Non-Fiction > Books > London, 1881 - Virginibus Puerisque, and other papers
(308) Page 294
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294 ^ Plea for Gas Lamps.
city flashes into vision — a glittering hieroglyph
many square miles in extent ; and when, to
borrow and debase an image, all the evening
street-lamps burst together into song ! Such is
the spectacle of the future, preluded the other
day by the experiment in Pall Mall. Star-rise
by electricity, the most romantic flight of civili-
zation ; the compensatory benefit for an in-
numerable array of factories and bankers' clerks.
To the artistic spirit exercised about Thirlmere,
here is a crumb of consolation ; consolatory, at
least, to such of them as look out upon the
world through seeing eyes, and contentedly
accept beauty where it comes.
But the conservative, while lauding progress,
is ever timid of innovation ; his is the hand
upheld to counsel pause ; his is the signal ad-
vising slow advance. The word electricity now
sounds the note of danger. In Paris, at the
mouth of the Passage des Princes, in the place
before the Opera portico, and in the Rue
city flashes into vision — a glittering hieroglyph
many square miles in extent ; and when, to
borrow and debase an image, all the evening
street-lamps burst together into song ! Such is
the spectacle of the future, preluded the other
day by the experiment in Pall Mall. Star-rise
by electricity, the most romantic flight of civili-
zation ; the compensatory benefit for an in-
numerable array of factories and bankers' clerks.
To the artistic spirit exercised about Thirlmere,
here is a crumb of consolation ; consolatory, at
least, to such of them as look out upon the
world through seeing eyes, and contentedly
accept beauty where it comes.
But the conservative, while lauding progress,
is ever timid of innovation ; his is the hand
upheld to counsel pause ; his is the signal ad-
vising slow advance. The word electricity now
sounds the note of danger. In Paris, at the
mouth of the Passage des Princes, in the place
before the Opera portico, and in the Rue
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Early editions of Robert Louis Stevenson > Non-Fiction > Books > Virginibus Puerisque, and other papers > (308) Page 294 |
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Permanent URL | https://digital.nls.uk/82676158 |
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Form / genre: |
Written and printed matter > Books |
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Dates / events: |
1881 [Date published] |
Places: |
Europe >
United Kingdom >
England >
Greater London >
London
(inhabited place) [Place published] |
Subject / content: |
Collections (object groupings) Essays |
Person / organisation: |
Stevenson, Robert Louis, 1850-1894 [Author] C. Kegan Paul & Co. [Publisher] |
Person / organisation: |
Stevenson, Robert Louis, 1850-1894 [Author] |
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