belie 



livinr now can pretend to 

 with any such authority as 



speak of tfc^ 

 mine." 



But Henley did not stop there. He con- 

 tinued: "At bottom Stevenson was an ex- 

 cellent fellow. But he was of his esse~ce 

 what the French call personnel. He was, 

 that is, Incessantly and passionately Inter- 

 'ested in Stevenson. He could not tie in 

 the saine room with a mirror but he must 

 invite its confidences every time h? passed 

 it; to him there was no hing obv ous in 

 time and eternity, and the smallest of his 

 discoveries, his most trivial apprehensions, 

 were ail by way of being revelations, and 

 as revelations must be thrust upon the 

 world; he was never so much in earnest, 

 never so well pleased (this were he happy 

 or wretched), never so irresistible, as when 

 he wrote about himself. Withal, if he 

 -wanted a thing he went after it with an 

 entire contempt for consequences. For 

 these, indeed, the Shorter Catechist was 

 ever prepared to answer; so that whether 

 he did well or ill, he was safe to come 

 out unabashed and cheerful." It wa for- 

 ,get the lengths to wh ch the Stevenson 



idolators were wont to go. we wonder 

 what there is so terrlb'e in all this. U I 

 frgcik. but it Is the truth, and it is not 

 unkind. But the Stevenson idolators would 

 not allow the truth even to be whispered 

 and therefore Henley was anathema there- 

 after. Upon many of the phases of t„,„ 

 controversy we have Mr. Hellman to tlKink 

 for setting us aright. 



Tn substance, manner and form. Mr. Hell- 

 man's book will be an addition to any Ste- 

 venson library, which to the assiduous col- 

 lector mn.«t he srrowina: hy leans i 

 hounds. Mr. . Hellman's previous work In 

 She collection of hitherto unpublished poem.s 

 by Stevenson issufd by The Bibliophile So- 

 ciety in lOlfi has put h<m In a foremost 

 place among Stevenson authorities, and to 

 these pages he has added a number of valu- 

 able illustrations and facsimile ma; 

 scripts, including a reprint of the hand- 

 some title page to that edition, and repro- 

 ductions of several drawings from the pen- 

 cil of Stevenson himself. 



A Portrait of ■ Scotchman 'w nting, Dra^vn by Dtcveuao; 



from One of His Undes 



1 The True StevTlsnn. A Study tti Oarmi-atlon. 

 I By Heorge S. Hellman. Boston I I.ittlo, Brown I 

 1 1, Company. | 



