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Familiar Studies of Men and Books By: Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) |
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Familiar Studies of Men and Books
PREFACE
BY WAY OF CRITICISM. THESE studies are collected from the monthly press. One
appeared in the NEW QUARTERLY, one in MACMILLAN'S, and the
rest in the CORNHILL MAGAZINE. To the CORNHILL I owe a
double debt of thanks; first, that I was received there in
the very best society, and under the eye of the very best of
editors; and second, that the proprietors have allowed me to
republish so considerable an amount of copy. These nine worthies have been brought together from many
different ages and countries. Not the most erudite of men
could be perfectly prepared to deal with so many and such
various sides of human life and manners. To pass a true
judgment upon Knox and Burns implies a grasp upon the very
deepest strain of thought in Scotland, a country far more
essentially different from England than many parts of
America; for, in a sense, the first of these men re created
Scotland, and the second is its most essentially national
production. To treat fitly of Hugo and Villon would involve
yet wider knowledge, not only of a country foreign to the
author by race, history, and religion, but of the growth and
liberties of art. Of the two Americans, Whitman and Thoreau,
each is the type of something not so much realised as widely
sought after among the late generations of their countrymen;
and to see them clearly in a nice relation to the society
that brought them forth, an author would require a large
habit of life among modern Americans. As for Yoshida, I have
already disclaimed responsibility; it was but my hand that
held the pen. In truth, these are but the readings of a literary vagrant.
One book led to another, one study to another. The first was
published with trepidation. Since no bones were broken, the
second was launched with greater confidence. So, by
insensible degrees, a young man of our generation acquires,
in his own eyes, a kind of roving judicial commission through
the ages; and, having once escaped the perils of the Freemans
and the Furnivalls, sets himself up to right the wrongs of
universal history and criticism. Now, it is one thing to
write with enjoyment on a subject while the story is hot in
your mind from recent reading, coloured with recent
prejudice; and it is quite another business to put these
writings coldly forth again in a bound volume. We are most
of us attached to our opinions; that is one of the "natural
affections" of which we hear so much in youth; but few of us
are altogether free from paralysing doubts and scruples. For
my part, I have a small idea of the degree of accuracy
possible to man, and I feel sure these studies teem with
error. One and all were written with genuine interest in the
subject; many, however, have been conceived and finished with
imperfect knowledge; and all have lain, from beginning to
end, under the disadvantages inherent in this style of
writing. Of these disadvantages a word must here be said. The writer
of short studies, having to condense in a few pages the
events of a whole lifetime, and the effect on his own mind of
many various volumes, is bound, above all things, to make
that condensation logical and striking. For the only
justification of his writing at all is that he shall present
a brief, reasoned, and memorable view. By the necessity of
the case, all the more neutral circumstances are omitted from
his narrative; and that of itself, by the negative
exaggeration of which I have spoken in the text, lends to the
matter in hand a certain false and specious glitter. By the
necessity of the case, again, he is forced to view his
subject throughout in a particular illumination, like a
studio artifice. Like Hales with Pepys, he must nearly break
his sitter's neck to get the proper shadows on the portrait.
It is from one side only that he has time to represent his
subject. The side selected will either be the one most
striking to himself, or the one most obscured by controversy;
and in both cases that will be the one most liable to
strained and sophisticated reading... Continue reading book >>
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