Stephenson: The Ettrick Shepherd 93 



fiddle, but who in the end turns out to be the main figure of 

 the book. At the last this figure disappears and the whole 

 climax of Part 1 is repeated. 



Part 3 is another editorial narrative, very brief, which tries 

 to make the whole seem real but adds little that is new to the 

 story. When all is said, what does the book amount to ? One 

 need not dwell here on the power of individual parts. The 

 conception of the whole volume should engage our attention. 

 The two great figures are the Fanatic and his double. The 

 weakness, or strength, of the book, lies in the fact that the 

 events are set forth as they occurred — for the time being there 

 can be no doubt of that — but the author does not play the part 

 of chorus. Did Stevenson get the idea of Jekijl and Hyde 

 from this work of his countryman? The answer is idle, but 

 at times one is tempted to believe that the whole situation of 

 the latter story is there set down in the fullest detail. But 

 we are not sure. Again, one is tempted to believe that the 

 story contains nothing but a study of a particular case of 

 insanity in which the double is the result of the fanatic's 

 hallucinations; yet we are at once confronted by the ocular 

 testimony of other people who had seen both persons at the 

 same time. Or are we to take literally the belief that is at- 

 tributed to the common folk of the neighborhood: that this 

 person is actually the devil who compasseth all the earth to 

 win one soul to hell ? He possesses certain supernatural qual- 

 ities, such as coming and going at will in opposition to the 

 laws of nature; and he possesses the ghastly quality of being 

 able to look into one's face, to read his mind completely, and 

 as a result so to identify himself with that person that he 

 loses his own outward resemblance and assumes the other's. 

 In this way he goes about committing crimes in the other per- 

 son's name. 



The present writer acknowledges the wonderful power dis- 

 played in this book but hazards no opinion as to its meaning 

 because he believes that none is correct. As will be recalled 

 from a former chapter, Hogg was essentially a reporter, an 

 iniitator, with a dreamy sort of imagination, prolific, but not 

 under control. If we judge from a careful study of Hogg's 

 other work, we feel sure that Hogg heard this story, or 

 dreamed it out in all its vividness of detail, and that he then 

 set it down without having more than a partial idea himself 



