"That these impressions have been condemned as 'pessimistic' - as if that were a very wicked adjective - shows a curious muddle-mindedness. It must be obvious that there is a higher characteristic of philosophy than pessimism, or than meliorism, or even the optimism of these critics - which is truth. Existence is either ordered in a certain way, or it is not so ordered, and conjectures which harmonize best with experience are removed above all comparison with other conjectures which do not so harmonize." Thomas Hardy,
Preface to the Wessex Edition of 1912, October, 1911