eakness..."

Many have found in Stevenson's life an inspiration to overcome
obstacles, to cease complaining, and to bear a message of good cheer.
These lines from his volume of poems called _Underwoods_ (1887), are
especially characteristic:--

"If I have faltered more or less
In my great task of happiness;
If I have moved among my race
And shown no glorious morning face;
If beams from happy human eyes
Have moved me not; if morning skies,
Books, and my food, and summer rain
Knocked on my sullen heart in vain:--
Lord, thy most pointed pleasure take
And stab my spirit broad awake."

Works.--Stevenson wrote entertaining travels, such as _An Inland
Voyage_ (1878), the record of a canoe journey from Antwerp to
Pontoise, _Travels with a Donkey through the Cevennes_ (1879), and _In
the South Seas_ (published in book form in 1896). Early in life he
wrote many essays, the best of which are included in the volumes,
_Virginibus Puerisque_ (_To Girls and Boys_, 1881) and _Familiar
Studies of Men and Books_ (1882). Valuable papers presenting his views
of the technique of writing may be found in the volumes called
_Memories and Portraits_ (1887) and _Essays in the Art of Writing_
(collected after his death). There is a happy blending of style,
humor, and thought in many of these essays. Perhaps the most unusual
and original of all is _Child's Play_ (_Virginibus Puerisque_). This
is a psychological study, which reveals one of his strongest
characteristics, the power of vividly recalling the events and
feelings of childhood.

"When my cousin and I took our porridge of a morning, we had a
device to enliven the course of the meal. He ate his with sugar, and
explained it to be a country continually buried under snow. I took
mine with milk, and explained it to be a country suffering gradual
inundation. You can imagine us exchanging bulletins; how here was an
island still unsubmerged, here a valley not yet covered with
snow; ...and how, in fine, the food was of altogether secondary
importance, and might even have been nauseous, so long as we
seasoned it with these dreams."

The simplicity and apparent artlessness of his _A Child's Garden of
Verse_ (1885) have caused many critics to neglect these poems; but the
verdict of young children is almost unanimous against such neglect.
These songs

"Lead onward into fairy land,
Where all the children dine at five,
And all the playthings come