YOUTH AND EARLY WRITINGS 67 



the quick vibration of the wasp-fly's vane. Her exalted 

 passion strung her naturally fine and sensitive nature ; 

 she seemed to feel the sun's majestic onward sweep in the 

 deep azure — her love made earth divine.' 



In ' World's End ' he wrote : ' How delicious it is to 

 see everything through the medium and in the company 

 of a noble girl just ripening into womanhood !' ' The 

 Story of My Heart,' ' The Dewy Morn,' and all his later 

 books are full of proofs of his exquisite physical sensitive- 

 ness ; but the physical was always akin to the spiritual 

 as the flower to the perfume. His tastes were delicate. 

 He smoked little ; and he was a small drinker, taking not 

 even a glass of porter for his dinner unless his reporting 

 had been heavy. His sense of touch seems to have a 

 soul of its own. To touch the lichened bark of a tree 

 was to repeat his prayer for deeper soul-life. Felise takes 

 a leaf, feels it, and drops it again ; she, too, touched the 

 oak-bark, and ' full of life was her touch ' ; she felt the 

 water — ' she liked to touch all things ' ; she enjoyed the 

 touch of her soft shoulder against her softer cheek. The 

 spirit exalted this sensuousness ; the senses preserved the 

 sweetness of the spirit. In another nature senses so opu- 

 lent, especially if aided by an imperfect love, might have 

 wrought their own destruction. But in Jefferies the 

 senses perform always and only the functions of the soul, 

 and the purity of his passion equals its fearlessness in 

 whatever swoons and energies time may bring. Courage 

 and spirit he had also, and when he was a tall, delicate 

 man, already bearded round the throat, though he shaved 

 his lip, he fought a long fight with a soldier and held his 

 own ; but as they were shaking hands at the end, his 

 enemy struck a treacherous blow that sent him home 

 with a broken nose. 



In September, 1870, he was at Hastings, on his way to 

 Dover and Ostend. He was taking a longish holiday, 

 and had already been staying at Sydenham and at 

 Worthing, where the large and beautiful eyes of a 

 Josephine had begun to haunt him. He was staying at 



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