Robert Louis Stevenson, 1850-1894 Robert Louis Stevenson composite image

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

(157) Page 141

‹‹‹ prev (156) Page 140Page 140

(158) next ››› Page 142Page 142

(157) Page 141 -
THE ENGLISH ADMIRALS
cheers, and cried ' God bless the king ! ' Now, one
or two of those who were in the boat escaped, against
all likelihood, to tell the story. That was a great
thing for us ; but surely it cannot, by any possible
twisting of human speech, be construed into any-
thing great for the marines. You may suppose, if
you like, that they died hoping their behaviour would
not be forgotten ; or you may suppose they thought
nothing on the subject, which is much more likely.
What can be the signification of the word ' fame '
to a private of marines, who cannot read, and knows
nothing of past history beyond the reminiscences of
his grandmother ? But whichever supposition you
make, the fact is unchanged. They died while the
question still hung in the balance ; and I suppose
their bones were already white, before the winds and
the waves and the humour of Indian chiefs and
Spanish governors had decided whether they were
to be unknown and useless martyrs or honoured
heroes. Indeed, I believe this is the lesson ; if it is
for fame that men do brave actions, they are only
silly fellows after all.
It is at best but a pettifogging, pickthank business
to decompose actions into little personal motives,
and explain heroism away. The Abstract Bagman
will grow like an Admiral at heart, not by ungrate-
ful carping, but in a heat of admiration. But there
is another theory of the personal motive in these
fine sayings and doings, which I believe to be true
and wholesome. People usually do things, and
suffer martyrdoms, because they have an inclination
141

Images and transcriptions on this page, including medium image downloads, may be used under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence unless otherwise stated. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence

Context
Early editions of Robert Louis Stevenson > Collected works > Works of Robert Louis Stevenson > Miscellanies, Volume III > (157) Page 141
(157) Page 141
Permanent URLhttps://digital.nls.uk/90458652
Volume 11, 1895 - Miscellanies, Volume III
DescriptionContents: Virginibus Puerisque; Later Essays: Fontainbleau, Realism*, Style*, Morality*, Books which have Influenced Me, Day after Tomorrow*, Letter to a Young Gentleman, Pulvis, Christmas Sermon, Damien.
ShelfmarkHall.275.a
Additional NLS resources:
Attribution and copyright:
  • The physical item used to create this digital version is out of copyright
Display more information More information
Dates / events: 1895 [Date published]
Subject / content: Essays
Anthologies
Edinburgh edition, 1894-98 - Works of Robert Louis Stevenson
DescriptionEdinburgh edition. Edinburgh: Printed by T. and A. Constable for Longmans Green and Co, 1894-98. [28 volumes in total, only some of which NLS has digitised.]
Display more information More information
Form / genre: Written and printed matter > Books
Dates / events: 1894-1898 [Date printed]
Places: Europe > United Kingdom > Scotland > Edinburgh > Edinburgh (inhabited place) [Place printed]
Subject / content: Collected works
Person / organisation: Chatto & Windus (Firm) [Distributor]
Stevenson, Robert Louis, 1850-1894 [Author]
T. and A. Constable [Printer]
Longmans, Green, and Co. [Publisher]
Colvin, Sidney, 1845-1927 [Editor]
Collected works
Early editions of Robert Louis Stevenson
DescriptionFull text versions of early editions of works by Robert Louis Stevenson. Includes 'Kidnapped', 'The Master of Ballantrae' and other well-known novels, as well as 'Prince Otto', 'Dynamiter' and 'St Ives'. Also early British and American book editions, serialisations of novels in newspapers and literary magazines, and essays by Stevenson.
Display more information More information
Person / organisation: Stevenson, Robert Louis, 1850-1894 [Author]
NLS logo