T. E. Lawrence Correspondence – Page 236

- 2 - 8.II.23 On his visit to Thomas Hardy at Max Gate: "Hardy is so pale, so quiet, so refined into an essence: and camp is such a hurly-burly. When I come back I feel as if I'd woken up from a sleep: not an exciting sleep, but a rested one. There is an unbelievable dignity and ripeness about Hardy: he is waiting so tranquilly for death, without a desire or ambition left in his spirit, as far as I can feel it: and yet he entertains so many illusions, and hopes for the world, things which I, in my disillusioned middle-age, feel to be illusory. They used to call this man a pessimist. While really he is full of fancy expectations. Then he is so far-away. Napoleon is a real man to him, and the country of Dorsetshire echoes that name everywhere in Hardy's ears. He lives in his period, and thinks of it as the great war: whereas to me that nightmare through the feige of which I passed has dwarfed all memories of other wars, so that they seem trivial half-amusing incidents. Also he is so assured. I said something a little reflecting on Homer: and he took me up as once, saying that it was not to be despised: that it was very kin to Marmion .... saying this not with a grimace, as I would say it, a feeling smart and original and modern, but with the most tolerant kindness in the world. Conceive a man to whom Homer and Scott are companions: who feels easy in such presence. And the standards of the man! He feels interest in everyone, and veneration for no-one. Live not found in him any bowing-down, moral or material or spiritual. The Prince came to see him, and Hardy was nice to him, and the Prince was nice back, and the press was very cordial and impressive upon the event: and (Mrs. Hardy - in the porch with) T.H. seeing the guest depart was heard to murmur "And to think that that commonplace young man will some day be our King!" And Shakespeare himself would be judged on his merits and probably found wanting. Yet any little man finds this detachment of Hardy's a vast compliment and comfort. He takes me as soberly as he would take John Milton (how sober that name is), considers me as carefully, is as interested in me; for to him every person starts scratch in the life-race, and Hardy has no preferences: and I think no dislikes, except for the people who betray his confidence and publish him to the world. Perhaps that's partly the secret of that strange house hidden behind its thicket of trees. It's because there are no strangers there. Anyone who does pierce through is accepted by Hardy and Mrs. Hardy as one whom they have known always, and from whom nothing need be hid." ......... ... "I hope that your peace of mind grows ... I have achieved it in the ranks at the price of stagnancy and beastliness: and I don't know, yet, if it is worth it." _________ 9.V.24 "We live here in a suspension of mental activity, in a passivity of life which produces, for me, an impression of intense stillness ... the hush in which one can hear time ticking away, outside, helplessly. I've cured myself of every