LAST ESSAYS 293 



them with the knot of necessity ; that which should give 

 Hfe pulhng the hfe out of them, removing their existence 

 below that of the cattle, so far as the pleasure of living 

 goes. Without doubt, many a low mound in the church- 

 yard — once visible, now level — was the sooner raised over 

 the nameless dead because of that terrible strain in the 

 few weeks of the gold fever. This is human life, real 

 human life — no rest, no calm enjoyment of the scene, no 

 generous gift of food and wine lavishly offered by the 

 gods, the hard fist of necessity for ever battering man to 

 a shapeless and hopeless fall.'* 



Experience and reading have not blinded him to the 

 blunt cruelty of life. He feels it like the child whom fire 

 burns for the first time. He is like the poet who in his 

 childhood stretched out his hand to feel as well as to see 

 the beauty of water boiling in a pot, and was scalded for 

 it. He seems to exclaim directly that beauty and joy are 

 right, and all else wrong, and with all the more frankness 

 and terrible simplicity because he has learned it for him- 

 self. Venturing into politics, he is still indignant because 

 the country, though it wants to abolish the vestiges of 

 feudalism and is beginning to unite against tithes, yet 

 ' votes Conservative, and places a Conservative in office. 

 ... It would break do\Mi the monopoly of the railways, 

 and at the same time would like a monopoly of protec- 

 tion for itself.' Not far from a cottager himself, he can 

 sympathize with cottagers who put unprofitable senti- 

 ments before self-interest. * I would rather my children 

 shared my crust,' he says, ' than fed on roast-beef in a 

 stranger's hall.' Like them, he says he does not care for 

 small sums, little gains. In ' After the County Franchise 'f 

 he tries to look forward to a village council that shall 

 represent the people, in place of a Board of Guardians 

 which is ' land and money simply.' The power to vote 

 must bring the labourers some such council, but let them 

 beware of borrowing ; let them prefer a rude discomfort. 



* ' Walks in the Wheatfields,' Field and Hedgerow. 

 f Longman's Magazine., 1887. 



