The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-10-14
The Life of Stevenson.

The Life of Stevenson.
BY far the most important biography of
the year will be the forthcoming Life
of Robert Louis Stevenson" prepared by
his cousin, Graham Balfour, at the
family's request. Readers the world over
have eagerly and patiently awaited the
authentic life of the Beloved Mr.. Col
vim was as loath to resign the task as
were the friends of Stevenson to have
him; but when he was obliged to abandon
all hope of writing the book for long
time to come, the work was turned over
to Mr.. Graham Balfour, Certainly Mr..
Balfour has had every opportunity to per-
form the work in an admirable manner.
A large trunkful of material which Mr..
GOWN had, was turned over to Balfour,
and he has had all the aid the family
could give. Mr. Balfour is forty-three
years of age and has been an amateur
litterateur all his life. He journeyed to
Samoa to meet his distinguished rela-
tive, and formed warm and intimate
acquaintance with him, which should
bear rich fruit in this volume. The vol
ume Will be published by the Scribner's
uniform with the Thistle edition of
SteVensons works.
The following extract from the forth
coming life is taken from little Book
Gazette, issued by Methuen & Co., its
English publishers. The reference is to
Seekers for CITY," in Lang's Grass
OF Parnassus." The quotation pretixed
to the poem being from the "Meditations
of Marcus Aurelius, the poet says, dear
city of Cecrops, and wilt not thou say,
dear city OF Zeus'' Mr.. Balfour writes:
The last of Stevenson's "reminiscences
of childish days that l have to give was
written in Samoa, and describes with all
the resources of his perfected art state
of mind more subtitle and complex than
any that we are accustomed to associate
with the confines of infancy. From any
one who less accurately remembered the
sensations of his earliest years it might
seem fanciful and unreal; to those who
know the truthfulness with which its
author has depicted the successive stages
. through which he passed it will be as
convincing. as it is delightful. On this
page also we first meet his sentiment
for the venerable city which ia the end
he thought af as his home.
1 was born within the walls of that
dear city of zeus, of which the lightest
and (when he chooses) the tenoerest
singer of my generation sings so well.
L was born. likewise, within the bounds
of an earthly city, illustriouS for her
beauty, her tragic and picturesque asso-
Citations, and for the credit of some of
her brave sons. Writing as I do in a
strange quarter of the world, and late
day of my age, l can still behold the
profile. of her towers and chimneys, and
the long trail of her smoke against the
sunset; l can still hear those strains of
martial music that she goes to bed
with, ending each day, like an act of
the opera, TO the notes of bugles; still
recall, with grateful effort of memory
anyone of a thousand beautiful and spa-
cIous circumstances that pleased me- and
that must have pleased anyone in my
half-remembered past. 1t is the beauti-
full that l thus actively recall; the AL
gust airs of the castle on its rock, noe
tUrnal passages of lights and trees the
sudden song of the blackbird in SUI
burban lane, rosy and dusky winter sun
sets, the uninhabited splendors of the
n1Tl IL TTyy1 he h11i1l Af = Il
on misty day, house above house, spire
above spire, until it was received into a
sky of softly glowing Clouds and seemed
to pass on and upward, by fresh grades
and rises, city beyond city, a new Jeru-
salem, boldly scaling heaven.
Memory supplies me, unsolicited, with
a mass of other material, where Their
is nothing to call beauty, nothing to at
tEact-often a great deal to disgust
There are trite street corners, common
place, well-to-do houses, shabby subur
ban tan fields, rainy, beggerly slums, /
taken in at gulp nigh forty years ago,
and surviving today, complete sensations,
concrete, poignant and essential to the
genius of the place. From the melan-
choly of these re:nembrances l might sup
pose them to belong to the wild and bit
terly unhappy days of my youth. But
it is not so; they date, most of them
from early childhood; they were OBJ
served as l walked with my nurse, gap
ing on the universe, and striving vain
ly to piece together in words my mar
ticulate but profound impressions. 1
seem to have been born with a sentiment
of something moving in things, of an in
finite attraction and horror coupled.