_Honolulu_, (_about_) 20_th_ _May_ ’89.
MY DEAR LOW,—. . . The goods have come; many daughters have done
virtuously, but thou excellest them all.—I have at length finished _The
Master_; it has been a sore cross to me; but now he is buried, his body’s
under hatches,—his soul, if there is any hell to go to, gone to hell; and
I forgive him: it is harder to forgive Burlingame for having induced me
to begin the publication, or myself for suffering the induction.—Yes, I
think Hole has done finely; it will be one of the most adequately
illustrated books of our generation; he gets the note, he tells the
story—_my_ story: I know only one failure—the Master standing on the
beach.—You must have a letter for me at Sydney—till further notice.
Remember me to Mrs. Will. H., the godlike sculptor, and any of the
faithful. If you want to cease to be a republican, see my little
Kaiulani, as she goes through—but she is gone already. You will die a
red, I wear the colours of that little royal maiden, _Nous allons chanter
à la ronde_, _si vous voulez_! only she is not blonde by several chalks,
though she is but a half-blood, and the wrong half Edinburgh Scots like
mysel’. But, O Low, I love the Polynesian: this civilisation of ours is
a dingy, ungentlemanly business; it drops out too much of man, and too
much of that the very beauty of the poor beast: who has his beauties in
spite of Zola and Co. As usual, here is a whole letter with no news: I
am a bloodless, inhuman dog; and no doubt Zola is a better
correspondent.—Long live your fine old English admiral—yours, I mean—the
U.S.A. one at Samoa; I wept tears and loved myself and mankind when I
read of him: he is not too much civilised. And there was Gordon, too;
and there are others, beyond question. But if you could live, the only
white folk, in a Polynesian village; and drink that warm, light _vin du
pays_ of human affection, and enjoy that simple dignity of all about
you—I will not gush, for I am now in my fortieth year, which seems highly
unjust, but there it is, Mr. Low, and the Lord enlighten your
affectionate