294 THE EULOGY OF RICHARD JEFFERIES. 



Those in the theatre crushed each other to the 

 death-agony. For how long, for how many 

 thousand years, must the earth and the sea, 

 and the fire and the air, utter these things and 

 force them upon us before they are admitted 

 in their full significance ? 



" These things speak with a voice of thunder. 

 From every human being whose body has 

 been racked by pain, from every human being 

 who has suffered from accident or disease, 

 from every human being drowned, burned, or 

 slain by negligence, there goes up a continually- 

 increasing cry louder than the thunder. An 

 awe-inspiring cry dread to listen to, which no 

 one dares listen to, against which ears are 

 stopped by the wax of superstition, and the 

 wax of criminal selfishness: These miseries 

 are your doing, because you have mind and 

 thought, and could have prevented them. You 

 can prevent them in the future. You do not 

 even try. 



" It is perfectly certain that all diseases 

 without exception are preventible, or if not so, 

 that they can be so weakened as to do no harm. 

 It is perfectly certain that all accidents are 



