IMMEDIATELY on reading Lord Rosebery's address as Chairman of the meeting in Edinburgh to promote the erection of a monument to R.L.
Stevenson, I wrote to him politely asking him whether, since he quoted a passage from a somewhat early essay by Stevenson naming the authors who had chiefly influenced him in point of style, his Lordship should not, merely in justice and for the sake of balance, have referred to Thoreau.I also remarked that Stevenson's later style sometimes showed too much self-conscious conflict of his various models in his mind while he was in the act of writing, and that this now and then imparted too much an air of artifice to his later compositions, and that those who knew most would be most troubled by it.Of that letter, I much regret now that I did not keep any copy; but I think I did incidentally refer to the friendship with which Stevenson had for so many years honoured me.
This is a copy of the letter received in reply:
"38 BERKELEY SQUARE, W., 17th DECEMBER 1896.
"DEAR SIR, - I am much obliged for your letter, and can only state that the name of Thoreau was not mentioned by Stevenson himself, and therefore I could not cite it in my quotation.
"With regard to the style of Stevenson's later works, I am inclined to agree with you.-Believe me, yours very faithfully, ROSEBERY.
"Dr ALEXANDER H.JAPP."
This I at once replied to as follows:
"NATIONAL LIBERAL CLUB, WHITEHALL.PLACE, S.W., 19TH DECEMBER 1896.
"MY LORD, - It is true R.L.Stevenson did not refer to Thoreau in the passage to which you allude, for the good reason that he could not, since he did not know Thoreau till after it was written; but if you will oblige me and be so good as to turn to p.xix.of Preface, BY WAY OF CRITICISM, to FAMILIAR STUDIES OF MEN AND BOOKSyou will read:
"'Upon me this pure, narrow, sunnily-ascetic Thoreau had exercised a wondrous charm.I HAVE SCARCE WRITTEN TEN SENTENCES SINCE I WAS INTRODUCED TO HIM, BUT HIS INFLUENCE MIGHT BE SOMEWHERE DETECTED BY A CLOSE OBSERVER.'
"It is very detectable in many passages of nature-description and of reflection.I write, my Lord, merely that, in case opportunity should arise, you might notice this fact.I am sure R.L.
Stevenson would have liked it recognised.- I remain, my Lord, always yours faithfully, etc., ALEXANDER H.JAPP."
In reply to this Lord Rosebery sent me only the most formal acknowledgment, not in the least encouraging me in any way to further aid him in the matter with regard to suggestions of any kind; so that I was helpless to press on his lordship the need for some corrections on other points which I would most willingly have tendered to him had he shown himself inclined or ready to receive them.
I might also have referred Lord Rosebery to the article in THE
BRITISH WEEKLY (1887), "Books that have Influenced Me," where, after having spoken of Shakespeare, the VICOMTE DE BRAGELONNE, Bunyan, Montaigne, Goethe, Martial, Marcus Aurelius's MEDITATIONS, and Wordsworth, he proceeds:
"I suppose, when I am done, I shall find that I have forgotten much that is influential, as I see already I have forgotten Thoreau."
I need but to add to what has been said already that, had Lord Rosebery written and told me the result of his references and encouraged me to such an exercise, I should by-and-by have been very pleased to point out to him that he blundered, proving himself no master in Burns' literature, precisely as Mr Henley blundered about Burns' ancestry, when he gives confirmation to the idea that Burns came of a race of peasants on both sides, and was himself nothing but a peasant.
