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

PROFESSION OF LETTERS
the evil and sorrow of the present, to move us with
instances ; he should tell of wise and good people in
the past, to excite us by example ; and of these he
should tell soberly and truthfully, not glossing faults,
that we may neither grow discouraged with ourselves
nor exacting to our neighbours. So the body of
contemporary literature, ephemeral and feeble in
itself, touches in the minds of men the springs of
thought and kindness, and supports them (for those
who will go at all are easily supported) on their way
to what is true and right. And if, in any degree, it
does so now, how much more might it do so if the
writers chose ! There is not a life in all the records
of the past but, properly studied, might lend a hint
and a help to some contemporary. There is not a
juncture in to-day's affairs but some useful word
may yet be said of it. Even the reporter has an
office, and, with clear eyes and honest language, may
unveil injustices and point the way to progress.
And for a last word : in all narration there is only
one way to be clever, and that is to be exact. To
be vivid is a secondary quality which must pre-
suppose the first ; for vividly to convey a wrong
impression is only to make failure conspicuous.
But a fact may be viewed on many sides ; it may
be chronicled with rage, tears, laughter, indifference,
or admiration, and by each of these the story will
be transformed to something else. The newspapers
that told of the return of our representatives from
Berlin, even if they had not differed as to the facts,
would have sufficiently diffei'ed by their spirit ; so
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