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Memories and Portraits



by Robert Louis Stevenson












NOTE





THIS volume of papers; unconnected as they are; it will be better 

to read through from the beginning; rather than dip into at random。  

A certain thread of meaning binds them。  Memories of childhood and 

youth; portraits of those who have gone before us in the battle … 

taken together; they build up a face that 〃I have loved long since 

and lost awhile;〃 the face of what was once myself。  This has come 

by accident; I had no design at first to be autobiographical; I was 

but led away by the charm of beloved memories and by regret for the 

irrevocable dead; and when my own young face (which is a face of 

the dead also) began to appear in the well as by a kind of magic; I 

was the first to be surprised at the occurrence。



My grandfather the pious child; my father the idle eager 

sentimental youth; I have thus unconsciously exposed。  Of their 

descendant; the person of to…day; I wish to keep the secret: not 

because I love him better; but because; with him; I am still in a 

business partnership; and cannot divide interests。



Of the papers which make up the volume; some have appeared already 

in THE CORNHILL; LONGMAN'S; SCRIBNER; THE ENGLISH ILLUSTRATED; THE 

MAGAZINE OF ART; THE CONTEMPORARY REVIEW; three are here in print 

for the first time; and two others have enjoyed only what may he 

regarded as a private circulation。



R。 L S。







CONTENTS





I。    THE FOREIGNER AT HOME

II。   SOME COLLEGE MEMORIES

III。  OLD MORALITY

IV。   A COLLEGE MAGAZINE

V。    AN OLD SCOTCH GARDENER

VI。   PASTORAL

VII。  THE MANSE

VIII。 MEMORIES OF AN ISLET

IX。   THOMAS STEVENSON

X。    TALK AND TALKERS: FIRST PAPER

XI。   TALK AND TALKERS: SECOND PAPER

XII。  THE CHARACTER OF DOGS

XIII。 〃A PENNY PLAIN AND TWOPENCE COLOURED〃

XIV。  A GOSSIP ON A NOVEL OF DUMAS'S

XV。   A GOSSIP ON ROMANCE

XVI。  A HUMBLE REMONSTRANCE









CHAPTER I。 THE FOREIGNER AT HOME





〃This is no my ain house;

I ken by the biggin' o't。〃



Two recent books (1) one by Mr。 Grant White on England; one on 

France by the diabolically clever Mr。 Hillebrand; may well have set 

people thinking on the divisions of races and nations。  Such 

thoughts should arise with particular congruity and force to 

inhabitants of that United Kingdom; peopled from so many different 

stocks; babbling so many different dialects; and offering in its 

extent such singular contrasts; from the busiest over…population to 

the unkindliest desert; from the Black Country to the Moor of 

Rannoch。  It is not only when we cross the seas that we go abroad; 

there are foreign parts of England; and the race that has conquered 

so wide an empire has not yet managed to assimilate the islands 

whence she sprang。  Ireland; Wales; and the Scottish mountains 

still cling; in part; to their old Gaelic speech。  It was but the 

other day that English triumphed in Cornwall; and they still show 

in Mousehole; on St。 Michael's Bay; the house of the last Cornish…

speaking woman。  English itself; which will now frank the traveller 

through the most of North America; through the greater South Sea 

Islands; in India; along much of the coast of Africa; and in the 

ports of China and Japan; is still to be heard; in its home 

country; in half a hundred varying stages of transition。  You may 

go all over the States; and … setting aside the actual intrusion 

and influence of foreigners; negro; French; or Chinese … you shall 

scarce meet with so marked a difference of accent as in the forty 

miles between Edinburgh and Glasgow; or of dialect as in the 

hundred miles between Edinburgh and Aberdeen。  Book English has 

gone round the world; but at home we still preserve the racy idioms 

of our fathers; and every county; in some parts every dale; has its 

own quality of speech; vocal or verbal。  In like manner; local 

custom and prejudice; even local religion and local law; linger on 

into the latter end of the nineteenth century … IMPERIA IN IMPERIO; 

foreign things at home。



In spite of these promptings to reflection; ignorance of his 

neighbours is the character of the typical John Bull。  His is a 

domineering nature; steady in fight; imperious to command; but 

neither curious nor quick about the life of others。  In French 

colonies; and still more in the Dutch; I have read that there is an 

immediate and lively contact between the dominant and the dominated 

race; that a certain sympathy is begotten; or at the least a 

transfusion of prejudices; making life easier for both。  But the 

Englishman sits apart; bursting with pride and ignorance。  He 

figures among his vassal in the hour of peace with the same 

disdainful air that led him on to victory。  A passing enthusiasm 

for some foreign art or fashion may deceive the world; it cannot 

impose upon his intimates。  He may be amused by a foreigner as by a 

monkey; but he will never condescend to study him with any 

patience。  Miss Bird; an authoress with whom I profess myself in 

love; declares all the viands of Japan to be uneatable … a 

staggering pretension。  So; when the Prince of Wales's marriage was 

celebrated at Mentone by a dinner to the Mentonese; it was proposed 

to give them solid English fare … roast beef and plum pudding; and 

no tomfoolery。  Here we have either pole of the Britannic folly。  

We will not eat the food of any foreigner; nor; when we have the 

chance; will we eager him to eat of it himself。  The same spirit 

inspired Miss Bird's American missionaries; who had come thousands 

of miles to change the faith of Japan; and openly professed their 

ignorance of the religions they were trying to supplant。



I quote an American in this connection without scruple。  Uncle Sam 

is better than John Bull; but he is tarred with the English stick。  

For Mr。 Grant White the States are the New England States and 

nothing more。  He wonders at the amount of drinking in London; let 

him try San Francisco。  He wittily reproves English ignorance as to 

the status of women in America; but has he not himself forgotten 

Wyoming?  The name Yankee; of which he is so tenacious; is used 

over the most of the great Union as a term of reproach。  The Yankee 

States; of which he is so staunch a subject; are but a drop in the 

bucket。  And we find in his book a vast virgin ignorance of the 

life and prospects of America; every view partial; parochial; not 

raised to the horizon; the moral feeling proper; at the largest; to 

a clique of states; and the whole scope and atmosphere not 

American; but merely Yankee。  I will go far beyond him in 

reprobating the assumption and the incivility of my countryfolk to 

their cousins from beyond the sea; I grill in my blood over the 

silly rudeness of our newspaper articles; and I do not know where 

to look when I find myself in company with an American and see my 

countrymen unbending to him as to a performing dog。  But in the 

case of Mr。 Grant White example were better than precept。  Wyoming 

is; after all; more readily accessible to Mr。 White than Boston to 

the English; and the New England self…sufficiency no better 

justified than the Britannic。



It is so; perhaps; in all countries; perhaps in all; men are most 

ignorant of the foreigners at home。  John Bull is ignorant of the 

States; he is probably ignorant of India; but considering his 

opportunities; he is far more ignorant of countries nearer his own 

door。  There is one country; for instance … its frontier not so far 

from London; its people closely akin; its language the same in all 

essentials with the English … of which I will go bail he knows 

nothing。  His ignorance of the sister kingdom cannot be described; 

it can only be illustrated by anecdote。  I once travelled with a 

man of plausible manners and good intelligence … a University man; 

as the phrase goes … a man; besides; who had taken his degree in 

life and knew a thing or two about the age we live in。  We were 

deep in talk; whirling between Peterborough and London; among other 

things; he began to describe some piece of legal injustice he had 

recently encountered; and I observed in my innocence that things 

were not so in Scotland。  〃I beg your pardon;〃 said he; 〃this is a 

matter of law。〃  He had never heard of the Scots law; nor did he 

choose to be informed。  The law was the same for the whole country; 

he told me roundly; every child knew that。  At last; to settle 

matters; I explained to him that I was a member of a Scottish legal 

body; and had stood the brunt of an examination in the very law in 

question。  Thereupon he looked me for a moment full in the face and 

dropped the conversation。  This is a monstrous instance; if you 

like; but it does not stand alone in the experience of Scots。



England and Scotland differ; indeed; in law; in history; in 

religion; in education

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