276 THE LIFE OF RICHARD JEFFERIES 



Sleep ; in truth, it was a singular instance of continued 

 devotion at the throne of the god of Thought. 



' It was to think that Mr. Iden in the commencement 

 assumed this posture of slumber, and commanded silence. 

 But thought which has been cultivated for a third of a 

 century is apt to tone down to something very near 

 somnolence. 



' That panel of wainscot was, in fact, as worthy of 

 preservation as those on which the early artists delineated 

 the Madonna and Infant, and for which high prices are 

 now paid. It was intensely — superlatively — human. 

 Worn in slow time by a human head within which a great 

 mind was working under the most unhappy conditions, 

 it had the deep value attaching to inanimate things which 

 have witnessed intolerable suffering. 



' I am not a Roman Catholic, but I must confess that 

 if I could be assured any particular piece of wood had 

 really formed a part of the Cross I should think it the 

 most valuable thing in the world, to which Koh-i-noors 

 would be mud. 



' I am a pagan, and think the heart and soul above 

 crowns. 



' That panel was in effect a cross on which a heart had 

 been tortured for the third of a century, that is, for the 

 space of time allotted to a generation. 



' That mark upon the panel had still a further meaning, 

 it represented the unhappiness, the misfortunes, the 

 Nemesis of two hundred years. This family of Idens had 

 endured already two hundred years of unhappiness and 

 discordance for no original fault of theirs, simply because 

 they had once been fortunate of old time, and therefore 

 they had to work out that hour of sunshine to the utmost 

 depths of shadow. 



' The panel of the wainscot upon which that mark had 

 been worn was in effect a cross upon which a human heart 

 had been tortured — and thought can, indeed, torture — 

 for a third of a century. For Iden had learned to know 

 himself, and despaired.'* 



* Amaryllis at the Fair. 



