n February 1875, and attracted, I believe, no attention
whatever. The "fables" must have been some of the earliest numbers of
the series continued at odd times till near the date of his death and
published posthumously: I do not know which, but should guess _The
House of Eld_, _Yellow Paint_, and perhaps those in the vein of
Celtic mystery, _The Touchstone_, _The Poor Thing_, _The Song of
To-morrow_.

_[Swanston, Summer 1874], Tuesday._

MY DEAR COLVIN,--What is new with you? There is nothing new with me:
Knox and his females begin to get out of restraint altogether; the
subject expands so damnably, I know not where to cut it off. I have
another paper for the PTFL[15] on the stocks: a sequel to the two
others; also, that is to say, a word in season as to contentment and a
hint to the careless to look around them for disregarded pleasures.
Seeley wrote to me asking me "to propose" something: I suppose he
means--well, I suppose I don't know what he means. But I shall write to
him (if you think it wise) when I send him this paper, saying that my
writing is more a matter of God's disposition than of man's proposal;
that I had from _Roads_ upward ever intended to make a little budget of
little papers all with this intention before them, call it ethical or
aesthetic as you will; and thus I shall leave it to him (if he likes) to
regard this little budget, as slowly they come forth, as a unity in its
own small way. Twelve or twenty such essays, some of them mainly ethical
and expository, put together in a little book with narrow print in each
page, antique, vine leaves about, and the following title.

XII (OR XX) ESSAYS ON THE ENJOYMENT OF THE WORLD:

By Robert Louis Stevenson

(_A motto in italics_)

Publisher

Place and date

You know the class of old book I have in my head. I smack my lips; would
it not be nice! I am going to launch on Scotch ecclesiastical affairs,
in a tract addressed to the Clergy; in which doctrinal matters being
laid aside, I contend simply that they should be just and dignified men
at a certain crisis: this for the honour of humanity. Its authorship
must, of course, be secret or the publication would be useless. You
shall have a copy of course, and may God help you to understand it.

I have done no more to my fables. I find I must let things take their
time. I am constant to my schemes; but I must work