258 THE EULOGY OF RICHARD JEFFERIES. 



under ; brushed from the waving grasses and 

 stiffening corn, the dust of the sunshine was 

 borne along and breathed. Steeped in flower 

 and pollen to the music of bees and birds, the 

 stream of the atmosphere became a living 

 thing. It was life to breathe it, for the air 

 itself was life. The strength of the earth went 

 up through the leaves into the wind. Fed 

 thus on the food of the Immortals, the heart 

 opened to the width and depth of the summer 

 to the broad horizon afar, down to the 

 minutest creature in the grass, up to the 

 highest swallow. Winter shows us Matter in 

 its dead form, like the primary rocks, like 

 granite and basalt clear but cold and frozen 

 crystal. Summer shows us Matter changing 

 into life, sap rising from the earth through a 

 million tubes, the alchemic power of light 

 entering the solid oak ; and see ! it bursts forth 

 in countless leaves. Living things leap in the 

 grass, living things drift upon the air, 

 living things are coming forth to breathe 

 in every hawthorn bush. No longer does the 

 immense weight of Matter the dead, the 

 crystallized press ponderously on the think- 



