Page:Life of Thomas Hardy - Brennecke.pdf/135

 a living art." Then follows this somewhat puzzling passage, which seems, however, really to represent Hardy in his own person:

The significance of this may perhaps be heightened by the observation that Somerset is also said to have "suffered from the modern malady of unlimited appreciativeness as much as any living man of his age," and that there were “years when poetry, theology, and the re-organization of society had seemed matters of more importance to him than a profession which should help him to a big house and income, a fair Deiopeia, and a lovely progeny." One must of course be extremely careful in