of a few simple rules, I enjoy very regular health, with great
equality and regularity of working power, so that I get through a
great deal without feeling it to be any burden upon me, which is the
right state. I never do any brain work after dinner; I dine at seven,
and read after, but only in languages that I can read without any
trouble, and about subjects that I can read without any trouble, and
about subjects that are familiar to me.

P.G. HAMERTON.
February 13, 1882.




MR. THOMAS HARDY.


I fear that the information I can give on the effect of tobacco will
be less than little: for I have never smoked a pipeful in my life, nor
a cigar. My impression is that its use would be very injurious in my
case; and so far as I have observed, it is far from-beneficial to any
literary man. There are, unquestionably, writers who smoke with
impunity, but this seems to be owing to the counterbalancing effect of
some accident in their lives or constitutions, on which few others
could calculate. I have never found alcohol helpful to novel-writing
in any degree. My experience goes to prove that the effect of wine,
taken as a preliminary to imaginative work, is to blind the writer to
the quality of what he produces rather than to raise its quality. When
walking much out of doors, and particularly when on Continental
rambles, I occasionally drink a glass or two of claret or mild ale.