Gentleness and cheerfulness, these come before all morality; they are the perfect duties.
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
Essay (1888-12), “A Christmas Sermon,” sec. 2, Scribner’s Magazine, Vol. 4
(Source)
In context, Stevenson is using "morality" in terms of legalistic religion.
Originally written in the winter of 1887-88. Collected in Across the Plains, ch. 12 (1892).