Collected works > Edinburgh edition, 1894-98 - Works of Robert Louis Stevenson > Volume 5, 1895 - Miscellanies, Volume II

MEN AND BOOKS
of bread. On a first reading, the pathetic passages
pre-occupy the reader, and he is cheated out of an
alms in the shape of sympathy. But when the thing
is studied the illusion fades away : in the transitions,
above all, we can detect the evil, ironical temper of
the man ; and instead of a flighty work, where many
crude but genuine feelings tumble together for the
mastery as in the Hsts of tournament, we are tempted
to think of the Large Testament as of one long-
drawn epical grimace, pulled by a merry-andrew,
who has found a certain despicable eminence over
human respect and human affections by perching
himself astride upon the gallows. Between these
two views, at best, all temperate judgments will be
found to fall ; and rather, as I imagine, towards the
last.
There were two things on which he felt with
perfect and, in one case, even threatening sincerity.
The first of these was an undisguised envy of those
richer than himself He was for ever drawing a
parallel, already exemplified from his own words,
between the happy life of the well-to-do and the
miseries of the poor. Burns, too proud and honest
not to work, continued through all reverses to sing
of poverty with a light, defiant note. Beranger
waited till he was himself beyond the reach of want
before writing the Old Vagabond or Jacques. Samuel
Johnson, although he was very sorry to be poor,
' was a great arguer for the advantages of poverty '
in his ill days. Thus it is that brave men carry their
crosses, and smile with the fox burrowing in their
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