Page:Literary studies by Joseph Jacobs.djvu/206

 time he himself was walking hand in hand with Death. That joyous acceptance of life as it is was the predominant note of Stevenson, and was the chief artistic lesson he has left to his age.

Herein Stevenson came in line with the French school of literary critics of life. They have been untrammelled by the older traditions, they have faced life in all its aspects bravely and gallantly, they have been curious in their wordcraft, yet in this last, if in nought else, they carried on the older traditions. Only in one thing did Stevenson part company with them. One of the aspects of life which the French faced most boldly and unflinchingly is the fact of sex. Stevenson shrank from this consciously and avowedly. He clung to the cleanly tradition of restraint and self-respect in this regard, and except for some slight sketches in Prince Otto, woman is absent from his pages. The fact is characteristic of the two civilisations.

It was this gay, gallant, fresh philosophy of life that lent their chief charm to his first efforts, An Inland Voyage and Travels with a Donkey. He moralised every step of the way. Not a character appears that is not ethically valued in the scheme of life—this one for his courtesy, that for his silence, another for his courage, she for gaiety, he for his