See for example, Remarkable escapes from peril, published by the Religious Tract Society of Great Britain, which is full of incidents like this (page 117):īut mark the power of prayer. The efficacy of prayer was a popular subject for tract writers. Accordingly it seems more likely that Hardy was satirizing the anti-Semitic tendency of writers of religious tracts, and the absurdity of their claims about the efficacy of prayer, than that he was expressing his own anti-Semitic views.

So the offensive phrase is attributed to 'another man' by the writers of the tract that Jude read, and even in context it is an transparently absurd and post-hoc excuse for the failure of prayer. This was not discouraging, and turning on the ladder Jude knelt on the third rung, where, resting against those above it, he prayed that the mist might rise. The breeches he knelt in were made by a wicked Jew. What the other man claimed, according to the tract that Jude read: Another man tried the same experiment, and the money did not come but he found afterwards that What it said in the tract that Jude read:Ī man who had begun to build a church, and had no money to finish it, knelt down and prayed, and the money came in by the next post. If you prayed, things sometimes came to you, even though they sometimes did not. Perhaps if he prayed, the wish to see Christminster might be forwarded. He might not be able to come so far as this for many days. He ascended the ladder to have one more look at the point the men had designated, and perched himself on the highest rung, overlying the tiles. When I do this, I interpret the passage as follows. I think the answer will become clear if you re-read the passage (starting from the beginning of the chapter so that you have the full context) and carefully distinguish the points of view.

Jude thomas hardy