So far, however, as it is possible to disengage one's self from this captivation, it may be said that the mingling of distinct and original vision with a singularly conscientious handling of the English language, in the sincere and wholesome self-consciousness of the strenuous artist, seems to be the central feature of Stevenson as a writer by profession.
Another form of the word, "Egotism," is really interchangeable, though in ordinary language it is often used specially (and similarly "egoism," as in George Meredith's Egoist) to describe the habit of magnifying one's self and one's achievements, or regarding all things from a selfish point of view.
Under the lengthening shadow of Ibsen, an argument arose whether it was not a very nice thing to murder one's self.
He had no sooner done so than he bitterly repented his weakness; and acting, as he himself says, on the principle that " to take an oath which never ought to have been taken is to estrange one's self from God, but to retract what one has wrongfully sworn to, is to return back to God," when he got safe again into France he attacked the transubstantiation theory more vehemently than ever.
You see, it is not very pleasant to write all about one's self.
