Volume I Part 1 (1/2)

The Life and Letters of Lafcadio Hearn

Volume 1

by Elizabeth Bisland

PREFACE

In the course of the preparation of these volureat a nu twenty-five years of his life, and these letters proved of so interesting a nature, that eventually the plan of the whole as altered The original intention was that they should serve only to illuraphy, but as their number and value became more apparent it was evident that to reproduce them in full would make the book both more readable andthat could possibly be related of hirapher could have so vividly pictured the enius of the man as he has unconsciously revealed these qualities in unstudied communications to his friends Happily--in these days when the preservation of letters is a rare thing--almost every one to whom he wrote appeared instinctively to treasure--even when he was still unknown--every one of his coaps occur, owing to the accidents of changes of residence, three of which, as every one knows, are more destructive of such treasures than a fire To all of his correspondents who have so generously contributed their treasured letters I wish to express ratitude due to Professor Masanubo Otani, of the shi+nshu University of Tokyo, for the painstaking accuracy and fulness of the information he contributed as to the whole course of Hearn's life in japan

The seven fragraphical reminiscence, discovered after Hearn's death, added to the letters, narrowedof dates and such brief comments and explanations as were required for the better comprehension of his own contributions to the book

Naturally so of the letters has been necessary Such parts as related purely toto the general public; many personalities, usually both witty and trenchant, have been omitted, not only because such personalities are matters of confidence between the writer and his correspondent, a confidence which death does not render less inviolable, but also because the dignity and privacy of the living have every clai's just resent of the FitzGerald Letters is a warning that should be heeded, and it is moreover certain that Lafcadio Hearn hi to have any casual criticisiven public record Of those who had been his friends he always spoke with tenderness and respect, and I a all references to his enemies

That such a definite and eccentric person as he should make enemies was of course unavoidable If any of these retain their enmity to one who has passed into the sacred helplessness of death, and are inclined to think that the es lacks the veracity of shadow, my answer is this: In the first place, I have taken heed of the opinion he hiht not to speak of the weaknesses of very great men”--and the intention of such part of this book as is ive a history of the circuenius I have purposely ignored all such episodes as seemed impertinent to this end, as froross curiosity in raking anored These I gladly leave to those who enjoy such labours

In the second place, there is no arta portrait satisfactory to every one, for the liments, can--if he be honest--only transfer to the canvas the lineaments as he himself sees them _How_ he sees them depends not only upon his own temperament, but also upon the aspect which the subject of the picture would naturally turn towards such a temperament For every one of us is aware of a certain chameleon-like quality within ourselves which causes us to take on a protective colouring assis, and we all, like the husband in Browning's verse,

”Boast two soul-sides,”

which is the explanation, no doubt, of the apparently irreconcilable impressions carried away by a man's acquaintances

Which soul-side was the real man must finally resolve itself into a matter of opinion Henley, probably, honestly believed the real Stevenson to be as he represented hireater number of those who knew and loved the artist will continue to form their estimate of the man from his letters and books, and to them Henley's diatribe will continue to seem but the outbreak of aup of a companion for the world's admiration

Of the subject of this memoir there certainly exists more than one impression, but the writer can but depict the hout twenty years of intimate acquaintance, and for confirmation of this opinion can only refer to the work he has left for all the world to judge hihts, opinions, and feelings contained in his letters

E B

CHAPTER I

BOYHOOD

Lafcadio Hearn was born on the twenty-seventh of June, in the year 1850

He was a native of the Ionian Isles, the place of his birth being the Island of Santa Maura, which is commonly called in modern Greek Levkas, or Lefcada, a corruption of the name of the old Leucadia, which was famous as the place of Sappho's self-destruction This island is separated from the western coast of Greece by a narrow strait; the neck of land which joined it to the h by the Corinthians seven centuries before Christ To this day it remains deeply wooded, and scantily populated, with sparse vineyards and olive groves clinging to the steep sides of thethe blue Ionian sea The child Lafcadio h-set, half-obliterated ruins of the Temple of Apollo, from whence offenders were cast doith multitudes of birds tied to their liht break the violence of the fall, and so rescue them from the last penalty of expiation

In this place of old tragedies and romance the child was born into a life always to be shadowed by tragedy and romance to an extent almost fantastic in ourin the half-tropical blue of Greek sea and sky, against which the boy first discerned the vague outlines of his conscious life, seems to have silhouetted itself behind all his later h whatever dark or squalid scenes his wanderings led, his heart was always filled by drea outlines, and the blue, ”which is the colour of the idea of the divine, the colour pantheistic, the colour ethical”

Long years afterward, in the ”Dream of a Summer Day,” he says:--

”I have ical tihter than now Whether it was of this life or of some life before, I cannot tell, but I know the sky was very much more blue, and nearer to the world--almost as it see into equatorial summer The sea was alive and used to talk--and the Wind madeother years, in divine days lived a the peaks, I have drea--but it was only a remembrance

”Also in that place the clouds onderful and of colours for which there are no nary and thirsty I reer than these days,--and every day there were new pleasures and neonders for me And all that country and tiht only of ways to reat hush of light before le from head to foot with pleasure I have never heard any other stories half so beautiful And when the pleasure beca which always brought sleep At last there ca day; and she wept and told iven that I ive me power to return But I never returned And the years went; and one day I knew that I had lost the char of events and of race-forces had brought the boy into being

Surgeon-Major Charles Bush Hearn, of the 76th Foot, came of an old Dorsetshi+re faipsy blood--a tradition too dih Hearn is an old Roland, and the boy Lafcadio bore in his hand all his life that curious ”thumb-print” upon the palm, which is said to be the invariable mark of Romany descent The first of the Hearns to pass over into Ireland went as private chaplain to the Lord Lieutenant in 1693, and being later appointed Dean of Cashel, settled permanently in West Meath Fro a numerous race of soldiers, for Dr Hearn's father and seven uncles served under Wellington in Spain The grandfather of Lafcadio rose during the Peninsula Caiiment in the battle of Vittoria Later he married Elizabeth Holmes, a kinswoman of Sir Robert Holmes, and of Ed Rice Holmes, the historian of the Indian Mutiny Dr