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Lay Morals, and Other Papers

Robert Louis Stevenson

The work encompasses Stevenson's thoughts on ethics, education, and the complexities of moral conduct, particularly in relation to societal expectations and personal integrity.

"Lay Morals and Other Papers" by Robert Louis Stevenson is a collection of reflective essays. The work encompasses Stevenson's thoughts on ethics, education, and the complexities of moral conduct, particularly in relation to societal expectations and personal integrity.

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The problem of education is twofold: first to know, and then to utter. Every one who lives any semblance of an inner life thinks more nobly and profoundly than he speaks; and the best of teachers can impart only broken images of the truth which they perceive. Speech which goes from one to another between two natures, and, what is worse, between two experiences, is doubly relative. The speaker buries his meaning; it is for the hearer to dig it up again; and all speech, written or spoken, is in a dead language until it finds a willing and prepared hearer. Such, moreover, is the complexity of life, that when we condescend upon details in our advice, we may be sure we condescend on error; and the best of education is to throw out some magnanimous hints. No man was ever so poor that he could express all he has in him by words, looks, or actions; his true knowledge is eternally incommunicable, for it is a knowledge of himself; and his best wisdom comes to him by no process of the mind, but in a supreme self-dictation, which keeps varying from hour to hour in its dictates with the variation of events and circumstances.

Contents

  1. 01Preface by Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson
  2. 02Contents:
  3. 03Lay Morals
  4. 04Chapter I
  5. 05Chapter II
  6. 06Chapter III
  7. 07Chapter IV
  8. 08Father Damien an Open Letter to the Reverend Dr. Hyde of Honolulu
  9. 09The Pentland Rising a page of history 1666
  10. 10Chapter I—The Causes of the Revolt
  11. 11Chapter II—The Beginning
  12. 12Chapter III—The March of the Rebels
  13. 13Chapter IV—Rullion Green
  14. 14Chapter V—A Record of Blood
  15. 15The Day After to-Morrow
  16. 16College Papers
  17. 17Chapter I—Edinburgh Students in 1824
  18. 18Chapter II—The Modern Student Considered Generally
  19. 19Chapter III—Debating Societies
  20. 20Chapter IV—The Philosophy of Umbrellas
  21. 21Chapter V—The Philosophy of Nomenclature
  22. 22Criticisms
  23. 23Chapter I—Lord Lytton’s ‘Fables in Song’
  24. 24Chapter II—Salvini’s Macbeth
  25. 25Chapter III—Bagster’s ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’
  26. 26Sketches
  27. 27I. The Satirist
  28. 28II. Nuits Blanches
  29. 29III. The Wreath of Immortelles
  30. 30IV. Nurses
  31. 31V. A Character
  32. 32The Great North Road
  33. 33Chapter I—Nance at the ‘Green Dragon’
  34. 34Chapter II—In Which Mr. Archer Is Installed
  35. 35Chapter III—Jonathan Holdaway
  36. 36Chapter IV—Mingling Threads
  37. 37Chapter V—Life in the Castle
  38. 38Chapter VI—The Bad Half-Crown
  39. 39Chapter VII—The Bleaching-Green
  40. 40Chapter VIII—The Mail Guard
  41. 41The Young Chevalier
  42. 42Prologue—The Wine-Seller’s Wife
  43. 43Chapter I—The Prince
  44. 44Heathercat
  45. 45Chapter I—Traquairs of Montroymont
  46. 46Chapter II—Francie
  47. 47Chapter III—The Hill-End of Drumlowe

About this edition

Author
Robert Louis Stevenson
Era
Modern (c. 1800–1945)
Reading level
Intermediate: some philosophy helps
Formats
EPUB, PDF
Length
247 pages
This edition
Modern Philosophers