Collected works > Edinburgh edition, 1894-98 - Works of Robert Louis Stevenson > Volume 11, 1895 - Miscellanies, Volume III

II
CRABBED AGE AND YOUTH
''You know my mother now and then argues very notably; always
very warmly at least. I happen often to differ from her ; and we both
think so well of our own arguments, that we very seldom are so happy
as to convince one another. A pretty common case, I believe, in all
vehement debatings. She says, I am too witty ; Anglice, too pert ; I, that
she is too wise ; that is to say, being likewise put into English, not so
young as she has been.' — Miss Howe to Miss Harlowe, Clarissa, vol. ii.
Letter xiii.
There is a strong feeling in favour of cowardly and
prudential proverbs. The sentiments of a man while
he is full of ardour and hope are to be received, it
is supposed, with some qualification. But when the
same person has ignominiously failed, and begins to
eat up his words, he should be listened to like an
oracle. Most of our pocket wisdom is conceived for
the use of mediocre people, to discourage them from
ambitious attempts, and generally console them in
their mediocrity. And since mediocre people con-
stitute the bulk of humanity, this is no doubt very
properly so. But it does not follow that the one
sort of proposition is any less true than the other,
or that Icarus is not to be more praised, and perhaps
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