134 THE SOUTH COUNTRY 



/ intelligence is greater and more excellent than the whole 

 world." Even so Richard Jefferies prayed that his soul 

 " might be more than the cosmos of life." The soul is 

 greater than the whole world because it is capable of 

 apprehending the whole world, because it is spiritual, 

 and the spiritual nature is infinite. Thus Traherne was 

 led to the splendid error of making the sun " a poor little 

 dead thing." Or perhaps it was a figure of speech used 

 to convince the multitude of his estimation of man's soul 

 as above all visible things. In the same spirit he speaks 

 of " this little Cottage of Heaven and Earth as too small 

 a gift, though fair," for beings of whom he says : " Infinity 

 we know and feel by our souls; and feel it so naturally, 

 as if it were the very essence and being of the soul "; and 

 again, with childlike simplicity and majesty — 



" Man is a creature of such noble principles and severe 

 expectations, that could he perceive the least defect to be 

 in the Deity, it would infinitely displease him." 



He could not well have thought of man except loftily, 

 since he was himself one whom imagination never de- 

 serted — imagination the greatest power of the mind by 

 which not poets only live and have their being — 



" For God," says he, " hath made you able to create 

 worlds in your own mind which are more precious unto 

 Him than those which He created; and to give and 

 offer up the world unto Him, which is very delightful 

 in flowing from Him, but made more in returning to 

 Him." 



That power to create worlds in the mind is the 

 imagination, and is the proof that the creature liveth and 

 is divine. " Things unknown," he says, " have a secret 

 influence on the soul," and " we love we know not 



