New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1894-12-30
| l..
MR. SIDNEY COLvIN'S ACCOUNT OF HIS
LATER MOOD-STEVENSON'S PLACE

MR. SIDNEY COLVIN'S ACCOUNT OF HIS
LATER MOOD-sTEvENsON's PLACE
IN LITERATURE - HIS SPIRITUAL
KINSHIPS - HIS TWO CHIEF
FAILINGs- HIS IMAGINATIVE
AND LITERARY LIFE-HlS
LITERARY METHODS
AND THE LESSON
OF THEM.
London, December i?
Far different from the iucubratiOns of either
Mr. Lang or Mr. Gosse is the letter Of Mr.. sid
ney Colvin in to-day's Pail Mall Gazette. Mr.
Colvin's aim is different. His is letter meant
TO bring consolation TO Stevensons friends and
10 the public II is remarkable that his name Is
not once mentioned in Mr.. Colvin's hah-coiumn
That is a kind of literary tour de force which
would have pleased the brilliant spirit wnich
has lust passed away" What MI Covin mas
~ roll lie is that his friend N not desire length
of days; ttat death has overtaken him at such
time and in such a manner as ne would him
self have wished. He always hoped fer an
early and sudden death. During The last twelve
months this wish had grown upon him. Says
Mr.. Covin:
spring. when he realized that his life might after
| ALI be prolonged to the normal span. ! was
| meant 10 die young, and the gods do not love
me- And again. i do not like the crnsoations
Of age I do not enjoy getting elderly.
What IL is much less pleasant 10 hear g that
he went on working and overworking for more
money He had large income but spent large
ly: buying land. building. planting. ealing ever
hospitable life. and ever giving So II was
| that he felt himself bound TO the necessity Of
| continual production. He would listen 10 no
warnings Natures or other. And he dies from
brain pressure. brought on by overwork. only
the other day one Of his friends rejoicing
that Stevenson. unlike Scott would never itel
the obligation of production for the sake Of
earning money. 1t is said in one Of the telc-
grams that he was haunted By the fear Of
waning popularity. That also may have spurred
him on His pride was touched, imaginary IS
was the fear.
So long as he lived Stevenson's position In
literature might seem uncertain. large crti-
cism is not the strong point OF those English
writer's who act most directly on the public opin-
ion Of the time. There were partial verdicts
and hesitating verdicts. and not long ago. in a
| PERIODICAL OF repute you might have seen Steven
| son spoken Of In the tone which Mr.. Trail uses
toward the Minor Poets. Of whom he numbers
fifty or sixty. His death compes the most care
less writer 10 take n survey Of his work to judge
him as a whole and not by this or that particu-
| lar book 1t is when the life-work OF u
painter is collected into a gallery. So seen and
so judged. Stevenson takes place apart. The
| immense variety Of his writing produces It's due
| effect.
The variety OF his writing due TO the
variety Of his mind. English ne was not mod
ern he was not He escaped the limitations O
race and OF time. follower Of Dumas. o
Scott said the critics. time and again He sale
so himself, out Of anxious Loyalty TO thos'
whom he recognized masters in literature. 1
not his masters At times he a follower. o
began by being follower. If that word is to b
used 1t is far truer to say that he drank a
those fountains, in French phrase which d
as acc rate as French phrases in matters o
criticism commonly are. II s'insprait at thos
sources If he had initiated Dumas or initiated
Scott he would never have been Stevenson
There would have been Treasure Island
still less Kidnapped" a Master Of Bal
lantrae."
The last named book itself supplies the on
criticism which Stevensons greatest admirer
must admit to be true. 1t would probably b
his masterpiece but for the grotesque ending
and there Is often in Stevenson an element OF tn
grotesque, Of the sangrenu-the French wor'
again expressing the defect more exactly. TIL
ran away with him when he lost control OF II
I suspect he was conscious of his own falling
seem to remember that he has commented on II
but cannot remember where. So. on the whole
"Kidnapped' remains his masterpiece. Their
his genius is to be seen at its best or at least. Il
its most perfect and fawess expression.
Perhaps 1t will presently be thought not tn
least Of his merits that in a prosac age he wa
a writer of romance. and that the influences ami
which he lived had not extingushed his imag
NATIVE genius. Romantic. imaginative-thos
are the two words which express qualities an
states OF being the most remote from us as W
near the end of scientific century. Stevenso
|. | was not of his own time. yet OF his own time h
takes possession as one who comes to his right
ful inheritance. No doubt he profted by the in
| fuences to which he never submitted,-he wa
. not Scotsman for nothing. He has precision