3i6 THE LIFE OF RICHARD JEFFERIES 



and is like ridiculing the lover and praiser of a vanished 

 beauty because she is now a handful of dust. It is even 

 more impious and absurd, since Jefferies' work survives 

 and is a power. The last words of anyone, distorted by 

 mortal pain and the circumstances of parting, cannot be 

 a power, whether he dies acquiescent, or delirious, or 

 fuddled by death, or with pain-wrung blasphemy on his 

 lips. Those who would make capital out of these words 

 of Jefferies — and how far are they * intelhgible,' and is 

 not ' all philosophy is hollow ' almost equal to blasphemy ? 

 — are already comfortable in their own conceit, and need 

 not this poor addition to their calendar. The majority 

 will be those who, orthodox Christian or not, see in the 

 work of Jefferies, when he was most alive, a force at one 

 with the good that is in the world, with what makes for 

 wisdom, beauty, and joy, whether it can usefully be con- 

 nected with Christianity or not. J 



