He died in his forty-fifth year, at the height of his power. If he had lived ten--twenty--years longer, he might well have done work that would have set him with Scott in the history of letters. As it is, he remains the most graceful and appealing, the most animated and delightful, figure in the literary history of the late nineteenth century. He is sure of his place. "Myriad-footed Time will discover many other inventions; but mine are mine!" And to that final award his poems no less than his letters will richly contribute--the haunting beauty of the "Requiem," the noble lines "To my Father," the lovely verses "In memory of F.A.S."--surely immortal, so long as mother-hearts endure. [Footnote 1: Greek: Ti gar chariton agapaton Anthropois apaneuthen;] Another great name was steadily finding its place during our first London years. Thomas Hardy had already published some of his best novels in the 'seventies, and was in full production all through the 'eighties and 'nineties. The first of the Hardy novels that strongly affected me was the _Return of the Native_, and I did not read it till some time after its publication. Although there had been a devoted and constantly growing audience for Mr. Hardy's books for twenty years before the publication of _Tess of the Durbervilles,_ my own recollection is that Tess marked the conversion of the larger public, who then began to read all the earlier books, in that curiously changed mood which sets in when a writer is no longer on trial, but has, so to speak, "made good." And since that date how intimately have the scenes and characters of Mr. Hardy's books entered into the mind and memory of his country, compelling many persons, slowly and by degrees--I count myself among this tardy company--to realize their truth, sincerity, and humanity, in spite of the pessimism with which so many of them are tinged; their beauty also, notwithstanding the clashing discords that a poet, who is also a realist, cannot fail to strike; their permanence in English literature; and the greatness of Mr. Hardy's genius! Personally, I would make only one exception. I wish Mr. Hardy had not written _Jude the Obscure!_ On the other hand, in the three volumes of _The Dynasts_ he has given us one of the noblest, and possibly one of the most fruitful, experiments in recent English letters.