him, but his very idiosyncrasies all
conspired to hinder his success. His pride and reserve would not permit
him to take help from his friends. He even shrank from their sympathy.
His years of isolation, voluntary isolation, put him out of touch with
human society. His socialistic tendencies never made him social. His
was a kind of abstract humanitarianism. A man may feel tenderly,
sympathize towards humanity, yet shrink from human beings. Misanthropy
did not inspire him; he did not dislike his fellow-men; it was simply
that they bewildered and puzzled him; he could not get on with them. So
it will be seen that he had not the consolation some men take in the
sympathy and co-operation of their fellows. After all, this is more a
defect of temperament than a fault of character, and he had to pay the
penalty. Realizing this, it is impossible to withhold admiration for the
pluck and courage of the man. As a lover of Nature, and an artist in
prose, he needs no encomium to-day. In his eloquent "Eulogy" Sir Walter
Besant gave fitting expression to the debt of gratitude we owe this
poet-naturalist--this passionate interpreter of English country life.

What Borrow achieved for the stirring life of the road, Jefferies has
done for the brooding life of the fields. What Thoreau did for the woods
at Maine and the waters of Merrimac, Jefferies did for the Wiltshire
streams and the Sussex hedgerows. He has invested the familiar scenery
of Southern England with a new glamour, a tenderer sanctity; has arrested
our indifferent vision, our careless hearing, turned our languid
appreciation into a comprehending affection.

Ardent, shy, impressionable, proud, stout-hearted pagan and wistful
idealist; one of the most pathetic and most interesting figures in modern
literature.

VII
WALT WHITMAN

"So will I sing on, fast as fancies come;
Rudely the verse being as the mood it paints."

ROBERT BROWNING.

"A man he seems of cheerful yesterdays
And confident to-morrows."

WORDSWORTH.

I

The "good gray poet" is the supreme example of the Vagabond in
literature. It is quite possible for one not drawn towards the Vagabond
temperament to admire Stevenson, for Stevenson was a fine artist; to take
delight in the vigorous "John Bullism" of _Lavengro_; to sympathize with
the natura