“We are the cranks of a huge machine – I do believe – of righteousness”

This next letter was written at sea on an expedition to Sydney at the beginning of 1891. Only some paragraphs of it were printed by Colvin, the rest consisting, as he said, “of a sermon or vehement remonstrance against certain opinions addressed to his correspondent” in connection with private matters of religion.

[Dots between square brackets indicate cuts made by Colvin. For full, correct and critical edition of this letter see Mehew 7, 2294.]

To Adelaide Boodle [Colvin 1899, II, pp. 257-8]

Dampfer Lübeck, between Apia and Sydney, January 17^th, 1891

[…]

. . . Now that I have unburthened myself, my dear Gamekeeper, let me pass on to our news. My wife and I have had a rough time in our cabin on the mountains: one night we must sit in the dark, the wind would not suffer any light, and so loud was the roar of the rain and the beating boughs on the roof, that we must sit in silence also;

I confess it was a tedious evening. May I suggest that in such hours (when any moment may turn you adrift in the storm under a shower of iron roof-plates) there is a communion impossible in any chapel of ease, even in any cathedral? You are alone with God: with one face of Him, that is: which he who blinks, blinks at his peril.

The other day I left my wife alone with an inheritance  of trouble, such as you can scarce imagine, of wood to be hauled up the mountains – and iron;

“House and shoulder of Vaea mountain”, Vailima. RLS leaning over first floor veranda [www.robert-louis-stevenson.org]

‘failing’ of roads that the rain removes and we must repair;

Apia road to Vailima [www.robert-louis-stevenson.org]

of native workmen who will not work;

n the back verandah, Vailima, 1892: RLS centre (looking tired), male servant against post right, 3 servants cross-legged on the veranda behind, Austin Strong on steps left, one female servant standing in front of the doorway; Belle standing L leaning on a sloping stair-handrail, Fanny seated behind RLS.

and sailed in the Lübeck, whose paper you now handle, to meet my mother and Lloyd in Sydney. Fifteen hundred miles from port in the great desert Pacific, and in the hurricane season,

we broke a crank shaft.

Types of 19th century marine steam engines designed for various vessels: paddle steamer (1), steam yacht (2), merchant ships (3) and (7), and for navy vessels (4) and (5) and (6).

It is almost incredible, but so well have things been managed by the officers, so excellently has the wind served us, that we hope to be in Sydney only four days late. Perhaps you would be inclined to say by the kindness of Providence; in my present not quite assuaged condition of annoyance, I would beg you to be done for ever with such partial fancies. The world, the universe, turns on vast hinges, proceeds on a huge plan: you, and we, and […] are all – I potently believe it – used for good; but we are all – and this I know – as the dust of the balances. The loss or the salvation of the Lübeck was weighed, and was decided in the hour of birth of the universe;

[https://nasaviz.gsfc.nasa.gov]

the interesting case of R.L.S. and his wife alone on Upolu, and his mother waiting to meet him in the colonies, and his friend Adelaide Boodle expecting a letter […] in Bournemouth, were all out of court before the first world span, a sphere, in space;

[https://cultura.biografieonline.it]

we are the cranks of a huge machine – I do believe – of righteousness; we are there to suffer and to be broken, I am convinced, for a good end.

[…] Ever yours affectionately,

Robert Louis Stevenson

[…]