Where [Hardy] differed from so many of his contemporaries was in the absoluteness, the literalness, with which he believed that not to be born was best...

when writing to Mrs Henniker about the fighting in South Africa, at a time when her husband was still on active service there, [he] allowed himself to remark: 'It is sad, or not, as you look at it, to think that 40,000 will have found their rest there. Could we ask them if they wish to wake up again, would they say Yes, do you think?'

-Michael Millgate, Thomas Hardy
[quoted]