THE COUNTRY LIFE. 229 



truthfully is an enormous boon. But it is far 

 from being the most considerable part of his 

 work. He revealed Nature in her works 

 and ways ; the flowers and the fields ; the wild 

 English creatures ; the hedges and the streams ; 

 the wood and coppice. He told what may be 

 seen everywhere by those who have eyes to 

 see. He worked his way, as we have seen, to 

 this point. And, again, if this were all, he would 

 well deserve the gratitude which we willingly 

 accord to a White of Selborne. But this is 

 not all. For next he took the step the vast 

 step across the chasm which separates the 

 poetic from the vulgar mind, and began to 

 clothe the real with the colours and glamour 

 of the unreal; to write down the response of the 

 soul to the phenomena of nature : to interpret 

 the voice of Nature speaking to the soul. Unto 

 this last. And then he died ; his work, which 

 might have gone on for ever, cut off almost at 

 the commencement. 



I desire in this chapter to show how Jefferies 

 paints the country life ; to show him in his 

 minuteness and fidelity first, and in his higher 

 flights afterwards. Even to those who know 



