one's whole life to
self-culture, and can only hope at last to have climbed a
little higher and advanced a little farther than anybody
else. You should feel the determination of those Neophytes of
Egypt who were led into subterranean vaults and suddenly
abandoned in darkness and rising water whence there was no
escape, save by an iron ladder.

"As the fugitive mounted through heights of darkness, each
rung of the quivering stairway gave way immediately he had
quitted it, and fell back into the abyss, echoing; but the
least exhibition of fear or weariness was fatal to the
climber."[6]

[6] "The Life and Letters of Lafcadio Hearn," Houghton, Mifflin & Co.

A parlour-maid of Mrs. Brenane's, Catherine by name, who had accompanied
her from Ireland when the old lady came over to the Molyneux's house at
Redhill, had married a man of the name of Delaney, and had settled in
London, near the docks, where her husband was employed as a labourer. To
them Hearn went when he left Ushaw. The Delaneys were in fairly
comfortable circumstances, and Hearn's account in the letters--the only
ones we have of his at this time--written to his school-friend, Mr.
Achilles Daunt, of the grimness of the surroundings in which his lot was
cast, of the nightly sounds of horror, of windows thrown violently open,
or shattered into pieces, of shrieks of agony, cries of murder, and
plunges in the river, are to be ascribed to his supersensitive and
excitable imagination.

The artist cannot always be tied down to the strict letter of the law.
It inspires a much deeper human interest to picture genius struggling
against overwhelming odds--poverty-stricken, starving--than lazily and
luxuriously floating down the current of life with unlimited champagne
and chicken mayonnaise on board.

Stevenson was at this time supposed to be living like a "weevil in a
biscuit," when his father was only too anxious to give him an allowance.
Jimmy Whistler, only a little way up the river from Hearn, at Wapping,
was said to be living on "cat's meat and cheese parings," when, if he
had chosen to conform to the most elementary principles of business, he
might have been in easy circumstances by the sale of his work.

As to direct penury, and Hearn's statement that he "was obliged to take
refuge in the workhouse," if accurate it must have been brought about by
his own improvident and intractable nature and invariable