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and selfish infatuation of the people for things that are 
worthless. The whole of Jefferies’ later life displays the 
struggle of a temperament which was utterly antagonistic 
to the spirit of his age. He rebels against the fight for mere 
existence, so bitterly and hopelessly oppressive to the thought- 
ful and sensitive mind. More and more the human note 
comes into Jefferies’ work, which at the same time takes on 
a new beauty and a new impassioned fervour. But though 
his new feeling of divine discontent with the unhappy lot of 
large masses of the human race becomes more and more strong, 
it never overshadows his perception of the intense joy there 
is in existing life, and he paints vivid pictures of nature, full 
of light and colour and sunshine. “ The Pageant of Summer ’ ’ 
is one of the finest of his writings of the kind. Jefferies 
expresses his belief that ultimately the spirit of the sunshine, 
the flowers, and the azure sky will become interwoven into 
human life. He carries this idea further in his “ Sunshine 
in a London Square,” where his optimism finds definite 
expression. “ To look backwards . . . there is sadness ; 
to-day in the thick of cloud there is unrest ; but forward in 
the broad sunlight there is hope.” 
In “ The Story of my Heart ” are epitomised the con- 
clusions to which Jefferies’ thinking brought him, and the 
ideals after which he yearned. There is no truth in the 
allegation which has been made, that this book was not a 
genuine self-revelation, but something written wildly and at 
random under stress of physical pain. The book contains 
Jefferies’ strongest and most beautiful work, and from it 
alone can we adequately learn the philosophy of his life. 
In it he contradicts some of the opinions he held in his earlier 
years. Its avowed purpose was to persuade’people to abandon 
traditional theories and well-worn groves of thought, and 
enter upon another and larger circle of ideas. Jefferies 
appears to have seen two things ; first, a beautiful world to 
be enjoyed ; and second, a people anxious for the fullest and 
most joyful life, yet in some unaccountable way failing to 
enter upon the glorious heritage awaiting them, to which he 
endeavoured to point new pathways. He strongly attacks 
superficial thinking, the habit of thinking along accepted 
lines of theory. But although the message of the book has 
a profound social bearing, the book itself is wholly a personal 
revelation. It is, as Jefferies himself described it, “ the 
autobiography of a soul.” It is the record of the struggle 
of a man’s soul with the mystery of things. It is a book 
which gives the complacent, self-satisfied mind many a rude 
shock ; it shakes to the very foundations the pretentious 
