Page:Life of Thomas Hardy - Brennecke.pdf/227



Mr. Beerbohm really thought, however, that "to accept that explanation were to insult him. A puny engine of art may be derailed by such puny obstacles as the public can set in its way. So strong an engine as Mr. Hardy rushes straight on, despite them, never so little jarred by them, and stops not save for lack of inward steam. Mr. Hardy writes no more novels because he has no more novels to write."

The most reasonable explanation seems to be that Hardy, feeling that he had expressed himself in the form of prose fiction as well as he was ever likely to, and that he had sufficiently indulged the public in using for twenty-five years the most easily comprehended method of approach, decided that he would henceforth indulge