INTRODUCTION 



These early years, of lonely roaming over hill and 

 country with his gift of insight, were the most 

 important in Jefferies' life, and the unconscious 

 impressions gained were to ripen later into the full- 

 est expression of his genius. Truly " the child was 

 father to the man," but it was years before he came 

 to self-realisation with a full consciousness of the 

 truth and power within. 



In early life he imagined himself a journalist, 

 and his first book, published in 1873, was a cru de 

 discourse on Reporting, Editing, and Authorship. 

 He was, we are told by his biographer, a youth of 

 a thousand foolish fancies, enthusiastic over little 

 things and not to be dismayed by constant dis- 

 appointment and failure. He wrote news items 

 for the provincial papers, and on one occasion he 

 almost discovered his real power. It was a long 

 letter to the London Times on the \Viltshire farmer, 

 which provoked much discussion; but alas! he failed 

 to grasp the advantage of this opportunity. For years 

 he struggled to make novel writing the success of his 

 life, but "he never was a novelist," says Mr. Besant 

 frankly, " he never could be." Then almost by 

 chance, after he had married and left his native 

 hamlet for "nature near London," he came to 

 realise, by slow achievement through uncertainty 

 and bitter struggle, his innate sense of beauty, 

 and to learn that as an interpreter of Nature rather 



