1875AS ADVOCATE frontispieceAN EDINBURGH STUDENT page thirty-twoTHE TELLER OF TALES page forty-eight1892PORTRAIT PAINTED BY COUNT NERLI IN SAMOAReproduced by kind permission of Mrs. Turnbull page sixty-four
The publishers desire to announce that it is their purpose tocomprise in this series a collection of little books uniform ingeneral style and appearance to the present volume and having fortheir subjects men and women, whose work and influence, in whateverfield of literature or art was their chosen one, may be said tofaintly reflect the spirit or tendencies of cultivated thought atthe present time.
The treatment of the subject matter will not be conventional, thechief aim being to present to the readers a living, marchingpersonality breathing with the individuality characteristic of theperson.
Volume I of this series is Whistler
by Haldane Macfall
Volume II, Robert Louis Stevenson
by Eve Blantyre Simpson
Additional volumes to be announced shortly.
"A spirit all sunshine, graceful from
every gladness, useful because
bright." Carlyle.
The mother of Robert Louis Stevenson, when asked to inscribe a mottoon a guest list, wrote:—
"The world is so full of a number of things,
I am sure we should all be happy as kings."
"That," she said, "includes the whole gospel of R. L. S." Theselines are certainly a concise statement of the spirit in which herson undertook to expound the benefits to be derived from "performingour petty round of irritating concerns and duties with laughter andkind faces." Before he could walk steadily, it had been discoveredhe was heavily handicapped by the burden of ill-health. Still thegood fairy who came to his christening endowed him with "sweetcontent," a gift which carried him triumphantly through allhampering difficulties. He never faltered in the task he sethimself—the task of happiness. He began to preach his gospel as achild. He would not have his tawdry toy sword disparaged even by hisfather. "I tell you," he said, "the sword is of gold, the sheath ofsilver, and the boy who has it is quite contented." In the samemanner he transformed a coddling shawl into a wrap fit for a soldieron a night march. To t