Selected Essays Of Robert Louis Stevenson

PREFACE

THE Editor who sets out to make a representative selection
from Stevenson's Essays is compelled to be ruthless, He
must perforce harden his heart to the sacrifice of many
old and treasured companions, And the question arises
—which ? Fortunately, we have the author's own opinion
to guide us. Writing to Sir Sidney Colvin from Vailima,
he makes the following choice; £ I wiH accept Child's Play
and Pan's Pipes. Then I want Pastoral, The Manse, The
Islet— Then the portrait of Robert Hunter— Beggars,
sections 1 and 2, Random Memories II m& Lantern Bearers!
To these I have added the first section dA College Magazine,
on account of the light which it throws on Stevenson's
apprenticeship in the profession of Letters; Boob which
have influenced m, for a similar reason; Idling in Love
;and Aes Triplex, without which no volume of selections
could possibly be complete; A Christmas Sermon, an
epitome of Stevenson's philosophy of life and perhaps the
most characteristic of all his essays; An Aplogy for Idlers;
Pulws et Umbra; and My First Book; ' Treasure Island?
because each one has something to teach us of Stevenson's
art,

E. G. EAWLINSON,

DEAEWAR,
May 1923,