Transcribed from 1904 Chatto & Windus edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org Second proof by Margaret Price [Picture: Picture of Pan by a river, by Walter Crane] AN INLAND VOYAGE BY ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON [Picture: Decorative graphic] A NEW EDITION WITH A FRONTISPIECE BY WALTER CRANE * * * * * LONDON CHATTO & WINDUS 1904 * * * * * ‘Thus sang they in the English boat.’ MARVELL. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION TO equip so small a book with a preface is, I am half afraid, to sin against proportion. But a preface is more than an author can resist, for it is the reward of his labours. When the foundation stone is laid, the architect appears with his plans, and struts for an hour before the public eye. So with the writer in his preface: he may have never a word to say, but he must show himself for a moment in the portico, hat in hand, and with an urbane demeanour. It is best, in such circumstances, to represent a delicate shade of manner between humility and superiority: as if the book had been written by some one else, and you had merely run over it and inserted what was good. But for my part I have not yet learned the trick to that perfection; I am not yet able to dissemble the warmth of my sentiments towards a reader; and if I meet him on the threshold, it is to invite him in with country cordiality. To say truth, I had no sooner finished reading this little book in proof, than I was seized upon by a distressing apprehension. It occurred to me that I might not only be the first to read these pages, but the last as well; that I might have pioneered this very smiling tract of country all in vain, and find not a soul to follow in my steps. The more I thought, the more I disliked the notion; until the distaste grew into a sort of panic terror, and I rushed into this Preface, which is no more than an advertisement for readers. What am I to say for my book? Caleb and Joshua brought back from Palestine a formidable bunch of grapes; alas! my book produces naught so nourishing; and for the matter of that, we live in an age when people prefer a definition to any quantity of fruit.