CONCLUSION. 329 



tion, however, to go on with his work. Nothing 

 more wonderful than the courage and resolu- 

 tion of this man. As in youth he had resolved 

 to succeed somehow, though as yet ignorant of 

 the better way, so now he would not be beaten 

 by pain. His very best work, the work which 

 will cause him to live, the work which places 

 him among the writers of his country, to be 

 remembered and to be read long after the men 

 of his generation are dead and forgotten, was 

 actually done while he was in this suffering. 

 /The " Pageant of Summer," for example : well, 

 the "Pageant of Summer" reads as if it were 

 the work of a man revelling in the warmth of 

 the quivering air ; of a man in perfect health 

 and strength, body and mind at ease, sur- 

 rendered wholly to the influence of the flowers 

 and the sunshine, at peace, save for the natural 

 sadness of one who communes much with him- 

 self on change, decay, and death. j And yet the 

 "Pageant of Summer" was written while he was 

 in deadly pain and torture. Again, between 

 1883 and 1886 he published those collections 

 of papers called "Life in the Fields" and 

 " The Open Air." He also wrote " Ked Deer," 



