Selections; ifloial anD Religious; jfrom tfje Book .. O 7 Copyright If COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. SELECTIONS MORAL AND RELIGIOUS From the Works of JOHN RUSKIN With Notes and Comments by FREDERICK W. OSBORN Professor Emeritus Adelphi College, Brooklyn ARTierveRiTAn! BOSTON: RICHARD G. BADGER TORONTO: THE COPP CLARK CO., LIMITED Copyright, 1917, by Frederick W. Osborn All Rights Reserved n i%i% pi MADE IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA The Gorham Press, Boston, U. S. A. V MAR 26 1317 P Lb 6 rvjk ■ 80149 '' "VvJ«D I gladly dedicate this book to my former pupils in Adelphia Academy and College CONTENTS Page Introduction — Ruskin as an Ethical Teacher. 7 The Value of Occupation 16 Liberty and its Perils 19 The Connection Between Good Taste and Morality 21 The Unselfish Use of Superior Talents 25 The True Source of Strength in Government. 28 The Unselfish Imagination 31 On Betting 33 The Spending of Money 35 Work Dignified by its Motive 37 Concerning the Settlement of Political Disputes Among Nations 40 Disregard of Law in the Pursuit of Wealth. . 42 The Value of Contentment 45 Honesty in Trivial Affairs 48 The Process of the Formation of Habits 50 On Lying 53 The Nude in Art 55 Compensation for Work 57 The Mystery of Life 61 SELECTIONS, MORAL AND RELIGIOUS FROM THE WORKS OF JOHN RUSKIN INTRODUCTION RUSKIN AS AN ETHICAL TEACHER HP HE latter half of the last century is noteworthy for the presence of two men in England who attracted attention by the forcefulness of their ethical message to their countrymen and to the world. As we all know they were Thomas Carlyle and John Ruskin. Like the utterances of all prophets their messages provoked vigorous criticism, but were too truthful to be treated with indifference or ignored. Neither of these writers undertook to publish a sys- tem of ethics but called attention to the existence of social and economic evils which, in popular estima- tion, had come to be regarded as inherent in the or- ganization of English life. It was this practical character of their teaching, especially that of Rus- kin, that has given to their work such a vital signifi- cance, — a significance that is manifesting itself in the changes occurring to-day in the social and eco- nomic life of England. The early life of Ruskin did not seem favorable to the career of an ethical teacher. He was a child 7 8 SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN of fortune, carefully nurtured by fond parents, sur- rounded in a refined home by all that makes life attractive. He knew nothing of the struggle with poverty, nor did he have any occasion to mark out for himself a definite career. His earliest interests were a love of nature and a love of books, and no pains were spared to gratify these tastes. While still a boy, he shared with the family the pleasures of foreign travel and made copious records of what he saw and heard. His university career at Oxford was interrupted by ill health, and was distinguished by his essays in poetry in which he won at least one prize and was a competitor for honors with Ten- nyson In all this period of preparation there is surely but little to suggest the career of a prophet. In the absence of any positive proof, it may be dif- ficult to assert to what extent his early familiarity with the English Bible may have helped to develop his ethical ideals. It is certainly not unreasonable to suppose that the truths embodied in the literature of both the Old Testament and the New may have aided in the development of that keen sense of jus- tice which lent force and vigor to all his ethical teaching. SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN 9 But Ruskin possessed one trait of character that contained in itself the promise of his career as an artist and teacher, — his sincerity. He would not accept the standards of others as his own. He must examine the fundamental principles of art as the only sure and safe basis for a critical judgment. No pains were too great, no labor too assiduous in order that he might master the details of a subject. Noth- ing would satisfy him but a first-hand acquaintance with some region or object in nature. His fa- miliarity with mountains was gained by long resi- dence among them and a careful study of their geo- logical history. In preparation for his great work on the ''Stones of Venice," after obtaining all infor- mation possible from books, he spent a whole winter in Venice, thoroughly examining St. Marks, the Ducal Palace and several ruins, "drawing and meas- uring and comparing their details." His thorough honesty and sincerity made him in- different to flattery on the one hand, and to hostile criticism on the other. His defence of Turner in the first volume of "Modern Painters" called down upon him a storm of reproach from artists for his lack of reverence for the old masters. In a casual meeting io SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN with someone who said he greatly enjoyed his works Mr. Ruskin replied, "I do not care whether you enjoyed them, but did they do you any good?" Nor was our author content to urge upon others the value of honesty, justice, and an unselfish regard for their welfare in their dealings with their fel- low men. His deeds powerfully reenforced his words. No better evidence could be given of his sincere desire to bring the blessings of culture and refinement into the homes of the poor than his gen- erous service in their behalf. Although brought up in a home of elegance and refinement, and accus- tomed from a child to the gratification of his tastes, and the heir of large wealth, he gave at first a little, then a half, then all of his income, except £300, for the benefit of others less fortunate than himself. If he needed botanical and art works for his studies, he crippled himself rather than refuse his last spare twenty guineas to the widow of a dead artist. When the Workingmen's College was established in London he took charge of the drawing classes single-handed, and for several months in the year spent two evenings a week in personal instruction. His biographer remarks that only one that has en- SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN n gaged in this form of philanthropic labor can "quite understand what it involves, and how difficult it is for an artist or literary man, after his sedentary day's work, to drag his tired brain and over-worked nerves to a crowded room in some unsavory neighborhood, and to endure the noise, the glare, the closeness, and, worst of all perhaps, the indocility of a class of learn- ers for whom the discipline of the ordinary school or college does not exist." Ruskin was gifted, like a true poet, with a keen in- sight into the fundamental nature of man. This na- ture being essentially esthetic must find a normal ex- pression in the production of things beautiful. High art was not, therefore, to be achieved by a strict ad- herence to rules, or by deftness in handling a brush, but must be an expression of the total man. A great picture could be produced only by a great soul. And thus Ruskin sought to dignify all art by ennobling the motives of the artist. The true mission of the artist is to add to the value and significance of life both in the individual and in the nation. This con- ception of the ideal excellence of art led him to make incessant warfare upon showy architecture, and upon the unsightly objects that disfigured the streets of 12 SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN large cities. These were the marks of a decadent rather than a virile national life. Ruskin saw with great clearness the psychologic truth that there is a striking parallel between the esthetic and the moral nature. Man is not made moral by the performance of duties prescribed by custom or enforced by law. This may make him a respectable citizen and a comfortable neighbor. But unless these practices are the outcome of a genuine love of honesty and justice and a sincere regard for the rights of others they are but as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal. In one of his addresses, he observes, "The entire object of true education is to make people not merely do the right things but to enjoy the right things, — not merely pure, but to love purity, not merely just, but to hunger and thirst after justice. ,, This conception of morality as an influence per- vading the total life and as the overflow of a master- ful desire to be upright and just in all relations and toward all classes will help to explain much of the ethical teaching of Ruskin and his vigorous denunci- ation of some of the standards of morality preva- lent in the social and economic life of his times. And SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN 13 yet, with all his searching exposure of existing evils, he was a thorough believer in the excellence of hu- man nature. He would have us believe that human life was meant to be full of beauty and joy, and therefore that all should unite in social betterment for the accomplishment of this result. No small part of the charm of Ruskin's ethical teaching is due to his literary excellence. He has a style of his own in which the truth he would impress is conveyed in language at once lucid and exact and so full of rhythmic beauty that we willingly surren- der to its spell. One of his critics has said, "Amid all this pomp of language, all this radiance of imagi- nation, . . . there is not one word that does not perform its duty and is not the one word per- fectly fitted to produce the effect and express the thought which the writer would convey to us." 1 Much of the most valuable part of the ethical teaching of Ruskin was incidental to his main work, or at least seems to have been suggested while pur- suing studies in other directions. During his study of Alpine scenery, while residing in Switzerland, he a Dawson : Makers of English Prose, p. 280. 14 SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN is impressed with the sadness of the life of the people and devotes a chapter in one of the volumes of 'Mod- ern Painters' to a discussion of the reasons for it. In describing the slow process in which a mountain peak is formed he turns aside to use it as an illustration of the formation of habits. It is obvious therefore that the casual reader is likely to miss much that is sig- nificant in the work of Ruskin, and that in order to come to a full appreciation of his personality such passages must be detached and arranged with others of similar significance. Together they furnish strong testimony to the fact that there was a dominant purpose pervading all his work, to elevate the ideals of life and to make it more fruitful of that which is noble and good, to eliminate existing antagonisms among the classes, and to unite men and women of all ranks in efforts to promote their mutual welfart. This purpose he has voiced in one of his own signifi- cant statements. "We need examples of people, who leaving Heaven to decide whether they are to rise in the world, decide for themselves whether they will be happy in it, and have resolved to seek not greater wealth, but simpler pleasures; not higher SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN 15 fortune but deeper felicity; making the first of pos- sessions self-possession; and honoring themselves in the harmless pride and calm pursuits of peace." THE VALUE OF OCCUPATION ' I 4 HE character of men depends more on their oc- cupations than on any teaching we can give them, or principles with which we can imbue them. The employment forms the habits of body and mind, and these are the constitution of the man; — the greater part of his moral or persistent nature, whatsoever ef- fort, under special excitement he may make to change or overcome them. Employment is the half and the primal half of education, — it is the warp of it; and the fineness and endurance of all subsequently woven patterns depends wholly upon its straightness and strength. And whatsoever difficulty there may be in tracing through past history the remote connections of event and cause, one chain of sequence is always clear ; the formation, namely, of the character of na- tions by their employments and the determination of their final fate by their character. The movement and the first direction of decisive revolutions often depend on accident; but their persistent cause and 16 SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN 17 their consequences depend wholly on the nature of the people. . . . Whether as a body they employ their new powers for good or evil will depend, not on their facilities for knowledge, not even on the general intelligence they may possess; but on the number of persons among them whom wholesome employments have rendered familiar with the duties and modest in their estimate of the promises of life. — Queen of the Air, Sect. 126. OCCUPATION p RESIDENT HYDE has said, "No man can grow in character unless he is doing freely and gladly something which he likes to do — something into which he can put the whole energy of his will, the whole enthusiasm of his heart." The relation of occupation to character is a sub- ject that has received little attention as yet among educators, simply because occupation is usually de- termined by environment, or by financial needs and aspirations. In a manufacturing community the boy or girl will drift into a factory where money can be 1 8 SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN earned with the least delay and with a small amount of knowledge or skill. In a commercial community boys and girls will drift into business for a similar reason. Another difficulty is suggested by the fact that young people must often decide upon some occupa- tion before they have developed a preference for any. It is probable that the present system of education is partly responsible for this imperfect adjustment. The proposal to introduce into our public schools a larger variety of handwork and to classify children upon a better psychological basis will provide, at least, a par- tial remedy for this defect. Ruskin himself is a good illustration of the value of occupation in the development of character. From early youth his artistic nature was stimulated by a happy environ- ment and by well selected studies, to the development of an ideal life. But few persons can enjoy such opportunities as Ruskin enjoyed. II LIBERTY, AND ITS PERILS 9 I *HE first point we have all to determine is not how free we are, but what kind of creatures we are. It is of small importance to any of us whether we get liberty; but of the greatest that we deserve it. Whether we can win, fate must determine ; but that we may be worthy of it, we may ourselves de- termine ; and the most sorrowful fate of all that we can suffer, is to have it without deserving it. . . . There is no act or option of act possible, but the wrong deed or option has poison in it which will stay in your veins thereafter for ever. Never more to all eternity can you be as you might have been had you not done that — chosen that. You have 'formed your character' forsooth ! No ; if you have chosen ill, you have De-formed it, and that forever. In some choices it had been better for you that a red-hot iron bar had struck you aside, scarred and helpless, than that you had so chosen. 'You will know better next time !' No. Next time will never come. Next time 19 ao SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN the choice will be in quite another aspect — between quite different things, — you, weaker than you were by the evils into which you have fallen; it, more doubtful than it was by the increased dimness of your sight. No one ever gets wiser by doing wrong, nor stronger. You will get wiser and stronger only by doing right, whether forced or not; the prime, the one need is to do that, under whatever compul- sion, until you can do it without compulsion. And then you are a Man. This passage deals in a masterly manner with that subtle fascination which the knowledge of evil seems to possess for most young people. To get a first hand acquaintance with evil, to visit places where vice unmasks itself, to know in one's own experience the results of some vicious indulgence, with no inten- tion of ever repeating it, this seems to many not only to be quite harmless but to be the mark of a liberal and independent spirit. Such knowledge has often been justified as a part of one's necessary knowledge of the world. There is undoubtedly much in our current litera- ture that tends to foster this idea and to suggest the SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN 21 superior wisdom of those who possess such a knowl- edge. The unwisdom of such a course lies in the fact that all familiarity with vice tends to weaken resist- ance to it. It was a profound remark of Charles Lamb that the next worse thing to attempting to make a child an infidel was letting him know that there is any such thing as an infidel. And all educators know how carefully Plato sought to guard the children of his Republic against any ac- quaintance with the degrading mythological stories of the Iliad. THE CONNECTION BETWEEN GOOD TASTE AND MORALITY TV/f R. RUSKIN introduces the subject by the statement that "All good architecture is the expression of national life and character." This suggests to him the more comprehensive re- mark that good taste is essentially a moral quality. He proceeds to fortify this position in the following fashion : Taste is not only a part and an index of morality, 22 SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN it is the only morality. 2 The first, last, and closest trial question to any living creature is, 'What do you like?' Tell me what you like and I'll tell you what you are. Go out into the street and ask the first man or woman you meet what their 'taste' is, and if they answer candidly, you know them body and soul. 'You, my friend in the rags, with the unsteady gait, what do you like?' 'A pipe and a quartern of gin.' I know you, 'You, good woman with the quick step and tidy bonnet, what do you like?' A swept hearth, and a clean tea-table and my husband oppo- site me and a baby at my breast.' Good, I know you also, 'You, little girl with the golden hair and the soft eyes, what do you like?' 'My canary, and a run among the wood hyacinths.' 'You little boy with the dirty hands and the low forehead, what do you like?' 'A shy at the sparrows and a game at pitch farthing.' Good; we know them all now. What more need we ask? 'Nay,' perhaps you answer; 'we need rather to ask what these people and children do than what 2 It is evident that the author here uses the term taste not in its technical and esthetic sense but as equivalent to a "susceptibility to truth and nobleness." SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN 23 they like. If they do right it is no matter that they like what is wrong; and if they do wrong it is no matter what they like. Doing is the great thing; and it does not matter that the man likes drinking so that he does not drink; nor that the little girl likes to be kind to her canary if she will not learn her lessons; nor that the little boy likes throwing stones at the sparrows if he goes to the Sunday School!' Indeed, for a short time, and in a provisional sense this is true. For if, resolutely, people do what is right, in time they come to like doing it; and as long as they don't like it, they are still in a vicious state. The man is not in health of body who is al- ways thirsting for the bottle in the cupboards, though he bravely bears his thirst ; but the man who heartily enjoys water in the morning and wine in the even- ing, each in its proper quantity and time. (If Mr. Ruskin were living to-day he would probably have revised this statement). And the entire object of true education is to make people not merely do the right things, but enjoy the right things — not merely industrious, but to love industry — not merely learned, but to love knowledge — not merely pure, but to love purity — not merely just, but to hunger 24 SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN and thirst after justice. — Crown of Wild Olive. Mr. Ruskin has rendered a valuable service in calling attention to the fundamental importance of our desires or inward preference as affording a basis for the right estimate of conduct. The unity of the moral life can be found only when the inner pur- pose is known. Because it is difficult to ascertain the motive, our judgments respecting the worthiness or unworthiness of conduct will often necessarily be erroneous. A better acquaintance with this fact might prevent many a hasty and unfair judgment. Some qualification is needed to the statement that the sole purpose of education is to make people enjoy the right things. The teacher of this must educate the conscience in the discrimination between the right and the wrong. It will often be his task to suggest standards of conduct that rise above the level of the current morality of his time. And his work may have a high educational value even if he fails to secure any general adoption of such stand- ards. The history of all movements for reform suf- ficiently illustrates the point; and the chief value of SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN 25 the ethical teaching of Ruskin himself may be cited in further proof of the value of such service. THE UNSELFISH USE OF SUPERIOR TALENTS T S it not wonderful that while we should be utterly ashamed to use a superiority of body, in order to thrust our weaker companions aside from some place of advantage, we unhesitatingly use our superiorities of mind to thrust them back from whatever good that strength of mind can attain? You would be indig- nant if you saw a strong man walk into a theatre or lecture-room, and, calmly choosing the best place, take his feeble neighbor by the shoulder and turn him out of it into the back seats or the street. You would be equally indignant if you saw a stout fellow thrust himself up to a table where some hungry children were being fed and reach his arm over their heads and take their bread from them. But you are not the least indignant if, when a man has stoutness of thought and swiftness of capacity, and, instead of be- ing long-armed only, has the much greater gift of being long-headed — you think it perfectly just that he should use his intellect to take the bread out of 26 SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN the mouths of all the other men in the town who are of the same trade with him; or use his breadth and sweep of sight to gather some branch of the com- merce of the country into one great cobweb of which he is himself to be the central spider, making every thread vibrate with the points of its claws, and commanding every answer with the facts of his eyes. You see no injustice in this. But there is injustice; and let us trust one, of which honorable men will, at no very distant period, disdain to be guilty. In some degree, however, it is indeed not unjust; in some degree it is necessary and intended. It is assuredly just that idleness should be surpassed by energy; that the widest influence should be pos- sessed by those who are best able to wield it; and that a wise man at the end of his career should be better off than a fool. But for that reason is a fool to be wretched, utterly crushed down, and left in all the suffering which his conduct and capacity nat- urally inflict? Not so. What do you suppose fools were made for? That you might tread upon them, and starve them and get the better of them in every possible way ? By no means. They were made that SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN 27 wise people might take care of them. That is the true and plain fact concerning the relations of every strong and wise man to the world about him. He has his strength given him, not that he may crush the weak, but that he may support and guide them. In his own household he is to be the guide and support of his children; out of his household he is still to be the father, that is the guide and support of the weak and poor ; not merely of the meritoriously weak and the innocently poor, but of the guilty and punisha- bly poor ; of the men who ought to have known bet- ter — of the poor who ought to be ashamed of them- selves. It is nothing to give pension and cottage to the widow who has lost her son ; it is nothing to give food and medicine to the workman who has brok- en his arm or the decrepit woman washing in sick- ness. But it is something to use your time and strength to war with the waywardness and thought- lessness of mankind ; to keep the erring workman in your service till you have made him an unerring one ; and to direct your fellow-merchant to the opportu- nity which his dullness would have lost. — A Joy for Ever, pages 80-82. This passage conveys in very clear language what 28 SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN the author understands to be the responsibility of the superior class to the inferior class in society. It is a strong protest against the too common practice of ex- ploiting the poor for the benefit of the rich. At the same time the author is careful to guard against the socialistic scheme of reducing society to a common level. It is not his purpose to banish the play of competition from the industrial and commercial world, but rather to modify and soften its harshest features. And the potent means by which this is to be accomplished is, by pervading business life with a spirit of broad and sincere christian sympathy. We may well share the optimism of the author that the time is coming when a sense of justice among the better class will bring about a kindlier attitude and a more humane treatment of the less gifted and less fortunate. THE TRUE SOURCE OF STRENGTH IN GOVERNMENT "^TO government is ultimately strong but in propor- tion to its kindness and justice, and that nation does not strengthen, by merely multiplying and dif- fusing itself. We have not strengthened as yet by SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN 29 multiplying into America. Nay, even when it has not to encounter the separating conditions of emi- gration, a nation need not boast itself of multiply- ing on its own ground, if it multiplies only as flies or locusts do, with the god of flies for its god. It multiplies its strength only by increasing as one great family, in perfect fellowship and brotherhood. And lastly, it does not strengthen itself by seizing do- minion over races whom it cannot benefit. Austria is not strengthened but weakened by her grasp of Lombardy; and whatever apparent increase of ma- jesty and of wealth may have accrued to us from the possession of India, whether these prove to us ulti- mately power or weakness, depends wholly on the degree in which our influence on the native race shall be benevolent and exalting. But, as it is at their own price that any race extends their dominion in mere desire of power, so it is at their own still greater peril that they refuse to undertake aggressive war, according to their force, whenever they are assured that their authority would be helpful and protective. Nor need you listen to any sophistical objection of the impossibility of knowing when a people's help is needed or when not. Make your national conscience 30 SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN clear and your national eyes will soon be clear. . . . I hold it my duty to make no political statement of any special bearing in this presence ; but I tell you broadly and boldly that within the last ten years, we English have, as a knightly nation, lost our spurs: we have fought when we should not have fought for gain ; and we have been passive when we should not have been passive for fear. I tell you that the principle of non-intervention, as now preached among us, is as selfish and cruel as the worst frenzy of con- quest and differs from it only by being not only ma- lignant, but dastardly. Crown of Wild Olive Sect III, p. 109-110. This selection is taken from an Address delivered to a company of students in a military academy in 1866. It is noteworthy for its fearless and search- ing criticism of the national policy of England in its then recent wars. The opening sentence was pro- phetic of a statesmanlike policy, but little heeded at that time, but which is coming to be regarded as the only policy worthy of a civilized people. What Mr. Ruskin propounded as a condition for the success- ful administration of a state, the statesmen of Eng- land and of Europe are certain sooner or later to SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN 31 adopt. Recent events are confirming his suspicions respecting the value of India as an addition to the strength and solidarity of the empire. His words may also be regarded as an endorsement of our inter- vention in behalf of Cuba in our recent war with Spain. They have a direct application to the pres- ent situation in England. According to the highest ideals an unselfish policy is binding upon nations as well as upon individuals. THE UNSELFISH IMAGINATION ^7* OU will find further that as of love so of all the other passions, the right government and exaltation begins in that of the Imagination which is lord over them. For to subdue the passions, which is thought so often to be the sum of duty respecting them, is possible enough to a proud dullness; but to excite them rightly and make them strong for good, is the work of the unselfish imagination. It is con- stantly said that human nature is heartless. Do not believe it. Human nature is kind and generous; but it is narrow and blind ; and can only with difficulty conceive anything but what it immediately sees and 32 SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN feels. People would instantly care for others as well as themselves if only they could imagine others as well as themselves. Let a child fall into the river be- fore the roughest man's eyes; — he will usually do what he can to get it out, even at some risk to him- self; and all the town will triumph in the saving of one little life. Let the same man be shown that hun- dreds of children are dying of fever for want of some sanitary measure which it will cost him trouble to urge, and he will make no effort, and probably all the town would resist him if he did. So also the lives of many discerning women are passed in a succession of petty anxieties about them- selves, and gleaning of minute interests and mean pleasures in their immediate circle, because they are never taught to make any effort to look beyond it ; or to know anything about the mighty world in which their lives are fading like blades of grass in fruitless fields. — Lectures on Art, Sect. 84. The distinction suggested between the subduing of a passion and the healthy excitement of it is im- portant for all teachers of ethics. Selfishness in a child will never be eliminated except by the active SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN 33 exercise of the opposite spirit. The environment of the home and of the school should afford frequent op- portunity for the exercise of such virtues. The inability to feel for others is doubtless due in a large measure to a lack of imagination which depends upon adequate knowledge for its exercise. Therefore to widen one's interests, and to get some accurate knowledge of how "the other half lives" is a valuable means of developing an active sympathy. ON BETTING r T , HERE is one way of wasting time of all the vilest because it wastes not time only, but the energy and interest of your minds. Of all the un- gentlemanly habits into which you can fall, the vilest is betting, or interesting yourselves in the issues of betting. It unites nearly every condition of folly and vice ; you concentrate your interest upon a mat- ter of chance, instead of upon a subject of true knowl- edge; and you back opinions which you have no grounds for forming, merely because they are your own. All the insolence of egotism is in this ; and so far as the love of excitement is complicated with the 34 SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN hope of winning money, you turn yourselves into the basest sort of tradesmen — those who live by specula- tion. Were there no other ground for industry, this would be a sufficient one ; that it protected you from the temptation to so scandalous a vice. Work faith- fully and you will put yourselves in possesssion of a glorious and enlarging happiness ; not such as can be won by the speed of a horse, or marred by the ob- liquity of a ball. — Crown of Wild Olive, Sect. Ill, p. 120. All fair minded persons will admit that Mr. Rus- kin has truthfully described the essential viciousness of betting. He has most aptly characterized the two occasions in England when it is most frequently in- dulged; horse racing and the games of cricket and of foot-ball. In this country, the Legislatures of several of our States are removing the temptation for the indulgence of this vice, but there is a large amount of betting in both foot-ball and base-ball which tends seriously to the demoralizing of our young men. To admit that it is a habit unfavorable to the best in- stincts of a gentleman should lead to its abandon- ment by all thoughtful persons. SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN 35 Those who are engaged in the work of education should find suitable opportunities to discourage this practice among the young. We certainly have a right to look to our institutions of learning, both public and private, to formulate a sentiment against this vice, which is far too prevalent among respectable peo- ple. ON THE SPENDING OF MONEY "VT OU will find it quite indisputably true — that whenever money is the principal object of life with either man or nation, it is both got ill and spent ill ; and does harm both in the getting and the spend- ing; but when it is not the principal object, it and all other things will be well got and well spent. And here is the test with every man, of whether money is the principal object with him or not. If in mid- life he could pause and say, "Now I have enough to live upon, I'll live upon it; and having well earned it, I will also well spend it and go out of the world poor as I came into it; then money is not principal with him ; but if, having enough to live upon in the manner befitting his character and rank, he still 36 SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN wants to make more and to die rich, then money is the principal object with him, and it becomes a curse to himself and generally to those who spend it after him. For you know it must be spent some day ; the only question is whether the man who makes it will spend it, or some one else. And generally it is bet- ter for the maker to spend it, for he will know best its value and use. This is the true law of life. And if a man does not choose thus to spend his money he must either hoard it or lend it, and the worst thing he can generally do is to lend it; for borrowers are nearly always ill-spenders, and it is with lent money that all evil is mainly done, and all unjust war pro- tracted. — Crown of Wild Olive, Sect. I, pp. 21-22. There is probably no subject respecting which a wider difference of opinion exists than in respect to the spending of money. The details will probably always be determined by the personal equation, large- ly influenced by habit and environment. The author seems to advocate the practice of distributing the principal without any reference to safe and produc- tive investment. This was in accordance with his SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN 37 own practice. Much may be said in favor of the personal distribution of property, reserving a suf- ficient amount for suitable maintenance. The ethical suggestion in this passage is that not only the acqui- sition of money, but the spending of it should be made a matter of conscientious control. There is probably a growing sentiment among peo- ple of large wealth that the possession of money im- plies a moral responsibility for its wise use. WORK DIGNIFIED BY ITS MOTIVE F N discussing the subject of Work, Mr. Ruskin is led to examine various motives which may influ- ence men in their occupations. This suggests to him a fundamental distinction in character. He says : 1 There will always be a number of men who would fain set themselves to the accumulation of wealth as the sole object of their lives. Necessarily that class of men is an uneducated class, inferior in intellect and more or less cowardly. It is physically impos- sible for a well educated, intellectual, or brave man to make money the chief object of his thoughts; as 38 SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN physically impossible as it is for him to make his dinner the principal object of them. All healthy people like their dinner, but their dinner is not the main object of their lives. So all healthily minded people like making money — ought to like it and en- joy the sensation of winning it; but the main object of their life is not money ; it is something better than money. A good soldier, for instance, wishes to do his fight- ing well. He is glad of his pay — very properly so, and justly grumbles when you keep him ten years without it — still his main notion of life is to win battles — not to be paid for winning them. So of clergymen. They like pew rents and baptismal fees, of course; but yet, if they are brave and well edu- cated the pew rent is not the sole object of their lives, and the baptismal fee is not the sole purpose of the baptism ; the clergyman's object is essentially to baptise and preach, not to be paid for preaching. So of doctors. They like fees no doubt — ought to like them; yet if they are brave and well educated, the entire object of their lives is not fees. They, on the whole, desire to cure the sick; and — if they are good doctors and the choice were fairly put to them SELECTIONS FROM RUSKlN 39 — would rather cure their patient and lose their fee than kill him and get it. And so with all other brave and rightly trained men; their rank is first, their fee second — very important always, but still second. But, in every nation, as I said, there are a vast class who are ill-educated, cowardly, and more or less stu- pid, and with these people, just as certainly, the fee is first and the work second, as with brave people the work is first and the fee second. And it is no small distinction. It is the whole distinction in a man, distinction between life and death in him, between heaven and hell for him. —Crown of Wild Olive, Sect. I, pp. 17-18. This selection offers one of the happiest illus- trations to be found in ethical literature of the inti- mate connection between conduct and character. It also suggests the fundamental importance of motive as a test of character. A mean motive inevitably de- grades the character of one engaged in the noblest work, while a noble motive helps to dignify the most menial occupation. The average politician finds it difficult to win respect because his motive is con- stantly suspected, while the man who labors without 40 SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN hope of reward is admitted to lasting renown. But why does the author describe the one class as brave and the other as cowardly? Evidently because it requires a certain amount of courage to choose the higher and discard the lower motive, and to perse- vere in such choices until the habit becomes estab- lished. There is no finer mark of the well-educated man. CONCERNING THE SETTLEMENT OF POLITICAL DIFFERENCES AMONG NATIONS CANNOT now delay to tell you how political quarrels might be otherwise settled. But grant that they cannot. Grant that no law of reason can be understood by nations; no law of justice sub- mitted to by them; and that while questions of a few acres and of petty cash can be determined by truth and equity, the questions which are to issue in the perishing or saving of kingdoms can be deter- mined only by the truth of the sword or the equity of the rifle. Grant this, and even then judge, if it will always be necessary for you to put your quarrel SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN 41 into the hearts of your poor and sign your treaties with peasants' blood. You would be ashamed to do this in your own private position and power. Why should you not also be ashamed to do it in public place and power? If you quarrel with your neigh- bor, and the quarrel be indeterminable by law and mortal, you do not send your footmen to Battersea fields to fight it out; nor do you set fire to his ten- ant's cottages, nor spoil their goods. . . . You either refuse the private duel or you practice it under the laws of honor, not of physical force; so that it may be, in a manner justly concluded. Now the just or unjust conclusion of the private feud is of little moment, while the just or unjust conclusion of the public feud is of eternal moment; and yet, in this public quarrel you take your servants' sons from their arms to fight for it, and your servants' food from their lips to support it, and the black seals on the parchment of your treaties of peace on the deserted hearth and the fruitless field. There is a ghastly ludicrousness in this as there is mostly in these wide and universal crimes. — Crown of Wild Olive, Sect. Ill, pp. 93-94. 42 SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN The evil described in this passage is much more conspicuous in European countries than under pop- ular government. Wars to gratify the ambition of some monarch or to revenge some private injury have too often brought devastation and ruin upon the class least able to bear it. But when the peo- ple are in control of the government and compre- hend the meaning of some great issue at stake they must assume the responsibility and help to bear the burden of war, if there is no other means of settle- ment. Mr. Ruskin evidently thought that this was hardly a supposable case. The growing sentiment in favor of the establishment of a Hague Tribunal expresses the popular desire to be relieved of such disastrous burdens. DISREGARD OF LAW IN THE PURSUIT OF WEALTH DY far the greater part of the suffering and crime which exist at this moment in civilized Europe, arises simply from not understanding this tension — not knowing that produce or wealth is eternally con- SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN 43 nected by the laws of heaven and earth with resolute labor; but hoping in some way to cheat or abrogate this everlasting law of life, and to feed when they have not furrowed, and be warm when they have not woven. I repeat, nearly all our misery and crime result from this one misapprehension. The law of nature is that a certain quantity of work is necessary to pro- duce a certainty of good of any kind whatever. If you want knowledge you must toil for it; if food, you must toil for it; and if pleasure, you must toil for it. But men do not acknowledge this law or strive to evade it, hoping to get their knowledge, and food, and pleasure, for nothing; and in this effort they either fail of getting them and remain ignorant and miserable, or they obtain them by making other men work for their benefits; and then they are tyr- ants and robbers. I am not one who, in the least, doubts or disputes the progress of this country in many things useful to mankind; but it seems to me a very dark sign re- specting us that we look, with so much indifference, upon dishonesty and cruelty in the pursuit of wealth. 44 SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN In the dream of Nebuchadnezzar it was only the feet that were part of iron and part of clay; but many of us are now getting so cruel in our avarice that it seems as if in us the heart were part of iron and part of clay. —The Two Paths, Sect. V. Evidence has been accumulating to prove that the unrestrained pursuit of wealth tends to set up a double standard of morals, one for business life and another for conduct in other relations. The former standard is made with a view to justify violations of law and to serve as our excuse for conduct which would be severely condemned elsewhere. Such low standards make men heedless of the rights of others and indifferent to the misery for which they become responsible. They justify themselves in the adultera- tion of food, in the organization of the sweat shop and in the employment of child labor, because busi- ness can be successfully conducted only by the em- ployment of such methods. There is great need of an ethical revival in behalf of a single standard of morals to comprehend all departments of conduct. SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN 45 THE VALUE OF CONTENTMENT ' I A HE things to be desired for man in a healthy state, are that he should not see dreams but re- alities; that he should not destroy life but save it; and that he should not be rich but content. Towards which last state of contentment I do not see that the world at present is approaching. There are indeed two forms of discontent : one laborious, the other indolent and complaining. We respect the man of laborious desire, but let us not suppose that his restlessness is peace or his ambition, meekness. It is because of the special connection of meekness with contentment that it is promised that the meek shall "inherit the earth." Neither covetous men nor the Grave can inherit anything; they can but con- sume. Only contentment can possess. The most helpful and sacred work, therefore, which can at present be done for humanity, is to teach people (chiefly by example, as all best teaching must be done) not how "to better themselves," but how to "satisfy themselves." It is the curse of every evil na- tion and evil creature to eat, and not be satisfied. The words of blessing are, that they shall eat and be sat- 46 SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN isfled. And as there is only one kind of water which quenches all thirst, so there is only one kind of bread which satisfies all hunger, the bread of justice or righteousness; which hungering after, men shall al- ways be filled, that being the bread of Heaven ; but hungering after the bread or wages of unrighteous- ness, shall not be filled, that being the bread of Sodom. And in order to teach men how to be satisfied, it is necessary fully to understand the art and joy of humble life — this, at present, of all arts or sciences being the one most needing study. Humble life — that is to say, proposing to itself no future exulta- tion, but only a sweet continuance; not excluding the idea of foresight, but wholly of fore-sorrow ; and taking no troublous thought for coming days ; so, al- so, not excluding the idea of providence or provision, but wholly of accumulation: — the life of domestic affection and domestic peace, full of sensitiveness to all elements of costless and kind pleasure ; — therefore chiefly to the loveliness of the natural world. — Mod. Paint., Vol. 5, Part 9, Sect. 18. The test of a true philosophy of life must be in SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN <- the satisfaction that it brings. Some will doubtless object that to make contentment with a humble life universal would reduce society to a dead level with- out ambition and without progress. The author seems to have fairly guarded against such a static concep- tion of society by admitting the necessity of a reason- able provision for the future. Surely room may be found in a simple life for the legitimate play of all natural desires without making the accumulation of wealth the one indispensable requisite for content- ment. And if these sane words were needed in the middle of the last century in order to correct the current ideals of life how much more suggestive are they now when the desire for accumulation has be- come an almost universal passion. In broken health and disordered lives we are pay- ing a heavy penalty- for the restless discontent that seems to pervade our whole social organism. The principle of suggestion operates powerfully to create the spirit of discontent so generally prevalent. The remedy is not to be found in the cultivation of the ascetic spirit but in seeking to gain a true estimate of values. We need in every community a larger number of 4 8 SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN examples, like that of Ruskin, of the intelligent and thoughtful, who will illustrate in their own living how rich and complete a life may be that is pervaded by a contented spirit. HONESTY IN TRIVIAL AFFAIRS HAVE sometimes thought a day might come when the nation would perceive that a well edu- cated man who steals a hundred thousand pounds, involving the entire means of subsistence of a hun- dred families, deserves on the whole as severe a pun- ishment as an ill-educated man who steals a purse from a pocket or a mug from a pantry. But without hoping for this success of clear-sightedness, we may, at least, labor for a system of greater honesty and kindness in the main commerce of our daily life; since the great dishonesty of the great buyers and sellers is nothing more than the natural growth and outcome from the little dishonesty of the little buy- ers and sellers. Every person who tries to buy an article for less than its proper value, or who tries to sell it at more than its proper value — every con- sumer who keeps a tradesman waiting for his money SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN 49 and every tradesman who bribes a consumer to ex- travagance by credit, is helping forward according to his own measure of power a system of baseless and dishonorable commerce, and forcing his country down into poverty and shame. And people of moderate means and average powers of mind would do far more real good by merely carrying out stern princi- ples of justice and honesty in common matters of trade, than by the most ingenious schemes of extended philanthrophy or vociferous declarations of theolog- ical doctrine. There are three weighty matters 01 the law — justice, mercy and truth; and of these the Teacher puts truth last, because that cannot be known but by a course of acts of justice and love. But men put, in all their efforts, truth first, because they mean by it their own opinions; and thus, while the world has many people who would suffer martyrdom in the cause of what they call truth, it has few who will suffer even a little inconvenience in that of justice and mercy. — A Joy For Ever, Note 8. This passage again suggests the difference between a person who performs virtuous deeds and one who 50 SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN possesses a virtuous spirit. It is a remark of Hegel that "where a person does this or that ethically good act he is not straightway virtuous, but this he is when ethical behavior is a stable element in his character." Too much of our morality is a matter of convenience. It lacks such a genuine love of justice as will make one willing to do justly at some personal sacrifice. And so when the temptation comes for unjust gain, or for the abuse of official position there is a base surrender of per- sonal advantage. The time must come when we shall carry our love of justice into all the relations of life. THE PROCESS OF THE FORMATION OF HABITS A SINGLE knot of quartz occurring in a flake of slate at the crest of the ridge may alter the en- tire destinies of the mountain form. It may turn the little rivulet of water to the right or left, and that little turn will be to the future direction of the gath- ering stream what the touch of a finger on the hand of a rifle would be to the direction of the bullet. Each SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN 51 succeeding year increases the importance of every determined form and arranges in masses yet more and more harmonious, the promontories shaped by the sweeping of the eternal waterfalls. The importance of the results thus obtained by the slightest change of direction in the infant stream- lets furnishes an interesting type of the formation of human characters by habit. Every one of those not- able ravines and crags is the expression not of any sudden violence done to the mountain, but of its lit- tle habits j persisted in continually. It was created with one ruling instinct; but its destiny depended nevertheless, for effective result, on the direction of the small and all but invisible tricklings of water in which the first shower of rain found its way down its sides. The feeblest, most insensible oozings of the drops of dew among its dust were in reality arbiters of its eternal form ; commissioned with a touch more tender than that of a child's finger — as silent and slight as the fall of a half-checked tear on a maiden's cheek — to fix forever the forms of peak and preci- pice, and hew those leagues of lifted giants into the shapes that were to divide the earth and its king- doms. 52 SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN Once the little stone evaded — once the dim fur- row traced — and the peak was forever invisible with its majesty, the ravine forever doomed to its degra- dation. Thenceforward, day by day, the subtle hab- it gained in power, the evaded stone was left with wider basement; the chosen furrow deepened with swifter-sliding wave; repentance and arrest were alike impossible, and hour after hour saw written in larger and rockier characters upon the sky the history of the choice that had been directed by a drop of rain, and of the balance that had been turned by a grain of sand. —Mod. Painters, Part V, Chap. XIII. r I A HE process of the formation of habits has never been more accurately or more vividly illustrated. The current psychology finds the basis of this process in the plasticity of nervous tissue. Professor James, in his famous chapter on this topic, expounds in his pic- turesque manner the importance of habit for individ- ual and social life. But in the passage quoted above there is presented a subtle analysis of the process by SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN 53 which the daily repetition of trifling acts is insensibly fashioning the human organism into fixed and defi- nite modes of action which it is powerless to change. Nothing could more impressively suggest the im- portance of the trivial and insignificant in the con- duct of life and the safe-guarding of the earliest years in the life of the child. It may be suggested that the illustration is defec- tive in that it leaves no opportunity for the play of human freedom. The mechanism of nature cannot adequately represent the independent activity of the human spirit. And yet, it is only in the great crises of life that the human will is able successfully to defy the law of habit. ON LYING f I 'HIS (truthfulness) is especially to be insisted on in the early education of young people. It should be pointed out to them with continual earnestness that the essence of lying is in deception, not in words ; a lie may be told by silence, by equivocation, by the accent on a syllable, by a glance of the eye attaching a peculiar significance to a sentence; and all these 54 SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN kinds of lies are worse and baser by many degrees than a lie plainly worded ; so that no form of blinded con- science is so far sunk as that which comforts itself for having deceived, because the deception was by gesture or silence instead of utterance; and finally, according to Tennyson's deep and trenchant line, "A lie which is half a truth is ever the worst of lies." —Mod. Paint., Part IX, Chap. VII. This passage may be regarded as complementary to what the author has elsewhere said respecting the fundamental importance of truthfulness as the stand- ard of all excellence. The atmosphere of a good home is undoubtedly the best preservative against the formation of an un- truthful habit. It has been carefully pointed out that the practice of lying tends to obscure the per- ception of truth, and thus contributes to perpetuate the practice. Locke's sentiments on this subject are worth quot- ing. He says, "Lying is so ill a quality and the moth- er of so many ill ones that spawn from it and take shelter under it, that a child should be brought up in the greatest abhorrence of it imaginable. It should SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN 5 5 always be spoken of before him with the utmost de- testation as a quality wholly inconsistent with the name and character of a gentleman." THE NUDE IN ART T N introducing this topic Mr. Ruskin says that he does not propose to discuss the moral effects upon national life of the exposure of the nude form in art, but proceeds to lay down a rule applicable to all art. He says: There is no question that if shown at all, it should be shown fearlessly and seen constantly; but, I do not care, at present, to debate the question ; neither will I delay you by any expression of my reasons for the rule I am about to give. Trust me, I have many; and I can assert to you as a positive and perpetual law that so much of the whole body as in the daily life of the nation may be shown with modesty and seen with reverence and delight — so much, and no more ought to be shown by the national arts either of painting or sculpture. What more than this, either art exhibits will as- suredly pervert taste and, in all probability, morals. 56 SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN It will assuredly pervert taste in this essential point, that the polite ranks of the nation will come to think the living creature and its dress exempt from the highest laws of taste; and that while a man or woman must be seen dressed or undressed with dig- nity in marble, they may be dressed or undressed if not with indignity at least with less than dignity in the ball-room and in the street. Now the law of all living art is that the living man and woman must be more beautiful than their pictures, and their pictures as decorus as the living man or woman ; and that real dress and gesture and behavior should be more graceful than any marble or color can effect similitude of. The mere admiration of physical beauty in the body and the arts which sought its expression, not only induced greatly to the fall of Greece, but were the cause of errors and crimes in her greatest time, which must for ever sadden our happiest thoughts of her and have rendered her example almost useless to the future. — Eagle's Nest, Sects. 164-166. It will be readily admitted that such an artist as SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN 57 Mr. Ruskin has a right to be heard upon this sub- ject — one who is capable of appreciating the point of view of the artist as well as that of the moralist. The sanity of the author is conspicuous in the careful statement of the rule which would safeguard the morals of the nation, even though there should be some limit set to the worship of physical beauty. The passage furnishes one more illustration of Ruskin's supreme regard for the moral aspect of every ques- tion. Artist though he is, he would have this ques- tion discussed on its merits; nor would he seek to foster any culture of art that would tend, in any way, to weaken man's control over his sensual nature. COMPENSATION FOR WORK /^\THER questions to be considered are "how the hand-workers are to be paid, how they are to be refreshed, and what play they are to have." Now the possible quantity of play depends upon the possible quantity of pay; and the quantity of pay is not a matter for consideration to hand-workers only, but to all workers. Generally, good useful work, wheth- er of the hand or head is either ill-paid or not paid 58 SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN at all. I don't say it should be so but it always is so. People, as a rule, only pay for being amused, or being cheated, not for being served. Five thousand a year to your talker, and a shilling a day to your fighter, digger and thinker — is the rule. None of the best head work in art, literature or science is ever paid for. How much do you think Homer got for his Iliad? or Dante for his Paradise? only bitter bread and salt, and going up and down other peoples' stairs. In science, the man who discovered the tele- scope, and first saw heaven, was paid with a dungeon ; the man who invented the microscope, and first saw earth died of starvation, driven from his home. It is indeed very clear that God means all thoroughly good work and talk to be done for nothing. Baruch, the scribe, did not get a penny a line for writing Jeremiah's second roll for him, I fancy ; and St. Ste- phen did not get bishop's pay for that long sermon of his to the Pharisees ; nothing but stones. For that indeed is the world-father's proper payment — so sure- ly as any of the world's children work for the world's good, honestly, with head and heart; and come to it saying 'Give to us a little bread just to keep the life in us,' the world-father answers them, 'No my SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN 59 children, not bread but a stone, if you like, or as many as you need to keep you quiet.' But the hand-workers are not so ill off as all this comes to. The worst that can hap- pen to you is to break stones: not be broken by them. And for you there will come a time for better payment; some day, assuredly, more pence will be paid to Peter Fisherman and fewer to Peter the Pope; we shall pay people not quite so much for talking in Parliament and doing nothing, as for holding their tongues out of it and doing some- thing; we shall pay our ploughman a little more and our lawyer a little less, and so on ; but, at least, we may even now take care that whatever work is done shall be fully paid for ; and the man who does it paid for it, not somebody else ; and that it shall be done in an orderly, soldierly, well-guided, wholesome way, under good captains and lieutenants of labor; and that it shall have its appointed times of rest and enough of them; and that in these times the play shall be wholesome play, not in theatrical gardens, with tin flowers and gas sunshine, and girls dancing because of their misery; but in true gardens, with real flowers and real sunshine, and children dancing 60 SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN because of their gladness; so that the streets shall be full (the streets, mind you, not the gutters) of children playing in the midst thereof. — Crown of Wild Olive, pp. 30-32. While there is much truth in the statements of the author respecting the compensation for different kinds of work it is easy to find exceptions. In recent times the vast increase of wealth, and the competition among collectors for masterpieces in art and litera- ture have greatly increased the sums paid for works of genius. And while a certain class of literary pro- duction receives large compensation it is mainly due to a present popular interest rather than to its in- trinsic worth or permanent value. Familiar illus- trations are the prices paid for the narratives of the discoveries of the North Pole, and the letters of ex-President Roosevelt. While it is true that a few of the men who have benefitted the world by their discoveries and inven- tions have reaped substantial rewards, the great ma- jority have failed of any adequate recognition of their services or died in neglect. One reason for this is doubtless, due to the fact that it is impossible at the time to understand the real value of the discovery or SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN 61 invention — as, for example, the prospective value of the steam engine and of the steamboat. There is evidently no intention on the part of the author to ignore the need, or to depreciate the value of amusement. That the poor as well as the rich have always been willing to pay for their amuse- ment is strong testimony to the necessity for it in a healthy society. But what kind of amusement? Cer- tainly that which tends to elevate and refine while it frees the mind from care. Let the young learn to find their enjoyment in familiarity with nature, in listening to the best music, and in appreciating what is dignified and beautiful in art. Mr. Ruskin evi- dently believed that it was possible to elevate the public taste and to open for the humble poor, sources of enjoyment which would help to dignify and sweet- en life. His evident sincerity was shown in the estab- lishment of the school for working-men in which he sought to make them acquainted with the funda- mental principles of art. The opening of museums, the provision for pub- lic lectures and for musical entertainments, accessible to the poor, are striking testimony, in recent times to the wisdom of this movement. 62 SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN THE MYSTERY OF LIFE HP HIS intense apathy in all of us is the first great mystery of life; it stands in the way of every perception, every virtue. There is no making our- selves feel enough astonishment at it. That the oc- cupations or pastimes of life should have no motive is understandable; but that life itself should have no motive ; that we neither care to find out what it may lead to, nor to guard against its being forever taken away from us — here is mystery indeed. For just sup- pose I was able to call at this moment to any one in this audience by name, and to tell him positively that I knew a large estate had been lately left to him on some curious conditions, but that, though I knew it was large, I did not know how large, nor even where it was — whether in the East Indies, or the West, or in England, or at the Antipodes, I only knew it was a vast estate and that there was a chance of his losing it altogether if he did not soon find out on what terms it had been left to him. Suppose I were able to say this positively to any single man in this audi- ence and he knew that I did not speak without warrant, do you think that he would rest content SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN 63 with the vague knowledge, if it were anywise pos- sible to obtain more? Would he not give every en- ergy to find some trace of the facts and never rest until he had ascertained where this place was and what it was like ? . . . Would you not think it strange if the youth never troubled himself to sat- isfy the conditions in any way nor even to know what was required of him but lived exactly as he chose, and never inquired whether his chances of the estate were increasing or passing away? Well, you know that this is actually and lit- erally so with the greater number of the educated persons now living in Christian coun- tries. Nearly every man and woman, in any company such as this outwardly professes to believe — and a large number unquestionably think they believe — much more than this; not only that a quite unlimited estate is in prospect for them if they please the Holder of it, but that the infinite contrary of such a possession — an estate of perpetual misery — is in store for them if they displease this great Land- Holder, this great Heaven-Holder. And yet there is not one in a thousand of these human souls that cares to think for ten minutes of the day, where 64 SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN this estate is, or how beautiful it is, or what kind of life they are to lead in it, or what kind of life they must lead to obtain it. — The Mystery of Life, Section 108. This striking passage is characteristic of the honesty and sincerity of Ruskin. There has been frequent occasion to note his severe condemna- tion of shams in art, politics and social life. Like his contemporary, Carlyle, he is always intent upon dis- covering the true significance of life. The light of his keen analysis was employed not so much to ex- pose error as to reveal truth. Sooner or later this process would be applied to the common belief in a future life. He would fain know why men failed to square their conduct with their belief. If the con- templation of this failure is attended with a sense of sadness, he does not attempt to invade the province of the preacher by any exhortation to a better life. This address of Ruskin was made possible by his familiarity with the English Bible. In a most im- pressive way he has described how his mother as- signed him not only a daily task in the reading of the Bible, but had him commit to memory large portions SELECTIONS FROM RUSKIN 65 of it. In this way his retentive mind became satu- rated with both the ideas and the language of the English Bible. From early boyhood the idea of God, a future life, and of human responsibility were fa- miliar truths accepted as the teaching of the Book whose authority he never questioned. Whatever may have been the final religious views of Ruskin there is abundant evidence of his belief in the perpetual pres- ence of God in the world, of a moral order ever revealing itself in the consciences of men and giving significance and value to human life. These ideas afford a background before which he arrays his crit- icisms of art, literature and social life, the heritage of all English speaking people, and a permanent con- tribution to the literature of the nineteenth century. Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide Treatment Date: May 2009 PreservationTechnologies A WORLD LEADER IN COLLECTIONS PRESERVATION 111 Thomson Park Drive Cranberry Township, PA 16066 (724) 779-2111