Octavo. 14pp. Stevenson originally wrote the essay as a teenager and delivered it on May 19, 1873, after which it appeared in the Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. This, and any offprints, constitutes the true first edition, but these "correctly" dated pamphlets began appearing about a decade later under the guidance of bibliographer and biblio-dissembler Thomas J. Wise. Wise insisted at the time that a subset of these had been produced at the time of the reading, but the paper used here was not extant then. Wise had, in fact, had the edition made up for himself and his own specious purposes, to the tune of about 75 copies. Bound in gray-blue wrappers, modestly chipped and rubbed, and sunned at margins. Else a quite crisp and trusty copy, vg+ relative to the rest. Housed in chemise and slipcase. (Beinecke 10)