248 THE LIFE OF RICHARD JEFFERIES 



the praise, because it was more generous and more in 

 harmony with his character. Complacent praise never 

 did any good ; humane scorn of an old and confused 

 institution might possibly do good. It is a pity he took 

 to abuse ; but his nature was dogmatic, and abuse is the 

 superfluity of a dogmatic nature. He has learned, too, 

 that things may be imperfect and yet better than the 

 perfection of cloistered nullity, and he contrasts the 

 empty Cornleigh with Justice Shallow, who ' had heard the 

 chimes at midnight, had made the acquaintance of the 

 bo7ta robas, had been intoxicated (by inference), had sown 

 wild oats in his youth.' 



But along with this spirit of opposition Jefferies retains 

 much of the old — in his hate of Boards and beadles, and 

 his belief in ' good juicy meat * and ale. Here he is 

 thinking again of Fate : ' Petty circumstances unregarded 

 lead men on, from step to step, from thought to thought, 

 action to action ; is this Fate ?' In other places, ' Some- 

 one has to suffer — always someone has to suffer ' ; and, 

 ' Nothing is ever a pleasure or a real profit to him who has 

 to labour for it. Truth — you die in the pursuit, and the 

 sea beats the beach as it did a thousand years ago.' Here, 

 too, the creed implied in all his books is definitely stated : 



' All of you with little children, and who have no need 

 to count expense, or even if you have such need, take 

 them somehow into the country among green grass and 

 yellow wheat — among trees — by hills and streams, if you 

 wish their highest education, that of the heart and the 

 soul, to be completed. 



' Therein shall they find a Secret — a knowledge not 

 to be written, not to be found in books. They shall know 

 the sun and the wind, the running water, and the breast 

 of the broad earth. Under the green spray, among the 

 hazel boughs where the nightingale sings, they shall find a 

 Secret, a feeling, a sense that fills the heart with an 

 emotion never to be forgotten. They will forget their 

 books — they will never forget the grassy fields. 



' If you wish your children to think deep things — to 



