had thoroughly 

 mastered this lesson, and saturated himself 

 with its spirit, that he began to write well. 

 No one would believe that the same hand 

 which wrote " The Scarlet Shawl " also wrote 

 " The Pageant of Summer." I firmly believe 

 that it is not until a man obtains the great gift 

 of beautiful thought that he can even begin 



15 



