PR 5263 .R5 Copy 1 AN ADDRESS ON JOHN RUSKIN BY ALFRED T. RICHARDS ADDRESS delivered before tfie Men's Class of the Asylum Hill Congregational Church Hartford, Connecticut By ALFRED T. RICHARDS 4- January 10, 1904 " One comfort is, that Great Men, taken up in any way, are profitable company. We cannot look, however imperfectly, upon a great man, without gaining something by him. He is the living light fountain, which it is good and pleasant to be near. The light which enlightens, which has enlightened, the darkness of the world; and this not a kindled lamp only, but rather as a natural luminary shining by the gift of Heaven; a flowing light fountain, as I say, of native original insight, of manhood and heroic nobleness; — in whose radiance all souls feel that it is well with them. On terms whatsoever, you will not grudge to wander in such neighborhood for a while." Carlyle. By transfer The White House, THE AFTERGLOW OF A GREAT MAN'S LIFE. I HAVE stood on the utmost verge of Cape Cod, half an hour after sunset, and watched the clouds come up out of the west — black, gray, and white — and in huge masses and multitudinous shapes have seen them float across the moors, and far out over the sea. A grand and imposing spectacle — but not a joyful one, for in it there was no warmth, no color. Soon again, from the same low quarter, there burst forth long stretches of crimson and gold that slowly melted into Elysian fields of palest green with flaming furrows of molten gold. Even the white clouds of the upper sky were touched into beauty by the rosy pink of a coming dawn. As I stood thus, gazing in wonder and admira- tion on all that splendor, I remembered it was but the rich afterglow of a sunken sun. In all that beautiful handiwork of Nature we see a symbol of the results which follow a great man's life long after 2 The Afterglow of a Great Man's Life. he has disappeared from this earth. Though dead, he yet continues to speak. Well does Jean Paul ask " How do great men bring it about that their own invisible spirit in their works seizes and holds us fast, without our being able to quote the words and passages whereby they do it, as a thickly-leaved forest murmurs, though not a single branch stirs? " We cannot answer this question, but I am sure most of us have felt the magic spell of which the poet speaks. Think how immeasurably poorer this City of Hartford would be, in all that makes for true great- ness, had there not lived and wrought in our midst the illustrious Horace Bushnell. The afterglow of that great man's life is still working in our city's life and possessions. We see it in our capitol, in our parks, in our libraries and art galleries, in our pulpits, and more than all, in the lives of all good citizens. And for generations to come Dr. Bushnell will con- tinue to be a kind of sacred oracle to whom men will repair for light and inspiration. The afterglow of such a life is like the yearly The Afterglow of a Great Man's Life. 3 overflow of the Nile, carrying in its course fertility and beauty, making the desert to blossom as the rose. But it is of another great man that I especially wish to speak this morning — a poet, an artist, a prophet, and a man of God — the radiant John Ruskin. He came into this world in the year 1819. A memorable year — for in it were also born Queen Victoria, James Russell Lowell, Charles Kingsley, Walt Whitman, and Arthur Hugh Clough. Young Ruskin's father was a successful merchant who had cimassed a large fortune. He possessed an innate artistic taste, and was a lover of all beautiful things in Nature and in Art. His mother was a woman of remarkably good sense, and of the most rigid religious principles, a true Puritan, in the best sense of that term. Mrs. Ruskin dedicated her little boy to God at his birth, and, judging from the noble and pure life he subsequently led, the precious gift was graciously accepted. She taught him to memorize long chapters of the Bible from Genesis to Revela- tion. In later life we find Mr. Ruskin attributing 4 The Afterglow of a Great Man's Life. much of his power as a writer to this study of the Bible. It was the wish of his parents that the boy should become a bishop, but a Higher Power ordained otherwise. At three years of age the child Ruskin would mount a little stool in the parlor of his home and preach a sermonette. " Be dood," he used to say ; " if you are dood, Dod will love you ; if you are not dood, Dod will not love you." Surely no trained bishop could preach a truer word than that. At seven years of age this youthful prodigy was writing poetry, and extraordinarily good poetry for one so young. Later, in his boyhood, long carriage drives were taken with father and mother through the most delightful scenes in England, visiting in their excur- sions all the public and as many of the private galleries of Art as they were allowed to enter. Young Ruskin meanwhile employed his time at intervals in writing poetry and in sketching from Nature and Art. Still later he was taken abroad to study the great works of the Old Masters in The Afterglow of a Great Man's Life. 5 Rome, Florence, Milan, Venice, etc. ; then back again to England to enter Christ Church College at Oxford. He graduated with high honors, winning the very highly coveted honor known as the Newdigate Prize for the best original poem. Again he turned his steps towards the Continent to continue his study of Nature and Art. In the year 1843 there came from the press a most remarkable book, entitled " Modern Painters," by "A graduate of Oxford." It at once arrested attention, not only on account of the new theories advanced in regard to what should govern the Art- world, but also by the unrivaled beauty of its style and the wide grasp and profound knowledge of the subjects discussed. A brilliant star in the literary heavens had arisen. " Who can the author be? " was asked everywhere. Nobody seemed able to answer the question. Syd- ney Smith said in the presence of a large gathering of literary characters: " It is a work of transcendent talent, presenting the most original views in the most elegant and polished language, which will work a 6 The Afterglow of a Great Man's Life. revolution in the world of taste.*' And it certainly did. There were glowing passages in the book that reminded one of the flaming words of the prophet Isaiah. It finally came out that the author of this remarkable work was no other than John Ruskin, then twenty-four years of age. Thus by one bound the young author had taken his place among the supreme masters of English prose. The book was written mainly to defend the great Turner against his critics, and to prove furthermore that that supreme master of Color was the greatest landscape painter the world had seen. Mr. Ruskin subsequently added four more volumes to his " Modern Painters." But these were only a small part of his works. He continued to write on a vast variety of subjects; from the swallow twittering on the straw-built shed to the eagle soaring in the empyrean, from the little flower of the crannied wall to the mighty Cedars of Lebanon, and from the dust of the street to the foundations of the Alps. Everything he touched he glorified. Every- The Afterglow of a Great Man's Life. 7 where, and under all circumstances, the burden of his message was the Brotherhood of Man and the Fatherhood of God. " You can see the sky," he said, *' in the merest puddle of the street if you only look for it " — and so forth, and so forth. Ruskin made literature the organ of the serious mind. " What fairy palaces," he said, '* we may build of beautiful thought, proof against all adversity: bright fancies, satisfied memories, noble histories, faithful sayings, treasure houses of precious and restful thoughts which care cannot disturb, nor pain make gloomy, nor poverty take from us, — houses not made with hands for our souls to dwell in." If you were to ask me what are the dominating notes of his writings I would say majesty and pathos — the majesty that uplifts the mind in the glorious strains of the " Hallelujah Chorus," and the pathos that melts our hearts in the sorrow breathing music of the " Unfinished Symphony." The written wordst no less than the generous deeds, of a great man become a storehouse of moral and spiritual electricity, — and although, for a season, the sub- 8 The Afterglow of a Great Man's Life. tie power may lie dormant, it will burst forth again — sometimes in riven bolts against all forms of iniquity, but oftener like soft summer lightning as it illumines the path of the benighted traveler. But Mr. Ruskin was not only a great writer and art critic — the greatest in England — but also a reformer, a public educator, and a benefactor. He hated all shams, and the Mammon worship of his countrymen pained him beyond measure. How to relieve the misery and ignorance that he saw around him was the next labor of his life. He began the good work by organizing night schools in London for the benefit of workingmen, and manual training schools as well. In these schools he took a practical part, spending his money, time, and talents in advancing the cause. A block in the West End of London he bought with his own funds and turned into lodgings for the deserving poor of that neighborhood. He went so far as to open a tea store near by, with the name of John Ruskin painted over the door, in order to give his tenants and friends an opportunity to buy pure tea. The Afterglow of a Great Man's Life. 9 But his greatest effort was the establishing of St. George's Guild, near Sheffield. This was a kind of glorified "Settlement," wherein men were to be taught to develop the best there was within them, along the lines of Art, Science, Agriculture, and Political Economy. Candidates for this guild were required to make the following Declaration: " I trust in the living God, Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth and of all things and creatures visible and invisible. I trust in the kindness of His law and the goodness of His work. I will strive to love Him and keep His law and see His work while I live. I trust in the nobleness of human nature, in the majesty of its faculties, and the fullness of its mercy, and the joy of its love. And I will strive to love my neighbor as myself, and even when I cannot, will act as if I did. ... I will not kill or hurt any living creature needlessly, nor destroy any beautiful thing, but will strive to save and comfort all gentle life and guard and perfect all natural beauty on earth. I will strive to raise my own body and soul daily into all the higher 10 The Afterglow of a Great Man's Life. powers of duty and happiness, not in rivalship or contention with others, but for the help, deHght, and honor of others and for the joy and peace of my own Hfe.*' At Keswick he revived the lost art of weaving linen by hand. Towards these and kindred benevolent objects he gave his money with a lavish hand. No needy young man or woman ever begged of him in vain. During his life he gave away all the fortune his father had left him — a little over a million dollars. There never was a more self-sacrificing soul. All this splendid public ministry, however, did not save him from the sneers of some of his critics. Once he turned upon them in these scathing words : " Because I have spent my life in almsgiving, not in fortune hunting, because I have labored always for the honor of others, not my own, and have chosen rather to make men look to Turner and Luini than to form or exhibit the skill of my own hand, because I have lowered my rents and assured the comfortable lives of my poor tenants instead of taking from them The Afterglow of a Great Man's Life. 1 1 all I could force for the roofs they needed, finally, because I never disobeyed my mother, because I have honored all women with a solemn worship, and have been kind even to the unthankful and evil, therefore the hacks of English art and literature wag their heads at me, and the poor wretch who pawns the dirty linen of his soul daily for a bottle of sour wine and a cigar, talks of the effeminate sentimentality of Ruskin." In the fall of 1871 I wrote to Mr. Ruskin my grateful acknowledgment of the obligation I was under for the teaching and guidance of his writings. I told him that he had opened my eyes to see beau- tiful things and my ears to hear charming sounds. I dared even to ask him what form of catastrophe he predicted for England, if she persisted, as he had written, in her life of gross materialism? The Master promptly replied, thanking me most kindly for my letter, and then, among other things, said: *' You ask me what form of catastrophe threatens England. None of us need speculate on the matter ; every historical epoch has its own special- 12 The Afterglow of a Great Man's Life. ties of ruin. In the mean time, all that we can do is, each in his place, to form a clear view of what is right and to do that resolutely and simply, in spite alike of the fashions and doctrines of our day." This truth is restated in a different form in Mr. Ruskin's reply to the teacher of an Aberdeen Bible class who had written to him asking for a Christmas word to his class. Mr. Ruskin said: '* If you care to give them a word directly from me, say to them that they will find it well throughout life never to trouble themselves about what they ought not to do, but about what the"^ ought to do. The condemna- tion given from the Judgment Throne, most solemnly described, is all for the undones, and not for the dones. People are perpetually afraid of doing wrongs but unless they are doing its reverse energetically, they do it all day long, and the degree does not matter. Make young hearers resolve to be honest in their work in this life. Heaven will take care of them for the other." Life to Ruskin was no pastime, or market place of gain, but a solemn probation period to fit him for The Afterglow of a Great Man's Life. 13 a higher sphere. His motto was " Today! " — and with unwearied diligence he strove to make each morning bright, and each day great. When at Oxford last year, I had the good fortune to be introduced to a gentleman in that city who was intimately acquainted with Mr. Ruskin. This man, I found out, was not only a musical genius, but also a practical builder of some instru- ments. He had in his parlor a beautiful specimen of an old harpsichord. Thither Mr. Ruskin would often repair and, sitting down, ask Mr. Taphouse, for that was the gentleman's name, to play some chords on the old instrument. The music would put Mr. Ruskin into a kind of day-dream, or ecstatic state; " then," said Mr. Taphouse, " his talk I can describe no otherwise than as ' the beautiful reverie of an angel.* Ah! " said Mr. Taphouse, "what a pure-hearted soul he was. . . . When he left Oxford a great light went out of the city." I walked out one summer morning to the little village of Ferry Hinksey to see the bit of public road built for the village folk by the great Art Critic 14 The Afterglow of a Great Man's Life. and his band of undergraduates twenty-five years ago. On my way back I found myself wondering what had become of that jocund band who had shouldered the pickaxe and shovel, and worked at road-making a quarter of a century since. Then I remembered reading that Mr. Ruskin, once return- ing from his labors over that same road, told a friend whom he met that he felt depressed. Upon being asked what troubled him, he replied, " I am afraid that all my efforts to educate and inspire these young men are altogether valueless." Alas! how little we know, the humblest of us, how far-reaching our influence may be. The tiny acorn tossed hither and thither by every gust of wind finds at last a quiet lodgment, and striking its roots into the soil, grows up into the sturdy oak and lives for ages. The story of the widow's mite will be remembered and spoken of as long as the world endures. I have since discovered that the great Christian worker and distinguished writer. Canon Rawnsley of Carlisle Cathedral, was one of these road-makers, and so was Wm. H. Mallock, the author of the The Afterglow of a Great Man's Life. 15 powerful work, " Is Life Worth Living? " and of many other works evincing a religious mind of great breadth and keenness. Others, too, of those road- makers have since made their mark in the literary, political, and religious world. But greatest of all, perhaps, was the saintly Arnold Toynbee of Toyn- bee Hall settlement. Young Toynbee caught the inspiration of the Master road-maker to such an extent as to give up the dearest outward possessions this world could afford, literally to lay himself a living sacrifice on the altar of humanity. Well did he learn his lesson, and from that bit of crude road- building at Ferry Hinksey went up to the East End of London to open spiritual roads over which many a poor, sin-stricken soul has found a safe path- way to Heaven. Thus the teaching of a man of God is like a celestial spark dropped into the heart of a brother man, and by some mysterious alchemy is fanned into a living flame, which, breaking through all barriers, rekindles itself in unkindled souls. And so the " afterglow " continues to beautify men's days. 1 6 The Afterglow of a Great Man's Life. The earthly career of John Ruskin came to an end in the early Spring of 1900, at the age of eighty-one. Just at the burst of opening day his spirit passed into the unseen world, and the mystery of life and its arts was to him a mystery no longer. Dean Bradley sent a gracious letter to Mr. Ruskin's cousin, with whom he had lived, offering a grave in Westminster Abbey, but Mrs. Severn had to decline the great honor, as Mr. Ruskin had explicitly stated that he wished to be buried in the little churchyard of Conniston, alongside of his dear old friends the " Ladies of the Thwaite." The funeral ceremonies were very simple and impressive. A beautiful cream-colored linen pall had been woven for the occasion at the Industrial School in Keswick founded by Mr. Ruskin. The pall was lined with rose-colored silk and em- broidered on the obverse side with the wild rose, Mr. Ruskin's favorite flower. In the center of the pall was the title of the book he loved best of all his writings — " Unto This Last." But perhaps the most pathetic wreath that was placed on his casket The Afterglow of a Great Man's Life. 17 was one by his old tailor, containing this inscription, " There was a man sent from God whose name was John." Surely no monarch ever had a fairer wreath than that! And now his grave has become his most eloquent pulpit. Great Heart, the Beloved has gone ! No longer will he be seen toiling across the uplands, for the pilgrim's staff has been exchanged for the victor's crown ! No longer will he be seen meditating in the fields at twilight, for he is now basking in the light of the Eternities! Nevertheless we believe, in a supremely great way, he is still there, still here, still everywhere, in the 7"rue, the Beautiful, and the Eternal. The nightingales of his sweet song will continue to pour their heavenly melodies into the lives of all receptive souls for generations to come, " making one music as before, but vaster," in that immeasurable temple whose builder and maker is God.