324 THE LIFE OF RICHARD JEFFERIES 



and spiritual acts, and promises us an immortality more 

 responsible than that of the theologians, as real if not as 

 flattering. 



The mystic consciousness which gave the original im- 

 pulse to ' The Story of ]\Iy Heart ' did not die away, 

 though it was but seldom distinctly expressed after 

 ' The Dewy Morn.' It was diffused through his maturest 

 essays, nevertheless, such as ' The Pageant of Summer,' 

 ' Meadow Thoughts,' ' Nature in the Louvre,' and ' Winds 

 of Heaven,' effecting a greater seriousness, a wider rami- 

 fication of suggestion, a deeper colouring ; while in the 

 semi-scientific essays it is to be found in the increased 

 imagination, and in the essays criticizing agricultural con- 

 ditions it takes the form of deeper sympathies and more 

 advanced thought. It gave a more solemn note to the 

 joy which is the most striking thing in all his books, 

 whether it is the joy of the child, the sportsman, the 

 lover, the adventurer, the mystic, the artist, the friend 

 of men. Against this his ill-health is nothing to record, 

 except as something triumphed over by the spirit of life. 

 His sadness came of his appetite for joy, which was in 

 excess of the twenty-four hours day and the possible 

 threescore years and ten. By this excess, resembling the 

 excess of the oak scattering its doomed acorns and the 

 sun parching what it has fostered, he is at one with 

 Nature and the forces of life, and at the same time by 

 his creative power he rescues something of what they 

 are whirling do\^^l to oblivion and the open sea, and 

 makes of it a rich garden, high- walled against them. 



Many of the essays in ' The Open Air ' and ' The Life 

 of the Fields ' belong to the same inspiration. Nature, 

 described by passionate words, is harmonized with the 

 writer's mind and with his hopes for humanity. Natural 

 beauty and humanity are always together there. He 

 wished to plunge human thought into sea and air and 

 green things that it might be restored, as he hoped to be 

 restored himself in the air of Brighton and Crowborough. 

 Almost fevered was his joy in seeing and thinking of the 



