2o6 THE LIFE OF RICHARD JEFFERIES 



for disciples, and it is true of him, as of the greatest 

 teachers, that his best lovers never become his disciples, 

 since his work is to inspire, and, like wine, the ways of his 

 inspiration are many. The soul which he would educate 

 is what has brought him his noblest pleasures and deepest 

 hopes, and he believes it to be a common possession of 

 which he is simply a discoverer. Apparently he would 

 say that the soul is often troubled by the brain as, for 

 example, the eye at night is troubled, though hardly any 

 darkness is impenetrable to the eye that is freed from all 

 clouds of cogitation. In the same way had Coleridge, con- 

 vinced of the profound importance of the poet's inspira- 

 tion, planned an essay on poetry to supersede all the 

 books of morals and metaphysics. It was enough for 

 Jefferies to have had the idea that by the soul ' we have 

 our happiness or not at all ' ; that the soul does away with 

 the need of using the word ' God,' and is to rule the world. 

 He cries in the wilderness, and the strangeness of the 

 crying cannot but avail. Life cannot remain the same 

 as it was before the book ; we must be a little more liberal, 

 more adventurous, more expectant and aware, than 

 before. In his passion for humanity he is with Lucretius 

 and Shelley, and his revolting note, like theirs, is woven 

 into the great music ; he has the true rhythm of life, as 

 the tide and also the earthquake has. It is the greatness 

 of his hope that makes him speak scornfully about the 

 achievement of the past, but it is due also in part to the 

 belief, natural in so isolated a man, that his experiences 

 were exceptional, and that old schemes of life were mis- 

 directed because they seemed to take nothing of the kind 

 into account. He accepts the inventions of science, and 

 would not part with them, any more than with his feather- 

 bed ; but they are only foundations whose place is under- 

 ground. He is impatient of the pride in them. They are 

 but engines, and they are deified. The soul should be 

 exalted and rule. It is uncertain what other ruler he 

 would have among men. He does not approach matters 

 of practice ; had he done so, he might have shown himself. 



