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

MEN AND BOOKS
discomforts that will accompany my being blind, the
good God prepare me.'
A LIBERAL GENIUS
Pepys spent part of a certain winter Sunday, when
he had taken physic, composing ' a song in praise of
a liberal genius (such as I take my own to be) to all
studies and pleasures.' The song was unsuccessful,
but the Diary is, in a sense, the very song that he
was seeking ; and his portrait by Hales, so admirably
reproduced in Mynors Bright's edition, is a confirma-
tion of the Diary. Hales, it would appear, had
known his business ; and though he put his sitter to
a deal of trouble, almost breaking his neck ' to have
the portrait full of shadows,' and draping him in an
Indian gown hired expressly for the purpose, he was
pre-occupied about no merely picturesque effects,
but to portray the essence of the man. Whether we
read the picture by the Diary or the Diary by the
picture, we shall at least agree that Hales was among
the number of those who can * surprise the manners
in the face.' Here we have a mouth pouting, moist
with desires ; eyes greedy, protuberant, and yet apt
for weeping too ; a nose great alike in character and
dimensions ; and altogether a most fleshly, melting
countenance. The face is attractive by its promise
of reciprocity. I have used the word greedy, but
the reader must not suppose that he can change it
for that closely kindred one of hungry, for there is
here no aspiration, no waiting for better things, but
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