interest in our inquiry first upgrew. For the introduction to the new
hope came to him, as to Edmund Gurney and to myself, through a lady whom
each of us held in equal honour; and it was on the stately lawns of
Broadlands, and in that air as of Sabbatical repose, that Ruskin enjoyed
his one brief season,--since the failure of his youthful Christian
confidence--of blissful trust in the Unseen. To one among that company a
vision came, as of a longed-for meeting of souls beloved in heaven, a
vision whose detail and symbolism carried conviction to Ruskin’s heart.
While that conviction abode with him he was happy as a child; but
presently he suffered what all are like to suffer who do not keep their
minds close pressed to actual evidence by continuous study. That impress
faded; and leaving the unseen world in its old sad uncertainty, he went
back to the mission which was laid on him,--that mission of humanizing
this earth, and being humanized thereby, which our race must needs
accomplish, whatever be the last doom of man.
Earth fills her lap with pleasures of her own;
Yearnings she hath in her own natural kind;
And even with something of a Mother’s mind
And no unworthy aim,
The homely Nurse doth all she can
To make her Foster-child, her Inmate Man,
Forget the glories he hath known,
And that imperial palace whence he came.
But Ruskin’s task,--however it might be pursued in forgetfulness of that
unrememberable home,--was surely still the task (as Bacon called it) “to
prepare and adorn the bride-chamber of the mind and the universe”; and
that _melior natura_ which seemed to be Ruskin’s, as it was Bacon’s,
divinity has never shone more radiantly upon the inward shrine of any
lover of men. It was half in jest that I would complain to him that to
Earth he gave up what was meant for Infinity, and bent a cosmic passion
upon this round wet pebble of rock and sea. “Ah, my friend!” he answered
once when I spoke of life to come, “if you could only give me fifty
years longer of this life on earth, I would ask for nothing more!” And
half that season was granted to him, and all in vain;--for what Tithonus
may tread for ever unweary the “gleaming halls of Morn”?
Then as that fervent life wore on, Ruskin turned more and more from the
outward pageant to the human passion; from Alp and sunset to the sterner
beauty of moral law. From the publication of _Unto This Last_, one may
trace that slow-growing revolt against the Age which led him to preach
in the end with such despairing emphasis the duty of protest, of
renunciation, of sheer self-severance from most of the tendencies of
modern life. The strength of this emotion in him was made, I remember,
strangely plain on one occasion, when some of those who cared most for
him had clubbed together, at Lord Mount-Temple’s suggestion, to surprise
him, on his recovery from a serious illness, with the present of a
picture of Turner’s, which he had once possessed and still dearly loved,
but of which he had despoiled himself to meet some generous impulse.
Never were givers more taken aback by the issue of their gift. For the
sudden sight of the lovely landscape hung in his bedroom drew from him a
letter of almost heart-broken pain,--at the thought that those whom he
would so fain have helped,--who were thus willing to do this thing, or
almost anything, to please him,--were yet not willing to do that other
thing for their own souls’ sake;--to come out from the iniquity,--to
shake off the baseness of the age,--to bind themselves in the St.
George’s Guild with that small remnant who clung to things pure and
true.
Indeed, there was something naïve, something childlike, in his
Brotherhoods, his Leagues, his solemn Covenants against the onflowing
tide of things;--but a stern reality beneath all this became strongly
present to us then;--a deep compassion for the lonely heart, which so
much needed love, yet could scarcely accept a fellowship in love which
was not also a fellowship in all that he held for virtue.
There are some who fear lest too pervading a belief in that other world
may make men indifferent to the loveliness and irresponsive to the woes
of _this_. Yet must that needs be so? or might we not treat even this
world’s problems with steadier heart, could we regain,--from some surer
foothold in the Invisible,--that ancient serenity of the Saints?
Watching that ardent soul, whose very raptures trembled on the brink of
pain, I have thought that even from Ruskin’s delight in Nature something
of a bitter yearning might have been soothed away, could he have seen in
stream and moorland, nay even in
great Skiddaw’s self, who shrouds
His double head among Atlantic clouds,
And pours forth streams more sweet than Castaly;--
could he have seen, I say, in these, as Plato saw in Castaly or in
Hymettus, only the transitory adumbration and perishing symbol of
somewhat more enduring and more fair. Nay, even from his compassion for
stunted and erring souls might not the burning pain have gone, could he
have seen those souls as Er the Paphlagonian saw them, marshalled in an
everlasting order, of which but a moment’s glimpse is shown;--till even
“this last” of men shall follow out, through all vicissitude, his
endless and his mounting way?
And turning then, with heart full of such-like fancies, to that
well-loved Leader’s fate;--imagining his baffled isolation, and the
disheartenment of solitary years;--I have pictured him waiting in the
Coniston woodlands, as Œdipus in Colonus’ grove,--waiting in mournful
memory, in uncomplaining calm--till he should hear at last the august
summons,--nay, sounded it not like the loving banter?--of the unguessed
accompanying God. “Come, Œdipus, why linger on our journey? Thou hast
kept me waiting long.”
INDEX
Abbey Dale, land at, 163
Alexander, Francesca, 52
Ancoats Art Museum, 255
Aristocracy, 135, 142
Artistical Pharisaism, 70
Assisi, 48
Authority in Religion, 67
Bacon on Usury, 189, 197
Baker, George, 74, 163
Baptism, 66
Bastiat, 189, 190
Beever, Miss, 50, 52
Bequest limited, 188, 189
Bible not the word of God, 62;
on Usury, 194, 196
Bishop of Manchester, 201, 202
Bishops, 60, 61, 141, 142
Breaking the Sabbath, 31
Broadlands, 48, 261
Builders’ Parliament, 155, 156
Capitalists and War, 203
_Cestus of Aglaia_, quoted on locomotive, 250, 251
Christ’s sheep, 65, 67
Church, 64;
discipline, 68
Claughton, land at, 163
Clergy, 55-61, 138
Coal, 233
Coinage under St. George, 166
Cole, Mr. G. H. D., 152, 157, 158
Communist colonies, 133
Competition allowed, 140
_Crown of Wild Olive_, Lecture on War analysed, 204-210;
Appendix to, quoted, 210-213
Democracy, 158
Division of labour, 227-230
Doukhobors, 133, 199
Duke, 142
Dull work, 246-248
_Eagle’s Nest_, quoted from, 41, 42, 67, 74
_Ethics of the Dust_, 63
Factory System, 136
Farming, 226, 227
Fawcett, Mrs., 189
_Fors Clavigera_, quoted _passim_, 131-132;
passages on War, 214-218
Franco-German War, 204, 215, 216, 218
Friar’s Crag, 27
Garden Cities and Villages, 173, 257
Giotto at Assisi, 48
_Gold_, 85
Guild of St. George, 23;
_General Statement of_, quoted, 64, 65;
fifty years ago, 159;
Creed of, 161, 162;
land holding, 163;
annual meetings, 164;
officials, 178, 179, 263
Guild Socialism, 139, 151-156
Guilds, 122, 124, 139
Horsfall, T. C., 255
Individualism, 148, 149
Industrial society, 253, 254, 256
Infallibility, 24
Interest, bound up with private property, 187
Irreligious painters at Venice, 32
Labour, 126
Lady Mount Temple, 49
Land cultivation, 170
Land tenure, 137;
in Ireland, 174
Law of supply and demand, 92
Lawyers’ fees, 61
_Lectures on Art_, quoted from, 46, 47
_Letters to the Clergy_, 66
Locomotive, praise of, 250, 251
Lord Mount Temple, 48, 263
_Love’s Meinie_, quoted, 172
Luxmore, H. E., 164
Machinery, 230-232
Marriages in _Time and Tide_, 169
Marshall, Prof., quoted, 93-98
Mill, J. S., 37, 78-119;
_Principles_, 86, 87;
chapters on social well-being, 88, 98-102;
his career, like Ruskin’s, 102-105
Milner, Dennis, 183, 184
_Modern Painters_, Vol. II, 34;
Vol. III, quoted, 68-71
Mr. Molyneux, 29
_Munera Pulveris_, quoted, 89, 128, 159, 185, 203
Museum at Sheffield, 164, 172
Myers, F. W. H., 49, 52, 259
Nationalization of Schools, 120;
of workshops, 121;
of Railways, 124
_Notes on the Construction of Sheepfolds_, 35;
quoted, 59, 60, 62, 64, 65-68
Oaths, 73
Old Age Pensions, 123
_On the Old Road_, quoted, 51, 64, 66
Parents of Ruskin, 26, 27
Pastoral happiness, 222-225
Payment of Clergy, 68
Peasantry in Europe, 224;
in England, 225
Plato, 138, 197
Political Economy, orthodox science of, 78-81;
Theory of Value, 82;
connection with morality, 82;
Ruskin’s definition of, 89;
the “economic man,” 106-109;
definition of Wealth, 109, 110
Population, 137
Position of William, 189-193
Prayer Books, 66
Present duty of a Ruskinian, 179, 180
Priesthood, 57, 62
Prodigal Son, 29
Professional men as officials, 180-182
Quakerism and Ruskin, 71-77
_Queen of the Air_, quoted from, 43-45
Railways, 249-252
Religious art, 68
Rents under St. George, 167
Ricardo, 86, 91
Rich, 115, 116
Rose La Touche, 38, 261
RUSKIN--
Aristocrat, 159
Art teaching, 10
Attack on clergy, 55-61
Career like Mill’s, 102-105
Conservative, 222
Definition of wealth, 115
Divine, A, 19, 21
Epochs of religious change, 31, 32, 47-50;
at Venice in 1876, 50
Free trader, 83, 84
Guild of St. George, 165
Imperialist, 209, 220
Inconsistency, on war, 210-212
Inflammation of the brain, 23
Later views on Usury, 185, 187, 188
Mature period in religion, 47
Mill (and), 78-119
Museum, 164
Neglect of, 9
Peace advocate, 219
Political Economy of, 89, 117
Practical proposals, 120-150
Professor, 178
Quakerism, 55-77
Qualifications of, 15
Religious history, 26-54
Religious Research Fellowship, 53
Sacrifice of reputation, 17, 22, 37
Selflessness of, 13, 14
Signs of a Prophet, 11-25
Sincerity of, 12
Singlemindedness of, 13
Socialist, 134
Style of, 18
Subjects of works, 18
Suffering, 38
Susceptible to landscape beauty in childhood, 11, 20
Talk on Quakerism, 74-76
Three Religious Periods, 36
Twenty-six chapters, 26, 40
Utopia, 132, 143, 147
War, 73
Weaknesses, 24
Sacrament, 66
_Sartor Resartus_, 206
Schools, 120, 175-178
_Sesame and Lilies_, quoted, 101
Shakers, 133
Shakespeare, 46
Shepherds in practice, 226
Sillar, W. C., 185, 186
Small Holdings, 171, 172
Smoke, 234-236;
passages in Ruskin on, 237
Society for Psychical Research, 49
Sparkes, Malcolm, 155, 157
Starvation, to be guarded against, 182-184
Statesmen in the North, 223, 224
Steam machinery, 248
_Stones of Venice_, quoted, 83, 113, 237-245
_Storm Cloud of the Nineteenth Century_, 234
Sweated Industries Act, 128
Talbot, Mrs., 163
_The Nature of Gothic_, quoted, 237-245
Thomson, George, 164
_Time and Tide_, quoted, 84, 137, 139, 142, 147, 169, 175, 201
Unemployed, the, 122
_Unto this Last_, quoted, 84, 88, 91, 113-118, 120, 121, 124, 125, 139
Usury, 185-199;
references to, 193;
authorities against, 194-197;
as private money-lending, 198;
as modern investment, 197, 198
Violence, 143
Vivisection, 46
Wages, 124-127, 129, 130
Wages Fund, 86, 87, 126, 127
Wallace, A. R., 182
Waldensian Service at Turin, 31
War, 136, 203-221;
and capital, 203;
and character, 212-214
Wardle, William, 164
Wealth, definition of, 109, 110, 113, 114;
Ruskin’s definition, 115;
upper limit to, 135, 168, 199-201
Welfare work, 173, 174
Wesley, John, on Usury, 197, 198
Whitley Councils, 154, 156
Word of God, 63
Works of the First Religious Period, 28, 35
Works of the Second Religious Period, 39
Workshops, 121;
by Government, 121, 122;
under Guilds, 122, 124
_Printed in Great Britain by_
UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED, THE GRESHAM PRESS, WOKING AND LONDON
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Chap. xiv. § 19.
[2] _Fors_, Letter LXXXVI.
[3] _Rugby Chapel_, by M. Arnold.
[4] The passages were: Exod. xv, xx; 2 Sam. i. 17; 1 Kings viii; Ps.
xxiii, xxxii, xc, xci, ciii, cxii, cxix, cxxxix; Prov. ii, iii, viii,
xii; Is. lviii; Matt. v, vi, vii; Acts xxvi; 1 Cor. xiii, xv; James
iv; Rev. v, vi. See _Præterita_ for all this.
[5] For his actual experience of prayer, see the incident of 1845 in
_Præterita_, vol. ii. pp. 260, 261.
[6] _Præterita_, iii. 28.
[7] _Præterita_, III. i. 32-34. Also referred to in _Munera Pulveris_,
App. V.
[8] _Præterita_, vol. iii. p. 39.
[9] Id. p. 41.
[10] Id. p. 48.
[11] _Præterita_, vol. iii. pp. 44-6. _Fors_, Letter LXXVI.
[12] _Fors_, Letter LXXVI.
[13] Letter XII, p. 3.
[14] Notably in the address and Turner drawing presented by
distinguished men on his 80th birthday.
[15] _Fors_, Letter XLII.
[16] Pp. 189-190.
[17] _Lectures on Art_, p. 50.
[18] _Lectures on Art_, p. 52.
[19] See _Fors_, LXXVI, March 1877, vol. iv. p. 69.
[20] See Epilogue.
[21] Letter LXIII, vol. vi. p. 89.
[22] _Fors_, Letter LXI, p. 7, note.
[23] See also _Fors_, Letter LXVI, vol. vi. p. 172.
[24] _On the Old Road_, vol. ii. p. 388.
[25] _Fors_, XCII, 1883.
[26] Id. XCII, vol. viii. p. 205.
[27] This reference is known to refer chiefly to Francesca Alexander
and her mother at Florence. Not improbably, also, to the Misses Beever
at Coniston.
[28] Letter XLIX.
[29] Letter LV.
[30] _Fors_, Letter LXXV, § 21. Notes and Correspondence.
[31] _Time and Tide_, p. 71.
[32] _Sheepfolds_, p. 269.
[33] _Fors_, Letter XXXI, § 18, and also Letter LXVII, § 10.
[34] _Sheepfolds_, p. 271.
[35] _Fors_, Letter XXXV, § 3.
[36] See also _Fors_, Letter LXV and Letter XLIV, also Letter XL for
an amusing account of the edifying Bible story of Joab and Abner; and
very numerous other passages.
[37] _Fors_, Letter XXXVI, § 3.
[38] _On the Old Road_, vol. ii. p. 253.
[39] _General Statement as to the Nature and Purpose of the St.
George’s Guild_, p. 12, 1882.
[40] _Sheepfolds_: in _On the Old Road_, vol. ii. p. 259.
[41] _Sheepfolds_, p. 259.
[42] _Sheepfolds_, p. 267.
[43] _Sheepfolds_, p. 283.
[44] _Modern Painters_, vol. iii. p. 57 (iv. 4) (1856).
[45] _Crown of Wild Olive_, Introduction, p. 17.
[46] _Fors_, Letter XX.
[47] _Eagle’s Nest_, p. 139.
[48] _Unto This Last_, Libr. ed. § 53, _n._, small ed. p. 97, and
_Stones of Venice_, iii. 168. This last passage was written just after
the Repeal of the Corn Laws, when the question was hot.
[49] _Time and Tide_, Letter I, p. 5.
[50] _Unto This Last_, p. 97 _n._
[51] See the privately printed Dialogue on _Gold_; Library ed. vol.
xvii. p. 491, written in 1863, and the letter to _The Times_, on p.
489.
[52] _Unto This Last_, Libr. ed. § 58, small ed. pp. 109, 110.
[53] _Unto This Last_, § 60, small ed. p. 114.
[54] _Unto This Last_, Libr. ed. § 55, small ed. p. 103. See also § 1.
[55] Letter to Dr. John Brown, Libr. ed. vol. xvii. p. lxxxii.
[56] Note to _A Disciple of Plato_, by Wm. Smart, p. 48, Libr. ed.,
xviii, lxxxiii.
[57] _Principles of Economics_, Bk. I. chap. vii. § 3.
[58] Book iv. § 28.
[59] _Sesame and Lilies_, i. 42.
[60] _Unsettled Questions of Political Economy_, Essay V, 1884, and
earlier in the _Westminster Review_.
[61] _Unto This Last_, small ed. p. 114.
[62] _Unto This Last_, §§ 61-64, Libr. ed.; small ed. pp. 118-127.
[63] _Unto This Last_, § 65, or p. 128.
[64] _Unto This Last_, § 27, or p. 40.
[65] _Unto This Last_, § 29, or pp. 43, 44.
[66] See in continuation of this the Apologue of the two sailors:
_Unto This Last_, pp. 49-57 or § 33-7.
[67] _Unto This Last_, Libr. ed. § 28, or pp. 41, 42 in small ed.
[68] _Unto This Last_, § 77, or p. 156.
[69] _Unto this Last_, Preface, p. 7.
[70] By Graham Wallas, in his book with that title. See later in this
chapter on Ruskin’s Bishops, p. 141.
[71] _Unto This Last_, § 79, n.
[72] _Munera Pulveris_, § 128.
[73] _Unto This Last_, § 53, small ed. pp. 96-8.
[74] Malthus.
[75] Ricardo and James Mill.
[76] Ruskin’s disciple, the late Professor Wm. Smart of Glasgow, has
written a book to show that there may be no supply price to wages.
[77] See _Arrows of the Chace_, ii. 97.
[78] John Ruskin, _Social Reformer_, p. 138.
[79] _Time and Tide_, Letter XX, § 124.
[80] _Fors_, LXXXIX, p. 135. But _v._ pp. 182-4 below.
[81] Letter XVIII.
[82] _Time and Tide_, p. 19.
[83] The literature of the Guild movement is considerable and growing.
Mr. G. H. D. Cole has written _The World of Labour_, _Labour in War
Time_, _Self Government in Industry_, _Labour in the Commonwealth_,
and _Chaos and Order in Industry_, and edits _The Guildsman_ (office
of the National Guilds League, 39 Cursitor Street, London, E.C. 4).
Mr. A. R. Orage has written _National Guilds_, _The Alphabet of
Economics_, and written much in his paper, _The New Age_; and Mr. S.
G. Hobson has written _National Guilds_.
[84] For a full account of this remarkable story see a pamphlet issued
by the Garton Foundation, 36 Dean’s Yard, Westminster, 1s., entitled
_The Industrial Council for the Building Industry_.
[85] § 129-133, and also _Time and Tide_, § 105; _Crown of Wild
Olive_, § 119; _Cestus of Aglaia_, § 55.
[86] See _Fors_, vol. viii. p. 231.
[87] _Fors_, Letter LVIII, vol. v. p. 273.
[88] Cf. the Preface to _Unto This Last_, referred to in chap. v.
above.
[89] See _Fors_, Letters LVIII and LXIII.
[90] _The Wonderful Century_, chap. xx.
[91] _A Reasonable Revolution_, by Bertram Pickard (George Allen &
Unwin, Ltd.).
[92] P. 115.
[93] In pamphlets enumerated in Libr. ed. vol. xvii. p. 220, _n_.
[94] See _The Ethics of Usury and Interest_, by Rev. W. Blissard
(George Allen & Unwin), 2s. 6d. net.
[95] The numbers which are devoted to lengthy treatment of Usury are:
Letters I, XVIII, p. 17, XXI, pp. 15-18, XLIII, pp. 153-7, LIII,
142-5, LXVIII, 245-53, LXX, 312-33, LXXVIII and LXXX, and _Arrows of
the Chace_, ii. 103. There is also a long discussion on the subject
with Bishop Fraser of Manchester in _On the Old Road_, vol. ii. pp.
202-245, reprinted from the _Contemporary Review_.
[96] See list in Libr. edn. vol. xxvii. Introd. p. xlvii.
[97] _Time and Tide_, pp. 12, 13, small ed.
[98] Preface to _Munera Pulveris_, p. xxvi.
[99] § 94.
[100] § 98.
[101] § 102.
[102] § 115.
[103] § 116.
[104] Sir Herbert Edwardes.
[105] LXXIV, vol. vii. p. 42.
[106] LXXIV, vol. vii. p. 42.
[107] Vol. vii. p. 344.
[108] Letter II, p. 17.
[109] _Fors Clavigera_, vol. i. Letter IV, p. 18.
[110] Letter VII, p. 16.
[111] Letter VII, p. 21. See also Letter XIV, p. 18.
[112] Letter XXXIII, p. 24. See also Letter XXXVII, pp. 19-23. LXV, p.
148. LXVII, p. 240. LXXIX, p. 183.
[113] XLIV, p. 178.
[114] See also _Munera Pulveris_, p. 46.
[115] § 159.
[116] _Hawkshead_, by H. S. Cowper.
[117] v. _The Rural Labourer_, by Mr. and Mrs. Hammond.
[118] This explanation of the Storm Cloud I gave in my book on Smoke,
_The Destruction of Daylight_ (1907, now out of print). It was
accepted by the Editors of the Library Edition of Ruskin’s works. Vol.
xxxiv. p. xxvi.
[119] A Local Government Board Departmental Committee was sitting on
this before the war. It has resumed its sittings under the Ministry of
Health.
[120] Other passages on Smoke may be found in _Fors_, Letter XLIV,
§ 13; Letter XLVI, § 10; Letter LX, § 3; Letter LXXXI, § 17 (in a
letter from Mr. Horsfall); in a youthful reference in _The Poetry of
Architecture_, chap. v. § 63; _Modern Painters_, vol. iii. chap. 13. §
14; vol. v. pt. ix. § 24; _The Queen of the Air_, Preface (a beautiful
passage) and I. 8; _Ariadne Florentina_, vi. § 221; S. Mark’s Rest,
vi. § 76; _The Art of England_, vi. § 184 (a strong passage); _Aratra
Pentelici_, iv. § 132; _Arrows of the Chace_, ii. p. 181; Letter
printed in Library ed., vol. xxix. pp. 574-6, called “Morning Thoughts
at Geneva,” intended for _Fors_.
[121] _Fors_, XCV, vol. viii. p. 258.
[122] Id., LXXXXII, vol. vii. p. 306. A similar solution is outlined
in Letter XVIII of _Time and Tide_.
[123] Letter LI, p. 85.
[124] _Fors_, Letter XLIV.
[125] Library ed. vol. xix. p. 61.
[126] _Munera Pulveris_, i. p. 16.
[127] _Fors_, xi. pp. 3-7, on the navvies on the way to Furness Abbey.
Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber:
gathering hinself into=> gathering himself into {pg 30}
from other notives=> from other motives {pg 80}
were comparativelty uninstructed=> were comparatively uninstructed {pg
169}