New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-12-05
THE ENGLISH THOREAU.
1.-THE STORY OF JEFFERIES's SAD LIFE

Longmans Green q Co
Mr. Resant wrote this memoir from pure love
and admiration of Richard Jeheriess "r''ihs''
lie had no personal acquaintance WIN us suoeo''
whom he hf1 never seen, but he Knew lnehu
=, JofTer,es and from this friend he had obtained
n good deal of rather intimate Information ~
follows that the biography is wanting in that ee-
,nent Of familiarity which always lends so dis
,inctive q charm 10 works of the kind written py
srch as have known and lived near the individual
whose career is to be chroniced But in all other
rospects MIR Besant has shown himself emnentiy
opalitied for the task, and il sympathy can make
nm for remoteness of relationship, there is enough
in this volume to Justify the title Yet the al
sniring biographer is too conscientious to mslead
the reader and proof against temptation to IDOL
ixe his hero, he presents his life so candidly as
to leave no ground for suspicion of blind pane
gyric He has written book which IS full oil
interest Richard Jefferies was remarkable,
almost a unique character, and had he learned his
own bent and limitations earlier, or had he lived
longer his literary work would no doubt have been
of even higher Importance than it is. The story
of his life is in many respects not uncommon, but
IL is none the less tragic, and the story of his
last years is sad and profoundly impressive.
The son of Wiltshire yeoman of somewhat
eccentric character and old stock Jeferies early
manifested strong love for nature lie was
ALWAYS inclined to he reserved and TO like soil
tude and these traits never left him He became
n passionate dcvourer Of books rather than stu
dent: in fact, he had no regular education out
found out many things for himself, having access
70 a good library His bent toward literature
from early youth His first work was that OF
reporter on a country newspaper This he liked
because it kept him much in the open air. All
his youth was however, practically spent In
making observations upon external life. lie knew
the country on radius of ten miles around Coate
House, his fathers farm, just as Thoreau knew
the river on whose banks he lived and died.
Moods and downs. fields and hedge-rows cOppices
and hillocl,s. brooks and ponds with all their
creatures furred and feathered and scaled were
familiar to him. In this world Of nature only
was he thoroughly at home He did not know il
from the point of view of the scientific naturalist
He was not a botanist or q collector of butter
flies or of anything else He never yearned to
wrest Natures secret from her by pulling
her creatures to pieces and putting them under
the microscope. He content 10 observe them,
10 study the habits of plant and tree and vine and
bird and insect and reptile and animal: 70 lie on
the green turf and watch the squirrels above him
and the rabbits below: TO lie in wait in Ashboune
Chase for the lordlv stag often, and 10 feed his
soul with the grace and beauty Of that natural
monarch of the terny glades; to note the ways
of the bird in the air and the serpent on the rock;
TO drink in the balmv air and the bright sunshine
and the life and activity everywhere about him
This the pleasure Of Richard Jefferies. and the
realm in which he attained almost unsurpassed
knowledge and insight.
Mr. Besant compares him to Thoreau, and the
ainshp is too plain to be dsavowed or questioned ;
but il is not so clear that Jeffcrics was the one
English writer of his kind whose work will live
and this too the very enthusiastic biographer
does not hesitate TO assert. There were great
kings before Agamemnon, and there were great
naturalists before Richard Jefferles White and
Jesse and Waterton and auckland are each and
all delightful writer's and full of sympathy, and
there is no present reason to doubt that their
fame is established firmly. 1t is possible that for
beauty of literary style JeffereS deserves to he
put before them all At his best he is in some
respects unsurpassed. But he is a most uneven
writer, as Mr.. Besant unconsciously shows by the
freouent citations which he gives. Like many
young men, Jefreries WIS long in find
ing his vocation His desire to
become novelist He had qualifications
for the work He knew nothing OF the world OF
society, of human motives passions. tendencies
save what he had gathered from books. But also
like many other young men, he thought he was
the best years of his short life in composing bad
novels. lie could not conceive character nor con-
struct plots He could describe nature and the only
good passages in his stories are bits of such de-
scrption. He went TO London. missed fine OPP
portunity by neglectng to avail himelf OF an
opening made by telling letter to The Tines
on " The Wiltshire Peasant had very hard
struggle for bread: subsistcd on little news
paper work and occasional articles accepted by
the magazines and not until eight years OF futile
experiment had disciplined him did he recognize
where his strength really lay. Then he wrote
those books upon which his fame will rest and in
which he stands nearly alone as the illustrator
and Interpreter of world of nature for the most
part fer from the common ken as the central
wilds of Africa. In those books" The Game
keeper at Home The Amateur Poacher" Z" Wild
Life in a Southern Country" Wood Magic" " Red
Deer" and Round About Great Estate" to-
gether with Life of the Fields" and parts of
" After London" and Amaryllis at the Fair
he appeared in his best form, for he in his
own domain, and instead of inventing, he was
teaching.
In this memoir Mr. Besant has quoted largely
from Jefferies and has represented his style and
manner quite sufficiently. His observation was
curiously minute so much so that some dull souls
could not endure him. but called his most deli
cate and faithful elaboration cataloguing.' He
could sit down under tree and in five minutes
enough interesting life and motion and growth
around him to fill pages with the account of it,
Nor is there any techncality in his nature pict-
lures. They are instinct with poetic feeling
They breathe the spirit Of the woods and fields
AS one reads them the scented summer breezes
seem to blow, the boughs to move, the birds to
sing, while through the mobile leafy fretwork the
sunbeams fleck the green grass with their dancing
light pattern. and the warm air is filed with the
hum Of insects. Perhaps the most splendid of all
his writings is The Pageant Of Summer" II is
heanfifnl eYceedinnlr snCnnstinn only