Chapter IV

The points of affinity between Thoreau and Jefferies are sufficiently obvious; and yet no two writers who have loved the Earth, and found their greatest happiness in the life of the woods and fields, as did these two men, have expressed this feeling so variously. Thoreau, quiet, passive, self-contained, has seized upon the large tranquillity of Nature, the coolness and calm, "the central piece subsisting at the heart of endless agitation." Interspersed with his freshly observed comments on the myriad life about him are moral reflections, shrewd criticism of men and things, quaint and curious illustrations from his scholarly knowledge. But although he may not always talk of the Earth, there is the flavour of the Earth, the sweetness and naturalness of the Earth, about his finest utterances.

Jefferies, feverish, excitable, passionate, alive to the glorious plenitude of the Earth, has seized upon the exceeding beauty, and the healing beauty of natural things. No scholar like Thoreau, he brings no system of thought, as did the American, for Nature to put into shape. Outside of Nature all is arid and profitless to him. He comes to her with empty hands, and seeks for what she may give him. To Thoreau the Earth was a kind and gracious sister; to Jefferies an all-sufficing mistress.

The reader who passes from Thoreau to Jefferies need have no fear that he will be wearied with the same point of view. On the contrary, he will realize with pleasure how differently two genuine lovers of the Earth can express their affection.

In Jefferies' song of praise, his song of desire--praise and desire alternate continually in his writings--there are two aspects of the Earth upon which he dwells continually--the exceeding beauty of the Earth, and the exceeding plenitude of the Earth. Apostrophes to the beauty have been quoted already; let this serve as an illustration of the other aspect:--

"Everything," {157a} he exclaims, "on a scale of splendid waste.
Such noble broadcast, open-armed waste is delicious to behold. Never
was there such a lying proverb as 'Enough is as good as a feast.'
{157b} Give me the feast; give me squandered millions of seeds,
luxurious carpets of petals, green mountains of oak leaves. The
greater the waste the greater the enjoyment--the nearer the approach
to real life. Casuistry is of no avail; the fact is obvious; Nature
flings treasures abroad, puffs them with open lips along on every
breeze; piles up lavish layers of them in the free, open air, packs
countless numbers together in the needles of a fir tree. Prodigality
and superfluity are stamped on everything she does."

This is no chance passage, no casual thought. Again and again Jefferies returns to the richness and plenty of the Earth. And his style, suiting itself to the man's temperament, is rich and overflowing, splendidly diffuse, riotously exulting, until at times there is the very incoherence of passion about it.

Thus, in looking at the man's artistic work, its form of expression, its characteristic notes, something of the man's way of thinking has impressed itself upon us.