From them Robert Louis Stevenson inherited that tenacity
of purpose which made him write and rewrite chapters till his
phrases concisely expressed his meaning, and toilsomely labour till
his work was perfected. His minister grandfather he etched with the
"Old Manse." All his mother's people, the Balfours, were of a
sanguine, hopeful strain, retaining an elasticity of spirit which
never lessened under the burden of years. Stevenson writes of "that
wise youth, my uncle," who was a grey-bearded doctor when his nephew
thus referred to him. So from the daughter of the Herd of Men at
Colinton he inherited his perennial youthfulness. "He was ever the
spirit of boyhood," says Barrie, "tugging at the skirts of this old
world, and compelling it to come back and play."
It was well for the boy that his mother had gifted him with her
hopeful nature, for his father had Celtic traits in his character,
and was oppressed with a morbid sense of his own unworthiness. It is
Carlyle who vouches for the fact "that wondrous is the strength of
cheerfulness, altogether past calculation its power of endurance.
Pages:
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29