Transcribed from the 1903 Longmans, Green And Co. edition byDavid Price,

MORE NEW ARABIAN NIGHTS

THE DYNAMITER

by

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
and
FANNY VAN de GRIFT STEVENSON

newimpression

LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
39 paternoster row, london
new york and bombay

1903

All rights reserved

p. ivbibliographic note

First Edition, April1885; Reprinted May 1885, July 1885.

Silver Library Edition,January 1895; Reprinted March 1897, July1899, August 1903.

p.vTO
MESSRS. COLE AND COX,
police officers

Gentlemen,—In the volume now in your hands,the authors have touched upon that ugly devil of crime,with which it is your glory to have contended.  Itwere a waste of ink to do so in a serious spirit. Let us dedicate our horror to acts of a more mingledstrain, where crime preserves some features ofnobility, and where reason and humanity can still relishthe temptation.  Horror, in this case,is due to Mr. Parnell: he sits before posteritysilent, Mr. Forster’s appeal echoing down theages.  Horror is due to ourselves, in that wehave so long coquetted with political crime; not seriouslyweighing, not acutely following it from cause toconsequence; but with a generous, unfounded heat ofsentiment, like the schoolboy with the penny tale,applauding what was specious.  When it touchedourselves (truly in a vile shape), we proved falseto the imaginations; discovered, in a clap,that crime was no less cruel and no less ugly under soundingnames; and recoiled from our false deities.

p.viBut seriousness comes most in place when we are tospeak of our defenders.  Whoever be in the right inthis great and confused war of politics; whatever elementsof greed, whatever traits of the bully, dishonourboth parties in this inhuman contest;—your side,your part, is at least pure of doubt. Yours is the side of the child, of the breedingwoman, of individual pity and public trust. If our society were the mere kingdom of the devil (asindeed it wears some of his colours) it yet embraces manyprecious elements and many innocent persons whom it is a glory todefend.  Courage and devotion, so common inthe ranks of the police, so little recognised, someagrely rewarded, have at length found theircommemoration in an historical act.  History,which will represent Mr. Parnell sitting silent u