em; I should think the
"Hermes," never. Well, you will do something else, and of that I am in
expectation.--Yours cordially,

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.

TO A. ST. GAUDENS

_Vailima, Samoa, July 8, 1894._

MY DEAR ST. GAUDENS,--This is to tell you that the medallion has been at
last triumphantly transported up the hill and placed over my
smoking-room mantelpiece. It is considered by everybody a first-rate but
flattering portrait. We have it in a very good light, which brings out
the artistic merits of the god-like sculptor to great advantage. As for
my own opinion, I believe it to be a speaking likeness, and not
flattered at all; possibly a little the reverse. The verses (curse the
rhyme) look remarkably well.

Please do not longer delay, but send me an account for the expense of
the gilt letters. I was sorry indeed that they proved beyond the means
of a small farmer.--Yours very sincerely,

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON.

TO MISS ADELAIDE BOODLE

_Vailima, July 14, 1894._

MY DEAR ADELAIDE,--... So, at last, you are going into mission work?
where I think your heart always was. You will like it in a way, but
remember it is dreary long. Do you know the story of the American tramp
who was offered meals and a day's wage to chop with the back of an axe
on a fallen trunk. "Damned if I can go on chopping when I can't see the
chips fly!" You will never see the chips fly in mission work, never; and
be sure you know it beforehand. The work is one long dull
disappointment, varied by acute revulsions; and those who are by nature
courageous and cheerful, and have grown old in experience, learn to rub
their hands over infinitesimal successes. However, as I really believe
there is some good done in the long run--_gutta cavat lapidem non vi_ in
this business--it is a useful and honourable career in which no one
should be ashamed to embark. Always remember the fable of the sun, the
storm, and the traveller's cloak. Forget wholly and for ever all small
pruderies, and remember that _you cannot change ancestral feelings of
right and wrong without what is practically soul-murder_. Barbarous as
the customs may seem, always hear them with patience, always judge them
with gentleness, always find in them some seed of good; see that you
always develop them; remember that all you can do is to civilise the man
in the line of his own civilisation, such as it is. And never expect,
never believe in, thaumaturgic