Perhaps the deplorable thinness and sententiousness, to which reference has been made, may be due to the fact that in the excitement of modern controversy, our enterprising writers have no time to read. It is a strange thing, but one really feels as though, among all modern English authors, the only one who brings with him an atmosphere of the large mellow leisurely humanists of the past,—of the true classics, in fact,—is Mr. Thomas Hardy.

It is for this reason, for the reason that with this great genius, life is approached in the old ample ironic way, that the narrator of the following tale has taken the liberty of putting Mr. Hardy’s name upon his title-page. In any case mere courtesy and decency called for such a recognition. One could hardly have the audacity to plant one’s poor standard in the heart of Wessex without obeisance being paid to the literary over-lord of that suggestive region.

It must be understood, however, that the temerity of the author does not carry him so far as to regard his eccentric story as in any sense an attempted imitation of the Wessex novelist. Mr. Hardy cannot be imitated. The mention of his admirable name at the beginning of this book is no more than a humble salutation addressed to the monarch of that particular country, by a wayward nomad, lighting a bivouac-fire, for a brief moment, in the heart of a land that is not his.

CONTENTS

CHAPTERPAGE
[I.]Leo’s Hill[1]
[II.]Nevilton[9]
[III.]Olympian Conspiracy[21]
[IV.]Reprisals from Below[33]
[V.]Francis Taxater[53]
[VI.]The Pariahs[80]
[VII.]Idyllic Pleasures[109]
[VIII.]The Mythology of Sacrifice[134]
[IX.]The Mythology of Power[156]
[X.]The Orchard[184]
[XI.]Art and Nature[212]
[XII.]Auber Lake[247]
[XIII.]Lacrima[276]
[XIV.]Under-Currents[317]
[XV.]Mortimer Romer[355]
[XVI.]Hullaway[386]
[XVII.]Sagittarius[430]
[XVIII.]Voices by the Way[460]
[XIX.]Planetary Intervention[489]
[XX.]Vox Populi[519]
[XXI.]Cæsar’s Quarry[536]
[XXII.]A Royal Watering-Place[572]
[XXIII.]Ave atque Vale![595]
[XXIV.]The Granary[621]
[XXV.]Metamorphosis[650]
[XXVI.]Various Encounters[667]
[XXVII.]Vennie Seldom[679]
[XXVIII.]Lodmoor[696]
[XXIX.]The Goat and Boy[714]

WOOD AND STONE