Excerpt from Essays and Reviews It is to Mr. Colvin that I owe what is perhaps my chief claim to such respect as readers of a periodical may concede to an editor. Through his good offices, Stevenson became one of my contributors, and I may be allowed to boast that, in his case at least, I did not nip rising genius in the bud the feat which, according to some young authors, represents the main desire of the editorial mind. Fate, however, with held from me the privilege of forming such an intimacy as could materially bias my opinions. So far I have a negative qualification for answering the question which so many peo ple are eager to put: what, namely, will posterity think about Stevenson? I am content to leave the point to pos terity; but in trying to sum up my own impressions, cor rected by the judgment of his closer friends and critics, I may contribute to the discussion of the previous questioni what was the species, not what was the degree, of praise which he will receive? Friendly criticism is apt to fail in this direction. Enthusiasts fancy that to define a man's proper sphere is to limit his merits; they assume that other sects are necessarily hostile, and that they must remove one bust from Poet's Corner in order to make room for doing honour to their favourite. Such controversies lead to impossible problems, and attempts to find a common meas ure for disparate qualities. We may surely by this time agree that Tennyson and Browning excelled in difl'erent lines without asking which line was absolutely best. That will always be a matter of individual taste. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.