The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-03-19
WORKS OF uHoMAs HARDY.
University Extension Lecture by Professor
 ", S, Phelps,

". s. Phelps.
 United church chapel was filled last evening with one of the largest of it's crowds of this season, the occasion be- ing the last of the series of lectures on modern novels in the University Exten- sion lecture, by Professor William Lyon Phelps Thomas Hardy" was the subject and Professor Phelps first gave a few pictures of his life as hav- ing a bearing on his works Hardy was born in Dorchester, in WesseX, in 1S40, and still lives there. His father desired him to become a clergyman, but Hardy decided on architecture instead Pro lessor Phelps said that architecture ap- pears everywhere in his work His stories are constructed by an architect. They betray the authors profession.
 According to Professor Phelps, Hardy stands at the head of living English novelists and on him, if on any one, has fallen the mantle of George Eliot. One of the peculiarities of Hardys style is the strong tragical current that runs through his work, and this is intensified by the fact that the reading of his tragedy increases the emotional imag- native nature of the reader. In the construction of the plot he is a master, and this is apparent even in his poorest novels. In the Trumpet Major" the plot construction is especially good. Hardy puts in enough good endings to keep the reader guessing. Wilkie Col lins was one of the best masters of the plot, but in his plots there is a certain cheapness and sensationalism of which very little appears in Hardy's plots. Hardy is also master of literary style. He plays on the English language as a skilled 'cellist on his instrument. Pro- lessor Phelps divided literary style into three kinds, description, narration and dialogue, and said that he considered Hardy excellent ill all three. One of the best bits of narration written by Hardy is that of the disappearance of the ship Victory in the Trumpet Major and all the dialogue in Far From the Madding Crowd' is mas terly. His novels seem like living or ganisms, where all parts are fused to- gether to make an artistic unity In
 
 as artistic as in any of Murlllos pie lures. He places in his works a series of intensely dramatic situations. In Tess of the D'Urbervilles" alone there Is enough dramatic situation to make ten ordinary novels. A critic has said that the progress in Hardy's novels is not steady, but by series of leaps, and this is undoubtedly true
 Professor Phelps said that he was sorry that Tess of the D'UJrbervilles" had been put on the stage, as there all the agony and bitterness of the story is faithfully depicted but all the poetry is left out. In analysis of char acter Hardy is acknowledged to be a master. There is a similarity in his characters. as for example, Diggory Venn in the Return of the Native" and Gabriel Oakes in Far From the Madding Crowd"
 A common criticism of Hardy is that he is a mans novelist; and the reason why women don't like him is probably because he devotes so much space to ana1yzing capricious women This can be done comically with impunity, but in Hardy it is done tragically Sudden impulse, regret, and then a general be- wilderment are frequently depicted. At this Hardy is a master and this char acteristic is illustrated in Sue in Jude the Obscure"
 Hardy, like the Greeks, knows how to make a drama of destiny. He makes of nature not a. background, but uses it as did the Greeks the chorus. He makes nj tIlrn 1N the heath in The Return of the Ma tive'
 ''In all his novels Hardy is no more a Christian than was Aristotle, and is as much of a pagan as if he had lived 400 E. c. His teaching is entirely pa- gan. He is usually the calmly silent pagan, but in Jude the Obscure he becomes positively anti Christian. As pessimist he is sinking deeper and deeper into the mire. The pessimism in his works has increased steadily, as is seen when we compare Under the Greenwood Tree with Jude the Ob- scure.' The tragic pessimism in the Return of the Native becomes the widest sort in Jude the Obscure Ar rogant pessimism is becoming a fault of Hardy's work. As soon as a man S pessimism interferes with his artistic work we have g. right to complain. Pessimisrn is getting the best of Har- dy's sense of humor.
 "The man who wrote Jude the Ob- scure' we could hardly conceive of hav- ing even had a sense of humor. An other fault which he has developed is that Of awful animalism and sensuality. There has always been a streak of that in him, and it is gradually rising to the surface. It becomes positively nause- ating in Jude the Obscure
 Professor Phelps said that he rated 'Tess of the D'Urbervilles' at the head of Hardy's works and Jude the Ob- scure" at the bottom, because in the former the tragedy is so great that all animalism is lost, as in the Oedipus Tyrannus, but in Jude animal sensual ity is so prominent that it obscures the art and tragedy
 The lecture closed by discussing the types of character found in Hardy's work
 In introducing Professor Phelps. A. MaXcy Hitler announced that there would be no more lectures in the Uni versity Extension course this year. He said that the sixteen lectures this year have been given at an average indfyid- ual cost to those who attended of fif- teen cents each. He said that it had been found that lectures on literary