These devotional exercises of his have been quoted by the "unco
guid" to make him into what Henley severely styled "a Seraph in
Chocolate, a barley-sugar effigy of a real man." The religious faith
of Stevenson was the same as Ben Adhem's in Leigh Hunt's poem, who,
when he found his name was not among those who loved the Lord,
cheerily asked the angel to write him as one who loved his fellow-
men. The heavenly messenger returned
"And showed the names whom love of God had blessed,"
And "lo! Ben Adhem's led all the rest"
To Stevenson, throughout his life, all the world was truly a stage.
He went gaily along playing his part, and when he came to Samoa, he,
on whose brows the dews of youth still sparkled, gleefully revelled
in the pomp and circumstance which allow him to make believe he was
a chieftain. He could go flower-bedecked and garlanded without
comment in among his adopted subjects. He paid deference to Samoan
codes of manners, a thing he had scorned to do in his native land.
All his life he indulged in too few relaxations.
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