irst time. This, of
course, will cause me a far greater difficulty about authorities; but I
have already learned much, and where to look for more. One pleasant
feature is the vast number of delightful writers I shall have to deal
with: Burt, Johnson, Boswell, Mrs. Grant of Laggan, Scott. There will be
interesting sections on the Ossianic controversy and the growth of the
taste for Highland scenery. I have to touch upon Rob Roy, Flora
Macdonald, the strange story of Lady Grange, the beautiful story of the
tenants on the Forfeited Estates, and the odd, inhuman problem of the
great evictions. The religious conditions are wild, unknown, very
surprising. And three out of my five parts remain hitherto entirely
unwritten. Smack!--Yours ever,

R. L. S.

TO MRS. THOMAS STEVENSON

_Hotel Belvedere, Davos, [December 26, 1880]. Christmas Sermon._

MY DEAR MOTHER,--I was very tired yesterday and could not write;
tobogganed so furiously all morning; we had a delightful day, crowned by
an incredible dinner--more courses than I have fingers on my hands. Your
letter arrived duly at night, and I thank you for it as I should. You
need not suppose I am at all insensible to my father's extraordinary
kindness about this book; he is a brick; I vote for him freely.

... The assurance you speak of is what we all ought to have, and might
have, and should not consent to live without. That people do not have it
more than they do is, I believe, because persons speak so much in
large-drawn, theological similitudes, and won't say out what they mean
about life, and man, and God, in fair and square human language. I
wonder if you or my father ever thought of the obscurities that lie upon
human duty from the negative form in which the Ten Commandments are
stated, or of how Christ was so continually substituting affirmations.
"Thou shalt not" is but an example; "Thou shalt" is the law of God. It
was this that seems meant in the phrase that "not one jot nor tittle of
the law should pass." But what led me to the remark is this: A kind of
black, angry look goes with that statement of the law of negatives. "To
love one's neighbour as oneself" is certainly much harder, but states
life so much more actively, gladly, and kindly, that you can begin to
see some pleasure in it; and till you can see pleasure in these hard
choices and bitter necessities, where is there any Good News to men? It
is much more important to do right than not to do wr