Author Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1912 Excerpt: ... CHAPTER II HIS PARENTS "We are the pledge of their dear and joyful union, we have been the solicitude of their days and the anxiety of their nights, we have made them, though by no will of ours, to carry the burden of our sins, sorrows, and physical infirmities.... A good son, who can fulfil what is expected of him, has done his work in life. He has to redeem the sins of many, and restore the world's confidence in children."--R. L. S., " Reflections and Remarks on Human Life," Miscellanea, p. 27. "Peace and her huge invasion to these shores Puts daily home; innumerable sails Dawn on the far horizon and draw near; Innumerable loves, uncounted hopes To our wild coasts, not darkling now, approach: Not now obscure, since thou and thine are there, And bright on the lone isle, the foundered reef, The long, resounding foreland, Pharos stands. These are thy works, O father, these thy crown." R. L. S., Underwoods, xxviii. Without a knowledge of his parents it would be hard to understand the man whose life and character are set forth in these pages. Yet of Thomas Stevenson, at any rate, I should despair of presenting any adequate image, were it not for the sketch in Memories and Portraits, and an account of his boyhood, written by his son in 1887, and as yet unpublished, which would have formed a later chapter of A Family of Engineers. He was born in 1818, the youngest son of Robert Stevenson, and one of a family of thirteen children. "He had his education at a private school, kept by a capable but very cruel man called Brown, in Nelson Street, and then at the High School of Edinburgh. His first year, or half-year, was in the old building down Infirmary Street, and I have often heard him tell how he took part in the procession to the new and beautiful place upon the ...