This is the point of view from which Stevenson writes as a novelist; you can feel it even in a romance as romantic as _Prince Otto_; and in his essays, where he speaks directly and in the first person, this way of taking life as an adventure for the valourous and faithful comes out yet more distinctly. The grace and vigour of his diction, the pointed quality of his style, the wit of his comment on men and books, add to the persuasiveness of his teaching. I can see no reason why morality should be drab and dull. It was not so in Stevenson’s character, nor is it so in his books. That is one reason why they are companionable. “There is nothing in it [the world],” wrote he to a friend, “but the moral side—but the great battle and the breathing times with their refreshments. I see no more and no less. And if you look again, it is not ugly, and it is filled with promise.” FOOTNOTES [1] _Syllabus Scriptorum Veterum Recentiumque qui Veritatem Religionis Christianæ Asseruerunt_: Hamburg, 1725. [2] _The Poetry of Tennyson._ Scribner’s: New York, 1889-1920. [3] Smith, Elder & Co.: London, 1880. [4] _The Bible in Browning._ Macmillan: New York, 1903. [5] “The Works of Mr. Abraham Cowley.” London, 1710. Preface to _Pindarique Odes_, volume I, page 184. [6] Lowth, _De Sacra Poesi Hebræorum Praelectiones_. Oxon., 1753. [7] _English Odes_, selected by Edmund Gosse. Preface, page xiii. [8] _The Book of Psalms._ 2 volumes, London, 1883. Volume I, page 82. [9] Joseph Addison, 1712. [10] Reverend A. H. Strong, _The Great Poets and their Theology_, p. 384. [11] John Jay Chapman, _Emerson and Other Essays_, p. 195. [12] J. H. Nettleship, _Robert Browning, Essays and Thoughts_, p. 292. [13] Miss Vida D. Scudder, _The Life of the Spirit in Modern English Poets_. [14] Epilogue to _Dramatis Personæ_. [15] Cheney, _The Golden Guess_, p. 143. [16] _Memoir of Alfred Lord Tennyson_, vol. II, p. 230. [17] _Asolando_, “Reverie.” [18] J. J. Chapman, _Emerson, and Other Essays_. [19] I am haunted by the notion that Johnson himself said this, but I cannot find the passage for quotation. End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Companionable Books, by Henry van Dyke