3G Sir Sidney Colvin [Feb. 10, 



as he was often forbidden to do except by signs and written notes for 

 weeks together. And he continued indefatigably to work, work, work ; 

 delighting more than ever in his art, more than ever unwearied in 

 his efforts to come within sight of his unattainable ideal. His mind 

 was always humming with projects for romances, dramas, treatises on 

 criticism and on ethics, more than could be accomplished in the life- 

 time of ten men unhampered by illness. Five-sixths of such ])rojects 

 came to nought, as they needs must ; but the amount actually carried 

 through seemed a miracle, given the conditions under which he 

 wrought. These seven years were the years of " Treasure Island," 

 the masterpiece among boys' books since " Robinson Crusoe " : 

 these were the years of " Prince Otto," that highly wrought piece of 

 mariva'udage, with its artificial Court comedy intrigue suddenly taken 

 out from the palace into the open night, suddenly bathed and trans- 

 formed in the sweet influences of starlight and the forest dcAvs : they 

 were the years of the " Child's Garden," those verses in which, at 

 moments of physical slackness and fatigue, the undying child in 

 Stevenson awoke and piped : of " Kidnapped," that truncated but 

 none the less masterly romance of Highland and Lowland character, 

 of the fatigues and straits of hunted men, of friendship strained for 

 an hour and in the end strengthened by the strain. Lastly, these 

 were the days of " Jekyll and Hyde," in which the vulgar art of the 

 bloodcurdler is tuned up and strengthened to the production of a 

 parable speaking thrillingly to the general heart and conscience. 



" Treasure Island " had appealed to a wide circle of readers. 

 " Kidnapped " appealed to a much wider ; " Jekyll and Hyde " to a 

 much wider still. By the success of these last two books Stevenson 

 seemed, in his thirty-sixth year, to be assured of fame and competence. 

 But health was farther off than ever. The death of his father broke 

 the strongest tie which bound him to this country : the doctors 

 urged a complete change. His wife's connections pointing to tlie 

 west, he sailed with his remaining family in August 1887, his friends 

 waving to him what they were spared the pain of knowing were their 

 last farewells as the ship unmoored from Tilbury dock. Tlien came 

 a cheerless but tonic winter in the Adirondacks, with the " Master of 

 Ballantrae" and the essays of the "Lantern Bearers" and " Pulvis 

 et Umbra " series for its chief fruits : then the determination to try 

 a cruise in the Pacific Islands, the longing for which had lurked in 

 his heart for a dozen years, ever since in a troubled hour at Edinburgh 

 a guest in his father's house from New Zealand had told him of the 

 healing power of those scenes and climates. Then followed the 

 enchantments of tlie cruise itself, the sense of returning vigour, 

 the rush of new^ interests ; the renewed failure of health at Sydney ; 

 the purchase of a plot of forest land on the mountain side in Samoa ; 

 the determination to make his home there ; the settlement, the 

 clearing, the building, the happiness of a recovered capacity for 

 outdoor life, the gathering about him of a devoted household, almost 



