Essays of Robert Louis Stevenson | Page 5

which attracts and holds one's attention as powerfully in a book as it
does in social intercourse. Everything that he has to say seems
immediately worth saying, and worth hearing, for he was one of those
rare men who had an interesting mind. There are some literary artists
who have style and nothing else, just as there are some great singers
who have nothing but a voice. The true test of a book, like that of an
individual, is whether or not it improves upon acquaintance.
Stevenson's essays reflect a personality that becomes brighter as we
draw nearer. This fact makes his essays not merely entertaining reading,

but worthy of serious and prolonged study.
[Note 1: His name was originally Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson. He
later dropped the "Balfour" and changed the spelling of "Lewis" to
"Louis," but the name was always pronounced "Lewis."]
BIBLIOGRAPHY
The following information is taken from Col. Prideaux's admirable
Bibliography of Stevenson, London, 1903. I have given the titles and
dates of only the more important publications in book form; and of the
critical works on Stevenson, I have included only a few of those that
seem especially useful to the student and general reader. The detailed
facts about the separate publications of each essay included in the
present volume are fully given in my notes.
WORKS
1878. An Inland Voyage. 1879. Travels with a Donkey. 1881.
Virginibus Puerisque. 1882. Familiar Studies of Men and Books. 1882.
New Arabian Nights. 1883. Treasure Island. 1885. Prince Otto. 1885. A
Child's Garden of Verses. 1885. More New Arabian Nights. The
Dynamiter. 1886. Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. 1886.
Kidnapped. 1887. The Merry Men. 1887. Memories and Portraits. 1888.
The Black Arrow. 1889. The Master of Ballantrae. (A few copies
privately printed in 1888.) 1889. The Wrong Box. 1890. Father Damien.
1892. Across the Plains. 1892. The Wrecker. 1893. Island Nights'
Entertainments. 1893. Catriona. 1894. The Ebb Tide. 1895. Vailima
Letters. 1896. Weir of Hermiston. 1898. St. Ives. 1899. Letters, Two
Volumes.
NOTE. The Edinburgh Edition of the _works_, in twenty-eight
volumes, is often referred to by bibliographers; it can now be obtained
only at second-hand bookshops, or at auction sales. The best complete
edition on the market is the _Thistle Edition_, in twenty-six volumes,
including the Life and the _Letters_, published by Charles Scribner's
Sons, New York.
WORKS ON STEVENSON
_Life of Robert Louis Stevenson_, by Graham Balfour. 1901. Two
Volumes. _This is the standard Life, and indispensable._
_Robert Louis Stevenson_, by Henry James, in _Partial Portraits,_
1894. Admirable criticism.
_Robert Louis Stevenson_, by Walter Raleigh. 1895. _An excellent

appreciation of his character and work._
_Robert Louis Stevenson: Personal Memories_, by Edmund Gosse, in
_Critical Kit-Kats,_ 1896. _Entertaining gossip._
_Stevenson's Shrine, The Record of a Pilgrimage_, by Laura Stubbs.
1903. _Very interesting full-page illustrations._
_(For further critical books and articles, which are numerous, consult
Prideaux.)_
ESSAYS OF ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
I
ON THE ENJOYMENT OF UNPLEASANT PLACES
It is a difficult matter[1] to make the most of any given place, and we
have much in our own power. Things looked at patiently from one side
after another generally end by showing a side that is beautiful. A few
months ago some words were said in the Portfolio as to an "austere
regimen in scenery"; and such a discipline was then recommended as
"healthful and strengthening to the taste." That is the text, so to speak,
of the present essay. This discipline in scenery,[2] it must be
understood, is something more than a mere walk before breakfast to
whet the appetite. For when we are put down in some unsightly
neighborhood, and especially if we have come to be more or less
dependent on what we see, we must set ourselves to hunt out beautiful
things with all the ardour and patience of a botanist after a rare plant.
Day by day we perfect ourselves in the art of seeing nature more
favourably. We learn to live with her, as people learn to live with
fretful or violent spouses: to dwell lovingly on what is good, and shut
our eyes against all that is bleak or inharmonious. We learn, also, to
come to each place in the right spirit. The traveller, as Brantôme
quaintly tells us, "_fait des discours en soi pour se soutenir en
chemin_";[3] and into these discourses he weaves something out of all
that he sees and suffers by the way; they take their tone greatly from
the varying character of the scene; a sharp ascent brings different
thoughts from a level road; and the man's fancies grow lighter as he
comes out of the wood into a clearing. Nor does the scenery any more
affect the thoughts than the thoughts affect the scenery. We see places
through our humours as though differently colored