up some other day, as you have so deftly embedded
in the _Atalanta_ article that small remark on his acting. Your paper
is pleasant and modest: most of R. L. Stevenson's admirers are
inclined to lay it on far too thick. That he is a genius we all
admit; but his genius, if fine, is limited. For example, he cannot
paint (or at least he never has painted) a woman. No more could
Fettes Douglas, skilful artist though he was in his own special line,
and I shall tell you a remark of Russel's thereon some day. {4} There
are women in his books, but there is none of the beauty and subtlety
of womanhood in them.

"R. L. Stevenson I knew well as a lad and often met him and talked
with him. He acted in private theatricals got up by the late
Professor Fleeming Jenkin. But he had then, as always, a pretty guid
conceit o' himsel'--which his clique have done nothing to check. His
father and his grandfather (I have danced with his mother before her
marriage) I knew better; but 'the family theologian,' as some of R. L.
Stevenson's friends dabbed his father, was a very touchy theologian,
and denounced any one who in the least differed from his extreme
Calvinistic views. I came under his lash most unwittingly in this way
myself. But for this twist, he was a good fellow--kind and
hospitable--and a really able man in his profession. His father-in-
law, R. L. Stevenson's maternal grandfather, was the Rev. Dr Balfour,
minister of Colinton--one of the finest-looking old men I ever
saw--tall, upright, and ruddy at eighty. But he was marvellously
feeble as a preacher, and often said things that were deliciously,
unconsciously, unintentionally laughable, if not witty. We were near
Colinton for some years; and Mr Russell (of the _Scotsman_), who once
attended the Parish Church with us, was greatly tickled by Balfour
discoursing on the story of Joseph and Potiphar's wife, remarking that
Mrs P-'s conduct was 'highly improper'!"

The estimate of R. L. Stevenson was not and could not be final in this
case, for _Weir of Hermiston_ and _Catriona_ were yet unwritten, not to
speak of others, but the passages reflect a certain side of Edinburgh
opinion, illustrating the old Scripture doctrine that a prophet has
honour everywhere but in his own country. And the passages themselves
bear evidence that I violate no confidence then, for they were given to
me to b