“Again Galsworthy never seems to write with set purpose, while I am one of those people who believe that you’ve got to be dominated by your moral slant. I’m no ‘art-for-art’s-sake’ man. I am quite incapable of talking or writing about Dutch gardens or the game of chess, but if I did, I have no doubt that what I say or write about them would be colored by my view of the cosmos.”
When the question of pessimism came up, I mentioned that the week before I had had the pleasure of dining with A. E. Housman at Cambridge[D] who facetiously told me that he was often compared to Hardy because both their names began with an “H”.
[D] See “An Evening with A. E. Housman,” by Cyril Clemens, 1937.
“That is all the basis critics often have for forming comparisons,” replied Chesterton with a smile, “but in this case there is a measure of truth in the comparison. Both undoubtedly have a certain amount of pessimism. Poet Housman’s, however, has the tang of the fresh air about it, whereas Hardy’s seems somewhat unpleasant.”
And to illustrate his point, Chesterton quoted from “A Shropshire Lad,”
“Oh many a peer of England brews
Livelier liquor than the Muse,
And malt does more than Milton can
To justify God’s ways to man.
Ale, man, ale’s the stuff to drink