Lay Morals, and Other PapersStevenson, Robert Louis
Philosophy
Lay Morals, and Other Papers
Stevenson, Robert Louis
Essays; Short stories
As you continue to look at these pictures, about an inch square for the
most part, sometimes printed three or more to the page, and each having a
printed legend of its own, however trivial the event recorded, you will
soon become aware of two things: first, that the man can draw, and,
second, that he possesses the gift of an imagination. ‘Obstinate
reviles,’ says the legend; and you should see Obstinate reviling. ‘He
warily retraces his steps’; and there is Christian, posting through the
plain, terror and speed in every muscle. ‘Mercy yearns to go’ shows you
a plain interior with packing going forward, and, right in the middle,
Mercy yearning to go—every line of the girl’s figure yearning. In ‘The
Chamber called Peace’ we see a simple English room, bed with white
curtains, window valance and door, as may be found in many thousand
unpretentious houses; but far off, through the open window, we behold the
sun uprising out of a great plain, and Christian hails it with his hand:
‘Where am I now! is this the love and care
Of Jesus, for the men that pilgrims are!
Thus to provide! That I should be forgiven!
And dwell already the next door to heaven!’
A page or two further, from the top of the House Beautiful, the damsels
point his gaze toward the Delectable Mountains: ‘The Prospect,’ so the
cut is ticketed—and I shall be surprised, if on less than a square inch
of paper you can show me one so wide and fair. Down a cross road on an
English plain, a cathedral city outlined on the horizon, a hazel shaw
upon the left, comes Madam Wanton dancing with her fair enchanted cup,
and Faithful, book in hand, half pauses. The cut is perfect as a symbol;
the giddy movement of the sorceress, the uncertain poise of the man
struck to the heart by a temptation, the contrast of that even plain of
life whereon he journeys with the bold, ideal bearing of the wanton—the
artist who invented and portrayed this had not merely read Bunyan, he had
also thoughtfully lived. The Delectable Mountains—I continue skimming
the first part—are not on the whole happily rendered. Once, and once
only, the note is struck, when Christian and Hopeful are seen coming,
shoulder-high, through a thicket of green shrubs—box, perhaps, or
perfumed nutmeg; while behind them, domed or pointed, the hills stand
ranged against the sky. A little further, and we come to that
masterpiece of Bunyan’s insight into life, the Enchanted Ground; where,
in a few traits, he has set down the latter end of such a number of the
would-be good; where his allegory goes so deep that, to people looking
seriously on life, it cuts like satire. The true significance of this
invention lies, of course, far out of the way of drawing; only one
feature, the great tedium of the land, the growing weariness in
well-doing, may be somewhat represented in a symbol. The pilgrims are
near the end: ‘Two Miles Yet,’ says the legend. The road goes ploughing
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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