204 THE LIFE OF RICHARD JEFFERIES 



these harmonies, and to miss this enjoyment is to miss 

 half the book. For the time being we watch this great 

 conflict of one of the Many with the One — 



'Ceu cetera nusquam 

 Bella forent, nulli tota morerentur in orbe.' 



' Even without enjoying it in its entirety, the hohness of 

 its energy in certain places cannot be passed by, and unless 

 we go to it with many amulets and phylacteries, we shall 

 believe that to love and admire that energy is at least to 

 open the heart a little wider to the joy and sorrow and 

 beauty of the world. Jefferies is a mystic, and speaks to 

 a world that is not mystic yet likes to hear a beautiful 

 voice, as that giant-king in the ' Arabian Nights ' liked to 

 hear the lamentation of the caged human being. And 

 were this book far wilder and more remote from 

 market-place and laboratory, the uncommon sincerity 

 and human sweetness that break through the many 

 veils could not be repudiated. Jefferies himself said in a 

 letter that he was ' no cabinet theorist ' ; that his favourite 

 lines were those in Goethe's ' Faust ' 



' All theory, my friend, is grey. 

 But green is life's bright golden tree.' 



The gift of words in the book is undeniable, phrases like 

 ' the fresh and wandering air encompassing the world/ 

 and also the impetuosity of much of it, reminding us of 

 great poetry ; its sincerity added, it cannot be allowed 

 to die, except the death of becoming a document. Or is 

 it, then, so easy to know a man as we know this one ? Do 

 we commonly know one man by spending a lifetime with 

 a score ? Suppose this one wrong or deluding, yet to know 

 anyone as we can know him is to make us wiser and juster 

 in our lives and judgments. With him we can tread part at 

 least of the boundaries of humanity, or perchance learn 

 that what seemed a boundary is but a sea. And, again, 

 as a devout spirit he must be heard, a devout spirit without 

 one holy ancient relic save his own soul, and it is surely 



