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The Life of Thomas Hardy

self, as it were, into quite distinct Hardys, strangers to each other.

When Hardy wrote in his intensest moods, however—whenever, that is to say, he assumed the mantle that is destined to clothe his name for posterity—he discovered his inmost relief and satisfaction to lie in the particular experience which he expressed in his motto to The Return of the Native:


  "To sorrow
  I bade good morrow,
And thought to leave her far away behind;
  But cheerly, cheerly,
  She loves me dearly;
She is so constant to me, and so kind.
  I would deceive her,
  And so leave her,
But ah! she is so constant and so kind."


THE END

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