226 THE EULOGY OF RICHARD JEFFERIES. 



to understand the beauty of style. To some 

 such thoughts come early ; to others, late. 

 When Jefieries left men for the fields, and 

 not till then, his mind became every day more 

 and more charged with beauty of thought, and 

 his style grew correspondingly day by day 

 more charged with beauty. This beauty of 

 thought grows in him out of the intense love, 

 the passionate love, which he has for every- 

 thing in Nature : it is the child of that love : 

 it is Nature's reward for that love : he loves 

 not only flowers and trees, but every flower, 

 every tree ; he is even contented to look upon 

 the same trees, the same hedges filled with 

 flowers every day : 



" I do not want change," he says ; " I want 

 the same old and loved things, the same wild- 

 flowers, the same trees and soft ash-green ; 

 the turtle-doves, the blackbirds, the coloured 

 yellowhammer sing, sing, singing so long as 

 there is light to cast a shadow on the dial, for 

 such is the measure of his song : and I want 

 them in the same place. Let me find them 

 morning after morning, the starry-white petals 



