and by no means least an architect. The plan of the whole thing, in
one hundred and thirty scenes, which seemed at first confused, now
appears in retrospect orderly; and the projection of the various
geographical scenes is thoroughly architectonic.

If the work fails to survive, it will be because of its low elevation
on the purely literary side. In spite of occasional powerful phrases,
as

What corpse is curious on the longitude
And situation of his cemetery!

the verse as a whole wants beauty of tone and felicity of diction. It
is more like a map than a painting. One has only to recall the
extraordinary charm of the Elizabethans to understand why so many
pages in _The Dynasts_ arouse only an intellectual interest. But
no one can read the whole drama without an immense respect for the
range and the grasp of the author's mind. Furthermore, every one of
its former admirers ought to reread it in 1918. The present world-war
gives to this Napoleonic epic an acute and prophetic interest nothing
short of astounding.

A considerable number of Mr. Hardy's poems are concerned with the idea
of God, apparently never far from the author's mind. I suppose he
thinks of God every day. Yet his faith is the opposite of that
expressed in the _Hound of Heaven_--in few words, it seems to be,
"Resist the Lord, and He will flee from you." Mr. Hardy is not content
with banishing God from the realm of modern thought; he is not content
merely with killing Him; he means to give Him a decent burial, with
fitting obsequies. And there is a long procession of mourners, some of