Stevenson and California. 



117 



ing. None of it, moreover, was of that creative order 

 by which Stevenson's name is to endure in the world. 

 But it is pure Hterature, sane and sound as the heart that 

 made it, and of the very best of its kind ever attempted 

 here. We are eager and proud to claim him as our own. 

 Short as was his sojourn with us, for him it was mo- 

 mentous, fateful, in a certain sense determining all his 

 subsequent career; and for us memorable as the visit of 

 an angel whom we entertained unawares, — an angel who, 

 as he left us, bore away with him gifts which he never 

 ceased to prize as the most precious things in his life, 

 and who, as a souvenir of his visit, sent us from afar this 

 little casket of gems which not even the splendor of his 

 greater works can make us Californians undervalue. And 

 this gift draws us by a stronger compulsion than is laid 

 on any others of our countrymen to love and admire that 

 gentle spirit whom long trial proved to be 



"One equal temper of heroic heart. 

 Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will 

 To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield." 



