332 THE EULOGY OF RICHARD JEFFERIES. 



In August he returns to the subject: 



" Many thanks for your kind letter and 

 interest in my weakness. I sometimes rather 

 need moral support of this sort, for after so 

 long the spirits show signs of flagging, and 

 the way seems endless. Such sympathy, 

 therefore, helps me very much. ... I should 

 have liked to have written the book you pro- 

 posed. I made several attempts, but it never 

 satisfied me. I am glad, at all events, that 

 you have forgiven my unintentional nonfulfil- 

 ment of the promise. Even yet, perhaps, I 

 may do something in that direction. Pro- 

 fessor Gamgee, under whom I have been 

 lately, says that complete recovery would 

 follow a few weeks' basking in South Africa, 

 or, failing that, Southern Europe. There is 

 plenty of energy in me still. I sometimes 

 dream of using the rifle a dream, indeed, 

 to a man who can with difficulty drag himself 

 across a field. " 



In June he writes to his friend, Mr. C. P. 

 Scott, of the Manchester Guardian : 



