240 THE LIFE OF RICHARD JEFFERIES 



water was not merely a smooth surface, the air not merely 

 an invisible current, the light not merely illumination. 

 As if they had been living powers, so they influenced her. 

 A feehng entered her from them : the light, the air, the 

 water, the soft sward on which her hand rested, life came 

 to her from them. 



' With them she felt her own life, she knew her own 

 fulness of existence. Like this the maidens of ancient 

 Greece sang to the stream when they filled their urns. 

 Even Socrates the wisest sat pondering in reverence by 

 the stream. Felise was full of the delicious influence of the 

 great powers of nature. This susceptibility rendered her 

 love so rich and deep. 



' She sat leaning on her left hand, her knees lying side- 

 ways, and her right hand on her ankle ; the upper part of 

 her form in shadow, her limbs in the brilliant light. The 

 beams fell on her white rounded knees ; the right knee 

 being uppermost was entirely in light, but it cast a partial 

 shadow on the left one. 



' Twins in exquisite whiteness and shape they reposed 

 together, the under one a little in advance. The knee- 

 cap (which in woman is small), slipping naturally aside, 

 left a space on the summit of each knee smooth and almost 

 level, perhaps in the least degree concave. Upon these 

 lovely surfaces the light rested lovingly ; in the wide earth 

 there was no spot the sun loved so well. 



' The rounded supple knee is where the form hinges ; 

 there all is poised. They are the centres from which 

 beauty rises. With the knee all grace begins ; they bend, 

 and at the same moment the neck bows, and the forehead 

 droops. Resting on them firmly the shape rises, the neck 

 is straightened, and the brow thrown back. All is poised 

 on the knee. 



' Because of its varying mood of grace the knee can with 

 difficulty be seized in sculpture or painting. The least 

 flexure alters the contour. Now from head to foot it is 

 the flesh that is beautiful, that which covers and conceals 

 the bones and muscles under its texture. Such is the rule. 



