98 THE LIFE OF RICHARD JEFFERIES 



lying on the broad earth, with her ear close to the ground, 

 that she could feel the heart of the world throb slowly 

 far underneath.'* 



She found in an English Protestant church ' no sun- 

 shine, no colour, no light '; it was all stone — dead. But 

 her father had given her translations from the classics, 

 and ' it was perhaps from these that these fancies ' grew. 

 Her father ' wished to found a science of the soul ... a 

 science of the higher instincts, the higher perceptions and 

 aspirations, which we perceive by the abstract soul '; and 

 had taught his daughter ' to listen to the promptings 

 of the soul within her ; to distinguish between the pseudo 

 soul and the true.'f Here, as in ' The Story of My Heart,' 

 Jefferies, like Maeterlinck, feels it odd that, while we have 

 physical and mental training, we have no psychic training. 



This secluded girl marries Louis, a dazzling visitor from 

 the world of London society, who has ' studied the most 

 loathsome and coarsely outre states of life ' from a desire to 

 see man in his ' nakedness.' He tires of her, and devotes 

 himself to Carlotta, her half-sister, a peer's wife. In a 

 rage, Louis knocks his wife down, and ' a battered warrior ' 

 whom Carlotta admires becomes the admirer of Heloise. 

 Louis sometimes beats Carlotta, and some stress is laid 

 upon this voluptuous cruelty. Carlotta replies with 

 scratches and bites. Physical violence is conspicuous in 

 the book. 



Another character and friend of Heloise is Georgiana 

 Knoyle, who walks ' as those antique statues would have 

 walked.' She is a strong, pure character who wishes 

 her lover to inaugurate a new era by marrying for three 

 years, ' not for life.' He agrees ; they enter into partner- 

 ship, making provision for possible heirs. They compose 

 a ' new marriage service, adapted to the thought of 

 modern days, and in accordance with the theory that 

 man and woman are socially equal.' There should be 

 a certain amount of publicity after such unions ; some 

 ' duly authorized person ' should perform the ceremony ; 



* Kcs/kss HtiiiKiii Hearts, \ Ibid. 



