I trust also you may be long without finding out the devil that there is in a bereavement. After love it is the one great surprise that life preserves for us. Now I don’t think I can be astonished any more.—Yours affectionately,
R. L. S.
to Sidney Colvin
La Solitude, Hyères-les-Palmiers, Var [October 1883].
COLVIN, COLVIN, COLVIN,—Yours received; also interesting copy of P. Whistles. ‘In the multitude of councillors the Bible declares there is wisdom,’ said my great-uncle, ‘but I have always found in them distraction.’ It is extraordinary how tastes vary: these proofs have been handed about, it appears, and I have had several letters; and—distraction. ‘Æsop: the Miller and the Ass.’ Notes on details:—
1. I love the occasional trochaic line; and so did many excellent writers before me.
2. If you don’t like ‘A Good Boy,’ I do.
3. In ‘Escape at Bedtime,’ I found two suggestions. ‘Shove’ for ‘above’ is a correction of the press; it was so written. ‘Twinkled’ is just the error; to the child the stars appear to be there; any word that suggests illusion is a horror.
4. I don’t care; I take a different view of the vocative.
5. Bewildering and childering are good enough for me. These are rhymes, jingles; I don’t go for eternity and the three unities.