A CHRISTMAS SERMON

by

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

New York

1900







A CHRISTMAS SERMON


By the time this paper appears, I shall have been talking for twelve
months;[1] and it is thought I should take my leave in a formal and
seasonable manner. Valedictory eloquence is rare, and death-bed sayings
have not often hit the mark of the occasion. Charles Second, wit and
sceptic, a man whose life had been one long lesson in human incredulity,
an easy-going comrade, a manoeuvring king--remembered and embodied all
his wit and scepticism along with more than his usual good humour in the
famous "I am afraid, gentlemen, I am an unconscionable time a-dying."

[Footnote 1: i.e. In the pages of _Scribner's Magazine_ (1888).]