The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1899-05-22

Ing books OF the closing century. Mr.
Colvin has already published the let
ters that Stevenson wrote to him from
Samoa They are worthy of being
placed beside the letters of Lowell, or
even those of Lamb.-Of critical esti-
mates of StevensOn's character and
work the best and most accessible are
Raleigh's essay published by Edward
Arnold, New York;; Copeland's Gro
bert Louis Stevenson" in The Atlantic
for April, 1895; and Gosse's Personal
Memories of Robert Louis Stevenson"
in The Century for July, 1895.
ILLUSTRATIVE CRITICISM
Artist as he is, and perhaps because
he is an artist, the man shines through
all the work of Mr.. Stevenson's hand,
and illumineS it all. He tells us in
beautiful words, yet with a beautiful
sincerity, what manner of men and
books he loves, and what manner he
cannot endure. More than for any
thing else, / think, he cared for youth;
and the only consolation in his death
is that age can never overtake him.
This understanding and love of youth
brought its exceeding great reward,
for to no class or body of readers is
Stevenson so dear as to young men. i
as a writer, to a great company of
collegians on the night after his death
was heard of in this country: and
since then many of them have talked
with me about him, and expressed
their feeling of deep personal loss.
One generous youth-whose strength
and stature let him acknowledge emo
tions which pretty men must hide
said to me across the midnight fire
that Stevenson made him cry" more
than any other writer. That sums it
all up. I might have said it at the be-
ignning and stopped there. Something
does indeed seize us by the throat
when we consider the bravery of his
pages and the heroic pathos of his life.
He worked blithely for years in the
imminent face of death, and only when
it bent over him and touched him did
he still his hands.-From the essay by
C. T. Copeland, in The Atlantic for
April, 1895.
The most remarkable feature of the
work he has left is it's singular COM
bination of style and romance It has
so happened. and the accident has
gained almost the strength of tradi-
ton, that the most assiduous followers
of romance have been careless stylists
They have trusted to the efficacy of
their situation and incident, and have
too often cared little about the manner
of its presentation. BY an odd piece of
irony style has left to the cultivation
of those who have little or nothing to
tell. Sir Walter Scott himself. with all
his splendid romantic and tragic gifts.
often, in Stevenson's perfectly just
phrase. "fobs lis off with languid and
inarticulate twaddle" He wrote care
lessly and genially, and then break
tasted and began the business of the
day. But Stevenson. who had romance
tingling in every vein of his body, set
himself laboriously and patiently to
train his other faculty, the faculty of
style.-From Raleigh's essay.
1t is impossible to deal. however
lightly. with the personal qualities of
Robert Louis Stevenson without dwell
ling on the extreme beauty of his char
acter. In looking back over the TWEEN
ty years in which I knew him. I feel
that, since he was eminently human,
[ ought to recall his faults. but I pro-
test that ] can remember none. Per-
haps the nearest approach to a fault
was a certain want of discretion, al
ways founded on a wish to make peo-
pie understand each other, but not ex-
actly according to wisdom.
MS lIIIie WEAKNESS Is really lIS
blacklist crime I can lay TO his charge.
And on the other side what cOura ge,
what love, what an indomitable spirit.
what a melting pity, He had none Of
the sordid errors of the man who
writes-no sick ambition. no envy Of
others. no exaggeration of the value Of
this ephemeral trick of scribbling. He
was eager to help his fellows. ready to
take a second place. offended with
great difficulty. perfectly appeased by
the least show of repentance. Steven
son was the most exquisite English
writer of his generation: but those
who lived close to him are apt to think
less of that than Of the fact that he
was the most unselfish and the most
lovable of human beings.-From Cos
se's Personal Memories of Robert
Louis Stevenson" in The Century for
July, 1895.
Now poetry and the highest kind of
romance are exactly that order of lit
erature which not only will bear to be
read many times, but Of which the true
value can be gained only by frequent.
and indeed habitual. reading. A man
can hardly be said to know the
Twelfth Mass or the Ninth symphony
by virtue of having once heard it play
ed ten years ago; he can hardly be said
to take air and exercise because he
took country walk once last autumn.
And so, he can hardly be said to know
~ ut T0Ti