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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Art of Writing by Robert Louis Stevenson: for any true and kind writing, that makes the practice of the
art a prolonged and noble education for the writer.
There is plenty to do, plenty to say, or to say over again,
in the meantime. Any literary work which conveys faithful
facts or pleasing impressions is a service to the public. It
is even a service to be thankfully proud of having rendered.
The slightest novels are a blessing to those in distress, not
chloroform itself a greater. Our fine old sea-captain's life
was justified when Carlyle soothed his mind with THE KING'S
OWN or NEWTON FORSTER. To please is to serve; and so far
from its being difficult to instruct while you amuse, it is
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