,library ,edition ,,the ,,complete ,,works ,,of ,,john ,,ruskin ,,on ,,the ,,old ,,road ,,volumes ,i-,,ii ,,national ,,library ,,association ,,new ,,york ,,chicago ,,on ,,the ,,old ,,road4 ,a ,,collection ,,of ,,miscellaneous ,,essays ,,and ,,articles ,,on ,,art ,,and ,,literature4 ,,published #ahcd-ahhe4 ,,vol4 ,,ii4 ,,contents ,,of ,,vol4 ,,ii4 ,,page ,,picture ,,galleries4 ,,parliamentary ,,evidence3-- ,,national ,,gallery ,,site ,,commission4 #aheg #c ,,select ,,committee ,,on ,,public ,,institutions4 #ahfj #be ,,the ,,royal ,,academy ,,commission #ej ,a ,,museum ,,or ,,picture ,,gallery #ga ,,minor ,,writings ,,upon ,,art4 ,,the ,,cavalli ,,monuments1 ,,verona4 #ahgb #hi ,,verona ,,and ,,its ,,rivers 7,,with ,,catalogue74 #ahgj #ii ,,christian ,,art ,,and ,,symbolism4 #ahgb #aah ,,art ,,schools ,,of ,,medi,,val ,,christendom4 #ahgf #aba ,,the ,,extension ,,of ,,railways4 #ahgf #abe ,,the ,,study ,,of ,,beauty4 #ahhc #acb ,,notes ,,on ,,natural ,,science4 ,,the ,,color ,,of ,,the ,,rhine4 #ahcd #ada ,,the ,,strata ,,of ,,mont ,,blanc4 #ahcd #adc ,,the ,,induration ,,of ,,sandstone4 #ahcf #ade ,,the ,,temperature ,,of ,,spring ,,and ,,river ,,water4 #ahcf4 #adh ,,meteorology4 #ahci #aec ,,tree ,,twigs4 #ahfa #aeh ,,stratified ,,alps ,,of ,,savoy4 #ahfc #afb ,,intellectual ,,conception ,,and ,,animated ,,life4 #ahga #afh ,,literature4 ,,fiction--,,fair ,,and ,,foul4 #ahhj-ha #age ,,fairy ,,stories4 #ahfh #bij ,,economy4 ,,home1 ,,and ,,its ,,economies4 #ahgc #bii ,,usury4 ,a ,,reply ,,and ,a ,,rejoinder4 #ahhj #cad ,,usury4 ,a ,,preface4 #ahhe #cdj ,,theology4 ,,notes ,,on ,,the ,,construction ,,of ,,sheepfolds4 #ahea #cdg ,,the ,,lord',s ,,prayer ,,and ,,the ,,church4 #ahgi-ha4 7,letters and ,epilogue47 #chb ,,the ,,nature ,,and ,,authority ,,of ,,miracle4 #ahgc #dah ,,an ,,oxford ,,lecture4 #ahgh #dbi 99 99 99 99 99 ,,picture ,,galleries3 ,,their ,,functions ,,and ,,formation4 ,a4 ,,parliamentary ,,evidence4 ,,national ,,gallery ,,site ,,commission #aheg4 ,,select ,,committee ,,on ,,public ,,institutions #ahfj4 ,,the ,,royal ,,academy ,,commission #ahfc4 ,b4 ,,letters ,,on ,a ,,museum ,,or ,,picture ,,gallery4 7,art ,journal1 ,june and ,august1 #ahhj47 99 99 99 99 99 ,,picture ,,galleries--,,their ,,functions ,,and ,,formation4 ,,the ,,national ,,gallery ,,site ,,commission4#a ,evidence of ,john ,ruskin1 ,monday1 ,april #f1 #aheg4 #aad4 ,chairman4 ,has your attention been turned to the desirableness of uniting sculpture with painting under the same roof8--,yes4 ,what is your opinion on the subject8--,i think it almost essential that they should be united1 if a ,national ,gallery is to be of service in teaching the course of art4 ,sculpture of all kinds1 or only ancient sculpture8--,of all kinds4 ,do you think that the sculpture in the ,british ,museum should be in the same building with the pictures in the ,national ,gallery1 that is to say1 making an application of your principle to that particular case8--,yes1 certainly2 ,i think so for several reasons--chiefly because ,i think the taste of the nation can only be rightly directed by having always sculpture and painting visible together4 ,many of the highest and best points of painting1 ,i think1 can only be discerned after some discipline of the eye by sculpture4 ,that is one very essential reason4 ,i think that after looking at sculpture one feels the grace of composition infinitely more1 and one also feels how that grace of composition was reached by the painter4 ,do you consider that if works of sculpture and works of painting were placed in the same gallery1 the same light would be useful for both of them8--,i understood your question only to refer to their collection under the same roof4 ,i should be sorry to see them in the same room4 ,you would not mix them up in the way in which they are mixed up in the ,florentine ,gallery1 for instance8--,not at all4 ,i think1 on the contrary1 that the one diverts the mind from the other1 and that1 although the one is an admirable discipline1 you should take some time for the examination of sculpture1 and pass afterwards into the painting room1 and so on4 ,you should not be disturbed while looking at paintings by the whiteness of the sculpture4 ,you do not then approve1 for example1 of the way in which the famous room1 the ,tribune1 at ,florence1 is arranged8--,no2 ,i think it is merely arranged for show--for showing how many rich things can be got together4 #aae4 ,mr4 ,cockerell4 ,then you do not regard sculpture as a proper decorative portion of the ,national ,gallery of ,pictures--you do not admit the term decoration8--,no2 ,i should not use that term of the sculpture which it was the object of the gallery to exhibit4 ,it might be added1 of course1 supposing it became a part of the architecture1 but not as independent--not as a thing to be contemplated separately in the room1 and not as a part of the room4 ,as a part of the room1 of course1 modern sculpture might be added2 but ,i have never thought that it would be necessary4 ,you do not consider that sculpture would be a repose after contemplating painting for some time8--,i should not feel it so myself4 #aaf4 ,dean of ,st4 ,paul's4 ,when you speak of removing the sculpture of the ,british ,museum1 and of uniting it with the pictures of the ,national ,gallery1 do you comprehend the whole range of the sculpture in the ,british ,museum1 commencing with the ,egyptian1 and going down through its regular series of gradation to the decline of the art8--,yes1 because my great hope respecting the ,national ,gallery is1 that it may become a perfectly consecutive chronological arrangement1 and it seems to me that it is one of the chief characteristics of a ,national ,gallery that it should be so4 ,then you consider that one great excellence of the collection at the ,british ,museum is1 that it does present that sort of history of the art of sculpture8--,i consider it rather its weakness that it does not4 ,then you would go down further8--,i would4 ,you are perhaps acquainted with the ivories which have been recently purchased there8--,i am not4 ,supposing there were a fine collection of ,byzantine ivories1 you would consider that they were an important link in the general history8--,certainly4 ,would you unite the whole of that ,pagan sculpture with what you call the later ,christian art of ,painting8--,i should be glad to see it done--that is to say1 ,i should be glad to see the galleries of painting and sculpture collaterally placed1 and the gallery of sculpture beginning with the ,pagan art1 and proceeding to the ,christian art1 but not necessarily associating the painting with the sculpture of each epoch2 because the painting is so deficient in many of the periods where the sculpture is rich1 that you could not carry them on collaterally--you must have your painting gallery and your sculpture gallery4 ,you would be sorry to take any portion of the sculpture from the collection in the ,british ,museum1 and to associate it with any collection of painting8--,yes1 ,i should think it highly inexpedient4 ,my whole object would be that it might be associated with a larger collection1 a collection from other periods1 and not be subdivided4 ,and it seems to be one of the chief reasons advanced in order to justify removing that collection1 that it cannot be much more enlarged--that you cannot at present put other sculpture with it4 ,supposing that the collection of ancient ,pagan art could not be united with the ,national ,gallery of pictures1 with which would you associate the medival sculpture1 supposing we were to retain any considerable amount of sculpture8--,with the painting4 ,the medival art you would associate with the painting1 supposing you could not put the whole together8--,yes4 #aag4 ,chairman4 ,do you approve of protecting pictures by glass8--,yes1 in every case4 ,i do not know of what size a pane of glass can be manufactured1 but ,i have never seen a picture so large but that ,i should be glad to see it under glass4 ,even supposing it were possible1 which ,i suppose it is not1 the great ,paul ,veronese1 in the gallery of the ,louvre1 ,i think would be more beautiful under glass4 ,independently of the preservation8--,independently of the preservation1 ,i think it would be more beautiful4 ,it gives an especial delicacy to light colors1 and does little harm to dark colors--that is1 it benefits delicate pictures most1 and its injury is only to very dark pictures4 ,have you ever considered the propriety of covering the sculpture with glass8--,i have never considered it4 ,i did not know until a very few days ago that sculpture was injured by exposure to our climate and our smoke4 ,professor ,faraday4 ,but you would cover the pictures1 independently of the preservation1 you would cover them absolutely for the artistic effect1 the improvement of the picture8--,not necessarily so1 because to some persons there might be an objectionable character in having to avoid the reflection more scrupulously than otherwise4 ,i should not press for it on that head only4 ,the advantage gained is not a great one2 it is only felt by very delicate eyes4 ,as far as ,i know1 many persons would not perceive that there was a difference1 and that is caused by the very slight color in the glass1 which1 perhaps1 some persons might think it expedient to avoid altogether4 ,do you put it down to the absolute tint in the glass like a glazing1 or do you put it down to a sort of reflection8 ,is the effect referable to the color in the glass1 or to some kind of optic action1 which the most transparent glass might produce8--,i do not know2 but ,i suppose it to be referable to the very slight tint in the glass4 #aah4 ,dean of ,st4 ,paul's4 ,is it not the case when ladies with very brilliant dresses look at pictures through glass1 that the reflection of the color of their dresses is so strong as greatly to disturb the enjoyment and the appreciation of the pictures8--,certainly2 but ,i should ask the ladies to stand a little aside1 and look at the pictures one by one4 ,there is that disadvantage4 ,i am supposing a crowded room--of course the object of a ,national ,gallery is that it should be crowded--that as large a number of the public should have access to it as possible--there would of course be certain limited hours1 and the gallery would be liable to get filled with the public in great numbers8--,it would be disadvantageous certainly1 but not so disadvantageous as to balance the much greater advantage of preservation4 ,i imagine that1 in fact1 glass is essential2 it is not merely an expedient thing1 but an essential thing to the safety of the pictures for twenty or thirty years4 ,do you consider it essential as regards the atmosphere of ,london1 or of this country generally8--,i speak of ,london only4 ,i have no experience of other parts4 ,but ,i have this experience in my own collection4 ,i kept my pictures for some time without glass1 and ,i found the deterioration definite within a very short period--a period of a couple of years4 ,you mean at ,denmark ,hill8--,yes2 that deterioration on pictures of the class ,i refer to is not to be afterwards remedied--the thing suffers forever--you cannot get into the interstices4 ,professor ,faraday4 ,you consider that the picture is permanently injured by the dirt8--,yes4 ,that no cleaning can restore it to what it was8--,nothing can restore it to what it was1 ,i think1 because the operation of cleaning must scrape away some of the grains of paint4 ,therefore1 if you have two pictures1 one in a dirtier place1 and one in a cleaner place1 no attention will put the one in the dirtier place on a level with that in the cleaner place8--,i think nevermore4 #aai4 ,chairman4 ,i see that in your ,notes on the ,turner ,collection1 you recommended that the large upright pictures would have great advantage in having a room to themselves4 ,do you mean each of the large pictures or a whole collection of large pictures8--,supposing very beautiful pictures of a large size 7it would depend entirely on the value and size of the picture71 supposing we ever acquired such large pictures as ,titian's ,assumption1 or ,raphael's ,transfiguration1 those pictures ought to have a room to themselves1 and to have a gallery round them4 ,do you mean that each of them should have a room8--,yes4 ,dean of ,st4 ,paul's4 ,have you been recently at ,dresden8--,no1 ,i have never been at ,dresden4 ,then you do not know the position of the ,great ,holbein and of the ,madonna de ,s4 ,sisto there1 which have separate rooms8--,no4 ,mr4 ,cockerell4 ,are you acquainted with the ,munich ,gallery--,no4 ,do you know the plans of it8--,no4 ,then you have not seen1 perhaps1 the most recent arrangements adopted by that learned people1 the ,germans1 with regard to the exhibition of pictures8--,i have not been into ,germany for twenty years4 #abj4 ,that subject has been handled by them in an original manner1 and they have constructed galleries at ,munich1 at ,dresden1 and ,i believe at ,st4 ,petersburg upon a new principle1 and a very judicious principle4 ,you have not had opportunities of considering that8--,no1 ,i have never considered that2 because ,i always supposed that there was no difficulty in producing a beautiful gallery1 or an efficient one4 ,i never thought that there could be any question about the form which such a gallery should take1 or that it was a matter of consideration4 ,the only difficulty with me was this--the persuading1 or hoping to persuade1 a nation that if it had pictures at all1 it should have those pictures on the line of the eye2 that it was not well to have a noble picture many feet above the eye1 merely for the glory of the room4 ,then ,i think that as soon as you decide that a picture is to be seen1 it is easy to find out the way of showing it2 to say that it should have such and such a room1 with such and such a light2 not a raking light1 as ,i heard ,sir ,charles ,eastlake express it the other day1 but rather an oblique and soft light1 and not so near the picture as to catch the eye painfully4 ,that may be easily obtained1 and ,i think that all other questions after that are subordinate4 ,dean of ,st4 ,paul's4 ,your proposition would require a great extent of wall8--,an immense extent of wall4 #aba4 ,chairman4 ,i see you state in the pamphlet to which ,i have before alluded1 that it is of the highest importance that the works of each master should be kept together4 ,would not such an arrangement increase very much the size of the ,national ,gallery8--,i think not1 because ,i have only supposed in my plan that1 at the utmost1 two lines of pictures should be admitted on the walls of the room2 that being so1 you would be always able to put all the works of any master together without any inconvenience or difficulty in fitting them to the size of the room4 ,supposing that you put the large pictures high on the walls1 then it might be a question1 of course1 whether such and such a room or compartment of the ,gallery would hold the works of a particular master2 but supposing the pictures were all on a continuous line1 you would only stop with ,a and begin with ,b4 ,then you would only have them on one level and one line8--,in general2 that seems to me the common-sense principle4 ,mr4 ,richmond4 ,then you disapprove of the whole of the ,european hanging of pictures in galleries8--,i think it very beautiful sometimes1 but not to be imitated4 ,it produces most noble rooms4 ,no one can but be impressed with the first room at the ,louvre1 where you have the most noble ,venetian pictures one mass of fire on the four walls2 but then none of the details of those pictures can be seen4 ,dean of ,st4 ,paul's4 ,there you have a very fine general effect1 but you lose the effect of the beauties of each individual picture8--,you lose all the beauties1 all the higher merits2 you get merely your general idea4 ,it is a perfectly splendid room1 of which a great part of the impression depends upon the consciousness of the spectator that it is so costly4 #abb4 ,would you have those galleries in themselves richly decorated8--,not richly1 but pleasantly4 ,brilliantly1 but not too brightly8--,not too brightly4 ,i have not gone into that question1 it being out of my way2 but ,i think1 generally1 that great care should be taken to give a certain splendor--a certain gorgeous effect--so that the spectator may feel himself among splendid things2 so that there shall be no discomfort or meagerness1 or want of respect for the things which are being shown4 #abc4 ,mr4 ,richmond4 ,then do you think that ,art would be more worthily treated1 and the public taste and artists better served1 by having even a smaller collection of works so arranged1 than by a much larger one merely housed and hung four or five deep1 as in an auction room8--,yes4 ,but you put a difficult choice before me1 because ,i do think it a very important thing that we should have many pictures4 ,totally new results might be obtained from a large gallery in which the chronological arrangement was perfect1 and whose curators prepared for that chronological arrangement1 by leaving gaps to be filled by future acquisition2 taking the greatest pains in the selection of the examples1 that they should be thoroughly characteristic2 giving a greater price for a picture which was thoroughly characteristic and expressive of the habits of a nation2 because it appears to me that one of the main uses of ,art at present is not so much as ,art1 but as teaching us the feelings of nations4 ,history only tells us what they did2 ,art tells us their feelings1 and why they did it3 whether they were energetic and fiery1 or whether they were1 as in the case of the ,dutch1 imitating minor things1 quiet and cold4 ,all those expressions of feeling cannot come out of ,history4 ,even the contemporary historian does not feel them2 he does not feel what his nation is2 but get the works of the same master together1 the works of the same nation together1 and the works of the same century together1 and see how the thing will force itself upon everyone's observation4 #abd4 ,then you would not exclude the genuine work of inferior masters8--,not by any means4 ,you would have the whole as far as you could obtain it8--,yes1 as far as it was characteristic2 but ,i think you can hardly call an inferior master one who does in the best possible way the thing he undertakes to do2 and ,i would not take any master who did not in some way excel4 ,for instance1 ,i would not take a mere imitator of ,cuyp among the ,dutch2 but ,cuyp himself has done insuperable things in certain expressions of sunlight and repose4 ,vander ,heyden and others may also be mentioned as first-rate in inferior lines4 ,taking from the rise of art to the time of ,raphael1 would you in the ,national ,gallery include examples of all those masters whose names have come down to the most learned of us8--,no4 ,where would you draw the line1 and where would you begin to leave out8--,i would only draw the line when ,i was purchasing a picture4 ,i think that a person might always spend his money better by making an effort to get one noble picture than five or six second or third-rate pictures1 provided only1 that you had examples of the best kind of work produced at that time4 ,i would not have second-rate pictures4 ,multitudes of masters among the disciples of ,giotto might be named2 you might have one or two pictures of ,giotto1 and one or two pictures of the disciples of ,giotto4 ,then you would rather depend upon the beauty of the work itself2 if the work were beautiful1 you would admit it8--,certainly4 ,but if it were only historically interesting1 would you then reject it8--,not in the least4 ,i want it historically interesting1 but ,i want as good an example as ,i can have of that particular manner4 ,would it not be historically interesting if it were the only picture known of that particular master1 who was a follower of ,giotto8 ,for instance1 supposing a work of ,cennino ,cennini were brought to light1 and had no real merit in it as a work of art1 would it not be the duty of the authorities of a ,national ,gallery to seize upon that picture1 and pay perhaps rather a large price for it8--,certainly2 all documentary art ,i should include4 ,then what would you exclude8--,merely that which is inferior1 and not documentary2 merely another example of the same kind of thing4 ,then you would not multiply examples of the same masters if inferior men1 but you would have one of each4 ,there is no man1 ,i suppose1 whose memory has come down to us after three or four centuries1 but has something worth preserving in his work--something peculiar to himself1 which perhaps no other person has ever done1 and you would retain one example of such1 would you not8--,i would1 if it was in my power1 but ,i would rather with given funds make an effort to get perfect examples4 ,then you think that the artistic element should govern the archological in the selection8--,yes1 and the archological in the arrangement4 #abe4 ,dean of ,st4 ,paul's4 ,when you speak of arranging the works of one master consecutively1 would you pay any regard or not to the subjects8 ,you must be well aware that many painters1 for instance1 ,correggio1 and others1 painted very incongruous subjects2 would you rather keep them together than disperse the works of those painters to a certain degree according to their subjects8--,i would most certainly keep them together4 ,i think it an important feature of the master that he did paint incongruously1 and very possibly the character of each picture would be better understood by seeing them together2 the relations of each are sometimes essential to be seen4 ,mr4 ,richmond4 ,do you think that the preservation of these works is one of the first and most important things to be provided for8--,it would be so with me in purchasing a picture4 ,i would pay double the price for it if ,i thought it was likely to be destroyed where it was4 ,in a note you wrote to me the other day1 ,i find this passage3 ,the ,art of a nation ,i think one of the most important points of its history1 and a part which1 if once destroyed1 no history will ever supply the place of--and the first idea of a ,national ,gallery is1 that it should be a ,library of ,art1 in which the rudest efforts are1 in some cases1 hardly less important than the noblest4 ,is that your opinion8--,perfectly4 ,that seems somewhat inconsistent with what ,i have been saying1 but ,i mean there1 the noblest efforts of the time at which they are produced4 ,i would take the greatest pains to get an example of eleventh century work1 though the painting is perfectly barbarous at that time4 #abf4 ,you have much to do with the education of the working classes in ,art4 ,as far as you are able to tell us1 what is your experience with regard to their liking and disliking in ,art--do comparatively uneducated persons prefer the ,art up to the time of ,raphael1 or down from the time of ,raphael8--we will take the ,bolognese ,school1 or the early ,florentine ,school--which do you think a working man would feel the greatest interest in looking at8--,i cannot tell you1 because my working men would not be allowed to look at a ,bolognese picture2 ,i teach them so much love of detail1 that the moment they see a detail carefully drawn1 they are caught by it4 ,the main thing which has surprised me in dealing with these men is the exceeding refinement of their minds--so that in a moment ,i can get carpenters1 and smiths1 and ordinary workmen1 and various classes to give me a refinement which ,i cannot get a young lady to give me when ,i give her a lesson for the first time4 ,whether it is the habit of work which makes them go at it more intensely1 or whether it is 7as ,i rather think7 that1 as the feminine mind looks for strength1 the masculine mind looks for delicacy1 and when you take it simply1 and give it its choice1 it will go to the most refined thing1 ,i do not know4 ,dean of ,st4 ,paul's4 ,can you see any perceptible improvement in the state of the public mind and taste in that respect since these measures have been adopted8--,there has not been time to judge of that4 #abg4 ,do these persons who are taking an interest in ,art come from different parts of ,london8--,yes4 ,of course the distance which they would have to come would be of very great importance8--,yes4 ,therefore one of the great recommendations of a ,gallery1 if you wish it to have an effect upon the public mind in that respect1 would be its accessibility1 both with regard to the time consumed in going there1 and to the cheapness1 as ,i may call it1 of access8--,most certainly4 ,you would therefore consider that the more central the situation1 putting all other points out of consideration1 the greater advantage it would be to the public8--,yes2 there is this1 however1 to be said1 that a central situation involves the crowding of the room with parties wholly uninterested in the matter--a situation more retired will generally be serviceable enough for the real student4 ,would not that very much depend upon its being in a thoroughfare8 ,there might be a central situation which would not be so complete a thoroughfare as to tempt persons to go in who were not likely to derive advantage from it8--,i think that if this gallery were made so large and so beautiful as we are proposing1 it would be rather a resort1 rather a lounge every day1 and all day long1 provided it were accessible4 #abh4 ,would not that a good deal depend upon its being in a public thoroughfare8 ,if it were in a thoroughfare1 a great many persons might pass in who would be driven in by accident1 or driven in by caprice1 if they passed it2 but if it were at a little distance from a thoroughfare1 it would be less crowded with those persons who are not likely to derive much advantage from it8--,quite so2 but there would always be an advantage in attracting a crowd2 it would always extend its educational ability in its being crowded4 ,but it would seem to me that all that is necessary for a noble ,museum of the best art should be more or less removed1 and that a collection1 solely for the purpose of education1 and for the purpose of interesting people who do not care much about art1 should be provided in the very heart of the population1 if possible1 that pictures not of great value1 but of sufficient value to interest the public1 and of merit enough to form the basis of early education1 and to give examples of all art1 should be collected in the popular ,gallery1 but that all the precious things should be removed and put into the great ,gallery1 where they would be safest1 irrespectively altogether of accessibility4 ,chairman4 ,then you would1 in fact1 have not one but two ,galleries8--,two only4 #abi4 ,professor ,faraday4 ,and you would seem to desire purposely the removal of the true and head ,gallery to some distance1 so as to prevent the great access of persons8--,yes4 ,thinking that all those who could make a real use of a ,gallery would go to that one8--,yes4 ,my opinion in that respect has been altered within these few days from the fact having been brought to my knowledge of sculpture being much deteriorated by the atmosphere and the total impossibility of protecting sculpture4 ,pictures ,i do not care about1 for ,i can protect them1 but not sculpture4 ,dean of ,st4 ,paul's4 ,whence did you derive that knowledge8--,i forget who told me2 it was some authority ,i thought conclusive1 and therefore took no special note of4 #acj4 ,chairman4 ,do you not consider that it is rather prejudicial to art that there should be a ,gallery notoriously containing no first-rate works of art1 but second-rate or third-rate works8--,no2 ,i think it rather valuable as an expression of the means of education1 that there should be early lessons in art--that there should be this sort of art selected especially for first studies1 and also that there should be a recognition of the exceeding preciousness of some other art4 ,i think that portions of it should be set aside as interesting1 but not unreplaceable2 but that other portions should be set aside as being things as to which the function of the nation was1 chiefly1 to take care of those things1 not for itself merely1 but for all its descendants1 and setting the example of taking care of them for ever4 ,you do not think1 then1 that there would be any danger in the studying or the copying of works which notoriously were not the best works8--,on the contrary1 ,i think it would be better that works not altogether the best should be first submitted4 ,i never should think of giving the best work myself to a student to copy--it is hopeless2 he would not feel its beauties--he would merely blunder over it4 ,i am perfectly certain that that cannot be serviceable in the particular branch of art which ,i profess1 namely1 landscape-painting2 ,i know that ,i must give more or less of bad examples4 ,mr4 ,richmond4 ,but you would admit nothing into this second gallery which was not good or true of its kind8--,nothing which was not good or true of its kind1 but only inferior in value to the others4 ,and if there were any other works which might be deposited there with perfect safety1 say precious drawings1 which might be protected by glass1 you would not object to exhibit those to the unselected multitude8--,not in the least2 ,i should be very glad to do so1 provided ,i could spare them from the grand chronological arrangement4 ,do you think that a very interesting supplementary exhibition might be got up1 say at ,trafalgar ,square1 and retained there8--,yes1 and all the more useful because you would put few works1 and you could make it complete in series--and because1 on a small scale1 you would have the entire series4 ,by selecting a few works1 you would have an epitome of the ,grand ,gallery1 the divisions of the chronology being all within the compartment of a wall1 which in the great ,gallery would be in a separate division of the building4 #aca4 ,mr4 ,cockerell4 ,do you contemplate the possibility of excellent copies being exhibited of the most excellent works both of sculpture and of painting8--,i have not contemplated that possibility4 ,i have a great horror of copies of any kind1 except only of sculpture4 ,i have great fear of copies of painting2 ,i think people generally catch the worst parts of the painting and leave the best4 ,but you would select the artist who should make the copy4 ,there are persons whose whole talent is concentrated in the power of imitation of a given picture1 and a great talent it is4--,i have never in my life seen a good copy of a good picture4 ,chairman4 ,have you not seen any of the ,german copies of some of the great ,italian masters1 which are generally esteemed very admirable works8--,i have not much studied the works of the copyists2 ,i have not observed them much1 never having yet found an exception to that rule which ,i have mentioned4 ,when ,i came across a copyist in the ,gallery of the ,vatican1 or in the ,gallery at ,florence1 ,i had a horror of the mischief1 and the scandal and the libel upon the master1 from the supposition that such a thing as that in any way resembled his work1 and the harm that it would do to the populace among whom it was shown4 ,mr4 ,richmond4 ,you look upon it as you would upon coining bad money and circulating it1 doing mischief8--,yes1 it is mischievous4 ,mr4 ,cockerell4 ,but you admit engravings--you admit photographs of these works1 which are imitations in another language8--,yes2 in abstract terms1 they are rather descriptions of the paintings than copies--they are rather measures and definitions of them--they are hints and tables of the pictures1 rather than copies of them2 they do not pretend to the same excellence in any way4 ,you speak as a connoisseur2 how would the common eye of the public agree with you in that opinion8--,i think it would not agree with me4 ,nevertheless1 if ,i were taking some of my workmen into the ,national ,gallery1 ,i should soon have some hope of making them understand in what excellence consisted1 if ,i could point to a genuine work2 but ,i should have no such hope if ,i had only copies of these pictures4 #acb4 ,do you hold much to the archological1 chronological1 and historical series and teaching of pictures8--,yes4 ,are you of opinion that that is essential to the creative teaching1 with reference to our future schools8--,no4 ,i should think not essential at all4 ,the teaching of the future artist1 ,i should think1 might be accomplished by very few pictures of the class which that particular artist wished to study4 ,i think that the chronological arrangement is in no-wise connected with the general efficiency of the gallery as a matter of study for the artist1 but very much so as a means of study1 not for persons interested in painting merely1 but for those who wish to examine the general history of nations2 and ,i think that painting should be considered by that class of persons as containing precious evidence4 ,it would be part of the philosopher's work to examine the art of a nation as well as its poetry4 ,you consider that art speaks a language and tells a tale which no written document can effect8--,yes1 and far more precious2 the whole soul of a nation generally goes with its art4 ,it may be urged by an ambitious king to become a warrior nation4 ,it may be trained by a single leader to become a great warrior nation1 and its character at that time may materially depend upon that one man1 but in its art all the mind of the nation is more or less expressed3 it can be said1 that was what the peasant sought to when he went into the city to the cathedral in the morning--that was the sort of book the poor person read or learned in--the sort of picture he prayed to4 ,all which involves infinitely more important considerations than common history4 #acc4 ,dean of ,st4 ,paul's4 ,when you speak of your objections to copies of pictures1 do you carry that objection to casts of sculpture8--,not at all4 ,supposing there could be no complete union of the great works of sculpture in a country with the great works of painting in that country1 would you consider that a good selection of casts comprising the great remains of sculpture of all ages would be an important addition to a public gallery8--,i should be very glad to see it4 ,if you could not have it of originals1 you would wish very much to have a complete collection of casts1 of course selected from all the finest sculptures in the world8--,certainly4 ,mr4 ,richmond4 ,would you do the same with architecture--would you collect the remains of architecture1 as far as they are to be collected1 and unite them with sculpture and painting8--,i should think that architecture consisted1 as far as it was portable1 very much in sculpture4 ,in saying that1 ,i mean1 that in the different branches of sculpture architecture is involved--that is to say1 you would have the statues belonging to such and such a division of a building4 ,then if you had casts of those statues1 you would necessarily have those casts placed exactly in the same position as the original statues--it involves the buildings surrounding them and the elevation--it involves the whole architecture4 ,in addition to that1 would you have original drawings of architecture1 and models of great buildings1 and photographs1 if they could be made permanent1 of the great buildings as well as the moldings and casts of the moldings1 and the members as far as you could obtain them8--,quite so4 ,would you also include1 in the ,national ,gallery1 what may be called the handicraft of a nation--works for domestic use or ornament8 ,for instance1 we know that there were some salt-cellars designed for one of the ,popes2 would you have those if they came to us8--,everything1 pots and pans1 and salt-cellars1 and knives4 ,you would have everything that had an interesting art element in it8--,yes4 ,dean of ,st4 ,paul's4 ,in short1 a modern ,pompeian ,gallery8--,yes2 ,i know how much greater extent that involves1 but ,i think that you should include all the iron work1 and china1 and pottery1 and so on4 ,i think that all works in metal1 all works in clay1 all works in carved wood1 should be included4 ,of course1 that involves much4 ,it involves all the coins--it involves an immense extent4 #acd4 ,supposing it were impossible to concenter in one great museum the whole of these things1 where should you prefer to draw the line8 ,would you draw the line between what ,i may call the ancient ,pagan world and the modern ,christian world1 and so leave1 to what may be called the ancient world1 all the ancient sculpture1 and any fragments of ancient painting which there might be--all the vases1 all the ancient bronzes1 and1 in short1 everything which comes down to a certain period8 ,do you think that that would be the best division1 or should you prefer any division which takes special arts1 and keeps those arts together8--,i should like the ,pagan and ,christian division4 ,i think it very essential that wherever the sculpture of a nation was1 there its iron work should be--that wherever its iron work was1 there its pottery should be1 and so on4 ,and you would keep the medival works together1 in whatever form those medival works existed8--,yes2 ,i should not at all feel injured by having to take a cab-drive from one century to another century4 ,or from the ancient to the modern world8--,no4 ,mr4 ,richmond4 ,if it were found convenient to keep separate the ,pagan and the ,christian art1 with which would you associate the medival8--,by ,christian and ,pagan ,art ,i mean1 before ,christ and after ,christ4 ,then the medival would come with the paintings8--,yes2 and also the ,mahomedan1 and all the ,pagan art which was after ,christ1 ,i should associate as part1 and a most essential part1 because it seems to me that the history of ,christianity is complicated perpetually with that which ,christianity was effecting4 ,therefore1 it is a matter of date1 not of ,christianity4 ,everything before ,christ ,i should be glad to see separated1 or you may take any other date that you like4 ,but the inspiration of the two schools--the ,pagan and the ,christian--seems so different1 that there would be no great violence done to the true theory of a ,national ,gallery in dividing these two1 would there1 if each were made complete in itself8--,that is to say1 taking the spirit of the world after ,christianity was in it1 and the spirit of the world before ,christianity was in it4 ,dean of ,st4 ,paul's4 ,the birth of ,christ1 you say1 is the commencement of ,christian art8--,yes4 ,then ,christian influence began1 and1 of course1 that would leave a small debatable ground1 particularly among the ivories for instance1 which we must settle according to circumstances8--,wide of any debatable ground1 all the art of a nation which had never heard of ,christianity1 the ,hindoo art and so on1 would1 ,i suppose1 if of the ,christian era1 go into the ,christian gallery4 ,i was speaking rather of the transition period1 which1 of course1 there must be8--,yes4 ,mr4 ,cockerell4 ,there must be a distinction between the terms museum and gallery4 ,what are the distinctions which you would draw in the present case8--,i should think museum was the right name of the whole building4 ,a gallery is1 ,i think1 merely a room in a museum adapted for the exhibition of works in a series1 whose effect depends upon their collateral showing forth4 #ace4 ,there are certainly persons who would derive their chief advantage from the historical and chronological arrangement which you propose1 but there are others who look alone for the beautiful1 and who say1 ,i have nothing to do with your pedantry4 ,i desire to have the beautiful before me4 ,show me those complete and perfect works which are received and known as the works of ,phidias and the great ,greek masters as far as we possess them1 and the works of the great ,italian painters4 ,i have not time1 nor does my genius permit that ,i should trouble myself with those details4 ,there is a large class who are guided by those feelings8--,and ,i hope who always will be guided by them2 but ,i should consult their feelings enough in the setting before them of the most beautiful works of art4 ,all that ,i should beg of them to yield to me would be that they should look at ,titian only1 or at ,raphael only1 and not wish to have ,titian and ,raphael side by side2 and ,i think ,i should be able to teach them1 as a matter of beauty1 that they did enjoy ,titian and ,raphael alone better than mingled4 ,then ,i would provide them beautiful galleries full of the most-noble sculpture4 ,whenever we come as a country and a nation to provide beautiful sculpture1 it seems to me that the greatest pains should be taken to set it off beautifully4 ,you should have beautiful sculpture in the middle of the room1 with dark walls round it to throw out its profile1 and you should have all the arrangements made there so as to harmonize with it1 and to set forth every line of it4 ,so the painting gallery1 ,i think1 might be made a glorious thing1 if the pictures were level1 and the architecture above produced unity of impression from the beauty and glow of color and the purity of form4 ,mr4 ,richmond4 ,and you would not exclude a ,crevelli because it was quaint1 or an early master of any school--you would have the infancy1 the youth1 and the age1 of each school1 would you not8--,certainly4 ,dean of ,st4 ,paul's4 ,of the ,german as well as the ,italian8--,yes4 ,mr4 ,richmond4 ,spanish1 and all the schools8--,certainly4 #acf4 ,mr4 ,cockerell4 ,you are quite aware of the great liberality of the ,government1 as we learn from the papers1 in a recent instance1 namely1 the purchase of a great ,paul ,veronese8--,i am rejoiced to hear it4 ,if it is confirmed1 nothing will have given me such pleasure for a long time4 ,i think it is the most precious ,paul ,veronese in the world1 as far as the completion of the picture goes1 and quite a priceless picture4 ,can you conceive a ,government1 or a people1 who would countenance so expensive a purchase1 condescending to take up with the occupation of the upper story of some public building1 or with an expedient which should not be entirely worthy of such a noble ,gallery of ,pictures8--,i do not think that they ought to do so2 but ,i do not know how far they will be consistent4 ,i certainly think they ought not to put up with any such expedient4 ,i am not prepared to say what limits there are to consistency or inconsistency4 ,mr4 ,richmond4 ,i understand you to have given in evidence that you think a ,national ,collection should be illustrative of the whole art in all its branches8--,certainly4 ,not a cabinet of paintings1 not a collection of sculptured works1 but illustrative of the whole art8--,yes4 #acg4 ,have you any further remark to offer to the ,commissioners8--,i wish to say one word respecting the question of the restoration of statuary4 ,it seems to me a very simple question4 ,much harm is being at present done in ,europe by restoration1 more harm than was ever done1 as far as ,i know1 by revolutions or by wars4 ,the ,french are now doing great harm to their cathedrals1 under the idea that they are doing good1 destroying more than all the good they are doing4 ,and all this proceeds from the one great mistake of supposing that sculpture can be restored when it is injured4 ,i am very much interested by the question which one of the ,commissioners asked me in that respect2 and ,i would suggest whether it does not seem easy to avoid all questions of that kind4 ,if the statue is injured1 leave it so1 but provide a perfect copy of the statue in its restored form2 offer1 if you like1 prizes to sculptors for conjectural restorations1 and choose the most beautiful1 but do not touch the original work4 #ach4 ,professor ,faraday4 ,you said some time ago that in your own attempts to instruct the public there had not been time yet to see whether the course taken had produced improvement or not4 ,you see no signs at all which lead you to suppose that it will not produce the improvement which you desire8--,far from it--,i understood the ,dean of ,st4 ,paul's to ask me whether any general effect had been produced upon the minds of the public4 ,i have only been teaching a class of about forty workmen for a couple of years1 after their work--they not always attending--and that forty being composed of people passing away and coming again2 and ,i do not know what they are now doing2 ,i only see a gradual succession of men in my own class4 ,i rather take them in an elementary class1 and pass them to a master in a higher class4 ,but ,i have the greatest delight in the progress which these men have made1 so far as ,i have seen it2 and ,i have not the least doubt that great things will be done with respect to them4 ,chairman4 ,will you state precisely what position you hold8--,i am master of the ,elementary and ,landscape ,school of ,drawing at the ,working ,men's ,college in ,great ,ormond ,street4 ,my efforts are directed not to making a carpenter an artist1 but to making him happier as a carpenter4 ,,note4--,the following analysis of the above evidence was given in the ,index to the ,report 7p4 #ahd74--;,,ed4 #aad-e-f4 ,sculpture and painting should be combined under same roof1 not in same room4--,sculpture disciplines the eye to appreciate painting4--,but1 if in same room1 disturbs the mind4--,tribune at ,florence arranged too much for show--,sculpture not to be regarded as decorative of a room4--,national ,gallery should include works of all kinds of art of all ages1 arranged chronologically 7cf4 #acb74 ,medival sculpture should go with painting1 if it is found impossible to combine art of all ages4 #aag-h4 ,pictures should be protected by glass in every case4 ,it makes them more beautiful1 independently of the preservation1--,glass is not merely expedient1 but essential4--,pictures are permanently injured by dirt4 #aai-bj-ba4 ,first-rate large pictures should have a room to themselves1 and a gallery round them4--,pictures must be hung on a line with the eye4--,in one1 or at most two1 lines4--,in the ,salon ,carre at the ,louvre the effect is magnificent1 but details of pictures cannot be seen4 #abb4 ,galleries should be decorated not splendidly1 but pleasantly4 #abc4 ,great importance of chronological arrangement4 ,art the truest history 7cf4 #abe and #acb74 #abd4 ,best works of inferior artists to be secured4 #abe4 ,all the works of a painter1 however incongruous their subjects1 to be exhibited in juxtaposition4 #abf4 ,love of detail in pictures among workmen4--,great refinement of their perceptions4 #abg4 ,accessibility of new ,national ,gallery4 #abh4 ,there should be two galleries--one containing gems1 placed in as safe a position as possible2 the other containing works good1 but inferior to the highest1 and located solely with a view to accessibility4 #abi4 ,impossible to protect sculpture from ,london atmosphere4 #acj4 ,inferior gallery would be useful as an instructor4--,in this respect superior to the great gallery4 #aca-cb4 ,copies of paintings much to be deprecated4 #acc4 ,good collection of casts a valuable addition to a national gallery4--,also architectural fragments and illustrations4--,and everything which involves art4 #acd4 ,if it is impossible to combine works of art of all ages1 the ,pagan and ,christian division is the best4--,christian art including all art subsequent to the birth of ,christ4 #ace4 ,great importance of arranging and setting off sculpture4 #acf4 ,recent purchase by ,government of the great ,paul ,veronese4 #acg4 ,restoring abroad4 #ach4 ,witness is ,master of the ,elementary and ,landscape ,school of ,drawing at the ,working ,men's ,college in ,great ,ormond ,street4--,progress made by students highly satisfactory4 ,,footnotes3 ,footnote #a3 ,this evidence1 given by ,mr4 ,ruskin as stated above1 is reprinted from the ,report of the ,national ,gallery ,site ,commission4 ,london3 ,harrison and ,sons4 #aheg4 ,pp4 #ib-g4 ,questions #bcib-bejd4 ,the ,commission consisted of ,lord ,broughton 7chairman71 ,dean ,milman1 ,professor ,faraday1 ,mr4 ,cockerell1 ,r4,a41 and ,mr4 ,george ,richmond1 all of whom were present on the occasion of ,mr4 ,ruskin giving his evidence4--,,ed4 ,,picture ,,galleries--,,their ,,functions ,,and ,,formation4 ,,select ,,committee ,,on ,,public ,,institutions4#b ,evidence of ,john ,ruskin1 ,tuesday1 ,march #bj1 #ahfj4 #aci4 ,chairman4 ,i believe you have a general acquaintance with the leading museums1 picture galleries1 and institutions in this metropolis8--,yes1 ,i know them well4 ,and especially the pictures8--,yes4 ,i believe you have also taken much interest in the ,working ,men's ,college8--,yes1 much interest4 ,i have been occupied there as a master for about five years4 ,i believe you conduct a class on two days in the week8--,on one day of the week only4 ,you have given a great deal of gratuitous instruction to the working classes8--,not so much to the working classes as to the class which especially attends the lectures on drawing1 but which of course is connected with the working classes1 and through which ,i know something about them4 #adj4 ,you are probably able to speak with reference to the hours at which it would be most convenient that these institutions should be opened to the working classes1 so that they might enjoy them8--,at all events1 ,i can form some opinion about it4 ,what are the hours which you think would be the most suitable to the working classes1 or those to whom you have imparted instruction8--,they would1 of course1 have in general no hours but in the evening4 ,do you think the hours which are now found suitable for mechanics' institutes would be suitable for them1 that is1 from eight till ten1 or from seven till ten at night8--,the earlier the better1 ,i should think2 that being dependent closely upon the other much more important question1 how you can prepare the workmen for taking advantage of these institutions4 ,the question before us1 as a nation1 is not1 ,i think1 what opportunities we shall give to the workmen of instruction1 unless we enable them to receive it2 and all this is connected closely1 in my mind1 with the early closing question1 and with the more difficult question1 issuing out of that1 how far you can get the hours of labor regulated1 and how far you can get the labor during those hours made not competitive1 and not oppressive to the workmen4 #ada4 ,have you found that the instruction which you have been enabled to give to the working classes has produced very good results upon them already8 ,i ought perhaps hardly to speak of my own particular modes of instruction1 because their tendency is rather to lead the workman out of his class1 and ,i am privately obliged to impress upon my men who come to the ,working ,men's ,college1 not to learn in the hope of being anything but working men1 but to learn what may be either advantageous for them in their work1 or make them happy after their work4 ,in my class1 they are especially tempted to think of rising above their own rank1 and becoming artists1--becoming something better than workmen1 and that effect ,i particularly dread4 ,i want all efforts for bettering the workmen to be especially directed in this way3 supposing that they are to remain in this position forever1 that they have not capacity to rise above it1 and that they are to work as coal miners1 or as iron forgers1 staying as they are2 how then you may make them happier and wiser8 ,i should suppose you would admit that the desire to rise out of a class is almost inseparable from the amount of self-improvement that you would wish to give them8--,i should think not2 ,i think that the moment a man desires to rise out of his own class1 he does his work badly in it2 he ought to desire to rise in his own class1 and not out of it4 ,the instruction which you would impart one would suppose would be beneficial to the laborer in the class which he is in8--,yes4 #adb4 ,and that agrees1 does it not1 with what has been alleged by many working men1 that they have found in their competition with foreigners that a knowledge of art has been most beneficial to them8--,quite so4 ,i believe many foreigners are now in competition with working men in the metropolis1 in matters in which art is involved8--,i believe there are many1 and that they are likely still more to increase as the relations between the nations become closer4 ,is it your opinion that the individual workman who now executes works of art in this country is less intellectually fit for his occupation than in former days8--,very much so indeed4 ,have you not some proofs of that which you can adduce for the benefit of the ,committee8--,i can only make an assertion2 ,i cannot prove it2 but ,i assert it with confidence1 that no workman1 whose mind ,i have examined1 is1 at present1 capable of design in the arts1 only of imitation1 and of exquisite manual execution1 such as is unsurpassable by the work of any time or any country2 manual execution1 which1 however1 being wholly mechanical1 is always profitless to the man himself1 and profitless ultimately to those who possess the work4 #adc4 ,with regard to those institutions in which pictures are exhibited1 are you satisfied that the utmost facilities are afforded to the public compatibly with the expense which is now incurred8--,i cannot tell how far it would be compatible with the expense1 but ,i think that a very little increase of expense might certainly bring about a great increase of convenience4 ,various plans have been suggested1 by different persons1 as to an improvement in the ,national ,gallery1 with regard to the area1 and a better distribution of the pictures8--,yes4 ,are you of opinion that at a very small cost it would be possible to increase the area considerably in the case of the ,national ,gallery8--,i have not examined the question with respect to the area of the ,national ,gallery4 ,it depends of course upon questions of rent1 and respecting the mode in which the building is now constructed1 which ,i have not examined2 but in general this is true of large buildings1 that expense wisely directed to giving facilities for seeing the pictures1 and not to the mere show of the building1 would always be productive of far more good to the nation1 and especially to the lower orders of the nation1 than expense in any other way directed1 with reference to these institutions4 #add4 ,some persons have been disposed to doubt whether1 if the institutions were open at night1 gas would be found injurious to the pictures2 would that be your impression8--,i have no doubt that it would be injurious to the pictures1 if it came in contact with them4 ,it would be a matter of great regret to me that valuable pictures should be so exhibited4 ,i have hoped that pictures might be placed in a gallery for the working classes which would interest them much more than the chefs-d'oeuvre of the great masters1 and which at the same time would not be a great loss to the nation if destroyed4 #ade4 ,have you had any experience of the working of the evening openings of the ,south ,kensington ,museum8--,no direct experience1 but my impression is that the workmen at present being compelled to think always of getting as much work done in a day as they can1 are generally led in these institutions to look to the machinery1 or to anything which bears upon their trade2 it therefore is no rest to them2 it may be sometimes1 when they are allowed to take their families1 as they do on certain evenings1 to the ,kensington ,museum1 that is a great step2 but the great evil is that the pressure of the work on a man's mind is not removed1 and that he has not rest enough1 thorough rest given him by proper explanations of the things he sees2 he is not led by a large printed explanation beneath the very thing to take a happy and unpainful interest in every subject brought before him2 he wanders about listlessly1 and exerts himself to find out things which are not sufficiently explained1 and gradually he tires of it1 and he goes back to his home1 or to his alehouse1 unless he is a very intelligent man4 ,would you recommend that some person should follow him through the building to explain the details8--,no2 but ,i would especially recommend that our institutions should be calculated for the help of persons whose minds are languid with labor4 ,i find that with ordinary constitutions1 the labor of a day in ,england oppresses a man1 and breaks him down1 and it is not refreshment to him to use his mind after that1 but it would be refreshment to him to have anything read to him1 or any amusing thing told him1 or to have perfect rest2 he likes to lie back in his chair at his own fireside1 and smoke his pipe1 rather than enter into a political debate1 and what we want is an extension of our art institutions1 with interesting things1 teaching a man and amusing him at the same time2 above all1 large printed explanations under every print and every picture2 and the subjects of the pictures such as they can enjoy4 #adf4 ,have you any other suggestion to offer calculated to enlighten the ,committee on the subject intrusted to them for consideration8--,i can only say what my own feelings have been as to my men4 ,i have found particularly that natural history was delightful to them2 ,i think that that has an especial tendency to take their minds off their work1 which is what ,i always try to do1 not ambitiously1 but reposingly4 ,i should like to add to what ,i said about the danger of injury to chefs-d'oeuvre1 that such danger exists1 not only as to gas1 but also the breath1 the variation of temperature1 the extension of the canvases in a different temperature1 the extension of the paint upon them1 and various chemical operations of the human breath1 the chance of an accidental escape of gas1 the circulation of variously damp air through the ventilators2 all these ought not to be allowed to affect the great and unreplaceable works of the best masters2 and those works1 ,i believe1 are wholly valueless to the working classes2 their merits are wholly imperceptible except to persons who have given many years of study to endeavor to qualify themselves to discover them2 but what is wanting for the working man is historical painting of events noble1 and bearing upon his own country2 the history of his own country well represented to him2 the natural history of foreign countries well represented to him2 and domestic pathos brought before him4 ,nothing assists him so much as having the moral disposition developed rather than the intellectual after his work2 anything that touches his feelings is good1 and puts new life into him2 therefore ,i want modern pictures1 if possible1 of that class which would ennoble and refine by their subjects4 ,i should like prints of all times1 engravings of all times2 those would interest him with their variety of means and subject2 and natural history of three kinds1 namely1 shells1 birds1 and plants2 not minerals1 because a workman cannot study mineralogy at home2 but whatever town he may be in1 he may take some interest in the birds and in the plants1 or in the sea shells of his own country and coast4 ,i should like the commonest of all our plants first1 and most fully illustrated2 the commonest of all our birds1 and of our shells1 and men would be led to take an interest in those things wholly for their beauty1 and for their separate charm1 irrespective of any use that might be made of them in the arts4 ,there also ought to be1 for the more intelligent workman1 who really wants to advance himself in his business1 specimens of the manufactures of all countries1 as far as the compass of such institutions would allow4 #adg4 ,you have traveled1 ,i believe1 a good deal abroad8--,yes4 ,and you have seen in many foreign countries that far more interest is taken in the improvement of the people in this matter than is taken in this country8--,far more4 ,do you think that you can trace the good effects which result from that mode of treatment8--,the circumstances are so different that ,i do not feel able to give evidence of any definite effect from such efforts2 only1 it stands to reason1 that it must be so4 ,there are so many circumstances at present against us1 in ,england1 that we must not be sanguine as to too speedy an effect4 ,i believe that one great reason of the superiority of foreign countries in manufactures is1 that they have more beautiful things about them continually1 and it is not possible for a man who is educated in the streets of our manufacturing towns ever to attain that refinement of eye or sense2 he cannot do it2 and he is accustomed in his home to endure that which not the less blunts his senses4 ,the ,committee has been informed that with regard to some of our museums1 particularly the ,british ,museum1 they are very much overcharged with objects1 and ,i apprehend that the same remark would be true as to some of our picture galleries4 ,are you of opinion that it would be conducive to the general elevation of the people in this country if our works of art1 and objects of interest1 were circulated more expeditiously1 and more conveniently1 than at present1 throughout the various manufacturing districts8--,i think that all precious works of art ought to be treated with a quite different view1 and that they ought to be kept together where men whose work is chiefly concerned with art1 and where the artistically higher classes can take full advantage of them4 ,they ought1 therefore1 to be all together1 as in the ,louvre at ,paris1 and as in the ,uffizii at ,florence1 everything being illustrative of other things1 but kept separate from the collections intended for the working classes1 which may be as valuable as you choose1 but they should be usable1 and above all things so situated that the working classes could get at them easily1 without keepers to watch what they are about1 and have their wives and children with them1 and be able to get at them freely1 so that they might look at a thing as their own1 not merely as the nation's1 but as a gift from the nation to them as the working class4 ,you would cultivate a taste at the impressionable age8--,especially in the education of children1 that being just the first question1 ,i suppose1 which lies at the root of all you can do for the workman4 #adh4 ,with regard to the circulation of pictures and such loans of pictures as have heretofore been made in ,manchester and elsewhere1 are you of opinion that1 in certain cases1 during a part of the year1 some of our best pictures might be lent for particular periods1 to particular towns1 to be restored in the same condition1 so as to give those towns an opportunity of forming an opinion upon them1 which otherwise they would not have8--,i would rather keep them all in the metropolis1 and move them as little as possible when valuable4 ,mr4 ,slaney4 ,that would not apply to loans by independent gentlemen who were willing to lend their pictures8--,i should be very glad if it were possible to lend pictures1 and send them about4 ,i think it is one of the greatest movements in the nation1 showing the increasing kindness of the upper classes towards the lower1 that that has been done2 but ,i think nothing can justify the risking of noble pictures by railway1 for instance2 that1 of course1 is an artist's view of the matter2 but ,i do not see that the advantage to be gained would at all correspond with the danger of loss which is involved4 #adi4 ,mr4 ,hanbury4 ,you mentioned that you thought it was very desirable that there should be lectures given to the working classes8--,yes4 ,do you think that the duplicate specimens at the ,british ,museum could be made available for lectures on natural history1 if a part of that institution could be arranged for the purpose8--,i should think so2 but it is a question that ,i have no right to have an opinion upon4 ,only the officers of the institution can say what number of their duplicate specimens they could spare4 ,i put the question to you because ,i have observed in the ,british ,museum that the people took a great interest in the natural history department1 and1 upon one occasion1 a friend of mine stopped1 and explained some of the objects1 and at once a very numerous crowd was attracted round him1 and the officials had to interfere1 and told him to move on4--,so much more depends upon the explanation than on the thing explained1 that ,i believe1 with very simple collections of very small value1 but well chosen1 and exhibited by a thoroughly intelligent lecturer1 you might interest the lower classes1 and teach them to any extent4 ,would it be difficult to find such lecturers as you speak of8--,not in time2 perhaps at present it would be1 because we have got so much in the habit of thinking that science consists in language1 and in fine words1 and not in ascertaining the nature of the thing4 ,the workman cannot be deceived by fine words2 he always wants to know something about the thing1 and its properties4 ,many of our lecturers would1 ,i have no doubt1 be puzzled if they were asked to explain the habits of a common bird4 #aej4 ,is there an increasing desire for information and improvement among the working classes8--,a thirsty desire for it in every direction1 increasing day by day1 and likely to increase2 it would grow by what it feeds upon4 ,to what do you attribute this improvement8--,partly to the healthy and proper efforts which have been made to elevate the working classes2 partly1 ,i am sorry to say1 to an ambitious desire throughout the nation always to get on to a point which it has not yet reached1 and which makes one man struggle with another in every way4 ,i think that the idea that knowledge is power is at the root of the movement among the working classes1 much more so than in any other4 ,do you consider that the distance of our public institutions is a great hindrance to the working classes8--,very great indeed4 ,you would1 therefore1 probably consider it a boon if another institution such as the ,british ,museum could be established in the eastern end of the metropolis8--,i should be most thankful to see it1 especially there4 #aea4 ,mr4 ,slaney4 ,i think you stated that you considered1 that for the working classes it is a great thing to have relaxation of mind after the close occupation of the day2 that they would embrace an opportunity of attending popular lectures on branches of natural history which they could comprehend1 if they were given to them in plain and simple language8--,yes4 ,for instance1 if you were to give a popular lecture upon ,british birds1 giving them an explanation of the habits of the various birds1 assisted by tolerably good plates1 or figures describing the different habits of migration of those that come to us in spring1 remain during the summer1 and depart in the autumn to distant countries2 of those which come in the autumn1 remain during the winter1 and then leave us2 of those which charm us with their song1 and benefit us in various ways2 do you think that such a lecture would be acceptable to the working classes8--,it would be just what they would enjoy the most1 and what would do them the most good4 ,do you not think that such lectures might be given without any very great cost1 by finding persons who would endeavor to make the subjects plain and pleasant1 not requiring a very expensive apparatus1 either of figures or of birds1 but which might be pointed out to them1 and explained to them from time to time8--,no2 ,i think that no such lectures would be of use1 unless a permanent means of quiet study were given to the men between times4 ,as far as ,i know1 lectures are always entirely useless1 except as a matter of amusement1 unless some opportunity be afforded of accurate intermediate study1 and although ,i should deprecate the idea1 on the one side1 of giving the chefs-d'oeuvre of the highest masters to the workman for his daily experiments1 so ,i should deprecate1 on the other1 the idea of any economy if ,i saw a definite plan of helping a man in his own times of quiet study4 #aeb4 ,there are some popular works on ,british birds which the men might be referred to1 containing accounts of the birds and their habits1 which might be referred to subsequently8--,yes4 ,there are several works relating to ,british birds which are very beautifully illustrated1 and to those they might be referred2 do you not think that something might also be done with regard to popular lectures upon ,british plants1 and particularly those which are perhaps the most common1 and only neglected because of their being common2 that you might point out to them the different soils in which they grow1 so that they might be able to make excursions to see them in their wild state8--,my wish is1 that in every large manufacturing town there should be a perfect collection1 at all events of the principal genera of ,british plants and birds1 thoroughly well arranged1 and a library associated with it1 containing the best illustrative works on the subject1 and that from time to time lectures should be given by the leading scientific men1 which ,i am sure they would be willing to give if such collections were opened to them4 ,i dare say you know that there is one book upon ,british birds1 which was compiled by a gentleman who was in trade1 and lived at the corner of ,st4 ,james's ,street for many years1 which is prized by all who are devoted to that study1 and which would be easily obtained for the working men4 ,do you not think that this would relax their minds and be beneficial to them in many ways1 especially if they were able to follow up the study8--,yes1 in every way4 ,as to plants1 might not they interest their wives as well8--,i quite believe so4 ,if such things could be done by subscription in the vicinity of large towns1 such as ,manchester1 would they not be very much responded to by the grateful feelings of the humbler people1 who themselves would subscribe probably some trifle8--,i think they would be grateful1 however it were done4 ,but ,i should like it to be done as an expression of the sense of the nation1 as doing its duty towards the workmen1 rather than it should be done as a kind of charity by private subscription4 #aec4 ,sir ,robert ,peel4 ,you have been five years connected with the ,working ,men's ,college8--,yes2 ,i think about that time4 ,is the attendance good there8--,there is a fair attendance1 ,i believe4 ,of the working classes8--,yes2 in the other lecture-rooms2 not much in mine4 ,do they go there as they please without going beforehand for tickets8--,they pass through an introductory examination1 which is not severe in any way1 but merely shows that they are able to take advantage of the classes there2 of course they pay a certain sum1 which is not at all1 at present1 ,i believe1 supporting to the college1 for every class1 just to insure their paying attention to it4 ,you stated that you did not think lectures would be of any use unless there was what you called active intermediate study8--,i think not4 ,what did you mean by active intermediate study8 if a man is working every day of the week until ,saturday afternoon1 how could that take place8--,i think that you could not at all provide lectures once or twice a week at the institutions throughout the kingdom4 ,by intermediate study1 ,i mean merely that a man should have about him1 when he came into the room1 things that shall tempt him to look at them1 and get interested in1 say in one bird1 or in one plant4 ,while the lecture was going on8--,no1 that might be given once a fortnight1 or once a month1 but that this intermediate attention should be just that which a man is delighted to give to a single plant which he cultivates in his own garden1 or a single bird which he may happen to have obtained2 the best of all modes of study4 #aed4 ,you are in favor of the ,early ,closing ,association8--,i will not say that ,i am1 because ,i have not examined their principles4 ,i want to have our labor regulated1 so that it shall be impossible for men to be so entirely crushed in mind and in body as they are by the system of competition4 ,you stated that you would wish the hours during which they would be able to enjoy the institutions to be as early as possible8--,yes1 certainly4 ,but it would be impossible to have them earlier than they are now1 on account of the organization of labor in the country4--,i do not know what is possible4 ,i do not know what the number of hours necessary for labor will ultimately be found to be4 ,still you are of opinion that1 if there was a half-holiday on the ,saturday1 it would be an advantage to the working classes1 and enable them to visit and enjoy these institutions8--,certainly4 #aee4 ,you observed1 ,i think1 that there was a thirsty desire on the part of the working classes for improvement8--,certainly4 ,and you also stated that there was a desire on their part to rise in that class1 but not out of it8--,i did not say that they wanted to rise in that class2 they wish to emerge from it2 they wish to become something better than workmen1 and ,i want to keep them in that class2 ,i want to teach every man to rest contented in his station1 and ,i want all people1 in all stations1 to better and help each other as much as they can4 ,but you never saw a man1 did you1 who was contented8--,yes1 ,i have seen several2 nearly all the very good workmen are contented2 ,i find that it is only the second-rate workmen who are discontented4 #aef4 ,surely competition with foreigners is a great advantage to the working classes of this country8--,no4 ,it has been stated that competition is an immense advantage in the extension of artistic knowledge among the people of this country1 who are rapidly stepping on the heels of foreigners8--,an acquaintance with what foreign nations have accomplished may be very useful to our workmen1 but a spirit of competition with foreign nations is useful to no one4 ,will you be good enough to state why8--,every nation has the power of producing a certain number of objects of art1 or of manufacturing productions which are peculiar to it1 and which it can produce thoroughly well2 and1 when that is rightly understood1 every nation will strive to do its own work as well as it can be done1 and will desire to be supplied1 by other nations1 with that which they can produce2 for example1 if we tried here in ,england to produce silk1 we might possibly grow unhealthy mulberry trees and bring up unhealthy silkworms1 but not produce good silk4 ,it may be a question how far we should compete with foreigners in matters of taste4 ,i think it doubtful1 even in that view1 that we should ever compete with them thoroughly4 ,i find evidence in past art1 that the ,french have always had a gift of color1 which the ,english never had4 #aeg4 ,you stated that you thought that at very little expense the advantages to be derived from our national institutions might be greatly increased2 will you state why you think very little expense would be necessary1 and how it should be done8--,by extending the space primarily1 and by adding very cheap but completely illustrative works2 by making all that such institutions contain thoroughly accessible2 and giving1 as ,i think ,i have said before1 explanations1 especially in a visible form1 beside the thing to be illustrated1 not in a separate form4 ,but that only would apply to daytime8--,to nighttime as well4 ,but would you not have to introduce a system of lighting8--,yes2 a system of lighting ,i should only regret as applied to the great works of art2 ,i should think that the brightest system of lighting should be applied1 especially of an evening1 so that such places should be made delightful to the workman1 and withdraw him from the alehouse and all other evil temptation2 but ,i want them rather to be occupied by simple1 and more or less cheap collections1 than by the valuable ones1 for fear of fire4 ,if1 at the ,british ,museum1 they had printed information upon natural history1 that1 you think1 would do great good8--,yes4 #aeh4 ,you stated that you thought there was far more interest taken in foreign countries in the intellectual development of the working classes than in ,england8--,i answered that question rather rashly4 ,i hardly ever see anything of society in foreign countries1 and ,i was thinking1 at the time1 of the great efforts now being made in ,france1 and of the general comfort of the institutions that are open4 ,not political8--,no4 ,still you think that there is more interest taken in the intellectual development of the working classes in foreign countries than in ,england8--,i think so1 but ,i do not trust my own opinion4 ,i have lived abroad1 and ,i have remarked that there is a natural facility in the ,french people1 for instance1 in acquiring a knowledge of art1 and of combination of colors1 but ,i never saw more1 but far less desire or interest taken in the working classes than in ,england4--,as far as relates to their intellectual development1 ,i say yes2 but ,i think there is a greater disposition to make them happy1 and allow them to enjoy their happiness1 in ordinary associations1 at ftes1 and everything of that kind1 that is amusing or recreative to them4 ,but that is only on ,sundays8--,no2 on all fte days1 and throughout1 ,i think you see the working man1 with his wife1 happier in the gardens or in the suburbs of a town1 and on the whole in a happier state2 there is less desire to get as much out of him for the money as they can2 less of that desire to oppress him and to use him as a machine than there is in ,england4 ,but1 observe1 ,i do not lean upon that point2 and ,i do not quite see how that bears upon the question1 because1 whatever interest there may be in foreign countries1 or in ours1 it is not as much as it should be in either4 ,but you were throwing a slur upon the character of the upper classes in this country1 by insinuating that abroad a great deal more interest was taken in the working classes than in ,england4 ,now ,i assert1 that quite the contrary is the fact4--,i should be very sorry to express all the feelings that ,i have respecting the relations between the upper classes and the working classes in this country2 it is a subject which cannot at present be discussed1 and one upon which ,i would decline any further examination4 #aei4 ,you stated that the working men were not so happy in this country as they were abroad1 pursuing the same occupations8--,i should think certainly not4 ,you have been in ,switzerland8--,yes4 ,and at ,zurich8--,not lately4 ,that is the seat of a great linen manufacture8--,i have never examined the manufactures there1 nor have ,i looked at ,switzerland as a manufacturing country4 ,but you stated that there was much more interest taken in the intellectual developments of the working classes in foreign countries than in ,england8--,yes2 but ,i was not thinking of ,switzerland or of ,zurich4 ,i was thinking of ,france1 and ,i was thinking of the working classes generally1 not specially the manufacturing working classes4 ,i used the words working classes generally4 ,then do you withdraw the expression that you made use of1 that in foreign countries the upper classes take more interest in the condition of the working classes1 than they do in ,england8--,i do not withdraw it2 ,i only said that it was my impression4 ,but you cannot establish it8--,no4 ,therefore it is merely a matter of individual impression8--,entirely so4 ,you said1 ,i think1 that abroad the people enjoy their public institutions better1 because inspectors do not follow them about8--,i did not say so4 ,i was asked the question whether ,i thought teaching should be given by persons accompanying the workman about1 and ,i said certainly not4 ,i would rather leave him to himself1 with such information as could be given to him by printed documents4 #afj4 ,mr4 ,sclater ,booth4 ,with regard to the ,national ,gallery1 are you aware that there is great pressure and want of space there now1 both with regard to the room for hanging pictures1 and also with reference to the crowds of persons who frequent the ,national ,gallery8--,i am quite sure that if there is not great pressure1 there will be soon1 owing to the number of pictures which are being bought continually4 ,do you not think that an extension of the space in the ,national ,gallery is a primary consideration1 which ought to take precedence of any improvement that might be made in the rooms as they are1 with a view to opening them of an evening8--,most certainly4 ,that is the first thing1 you think1 that ought to be done8--,most certainly4 ,when you give your lectures at the ,working ,men's ,college1 is it your habit to refer to special pictures in the ,national ,gallery1 or to special works of art in the ,british ,museum8--,never2 ,i try to keep whatever instruction ,i give bearing upon what is easily accessible to the workman1 or what he can see at the moment4 ,i do not count upon his having time to go to these institutions2 ,i like to put the thing in his hand1 and have it about4 ,has it never been a stumbling-block in your path that you have found a workman unable to compare your lectures with any illustrations that you may have referred him to8--,i have never prepared my lectures with a view to illustrate them by the works of the great masters4 #afa4 ,you spoke1 and very justly1 of the importance of fixing on works of art printed explanations2 are you not aware that that has been done to some extent at the ,kensington ,museum8--,yes4 ,do you not think that a great part of the popularity of that institution is owing to that circumstance8--,i think so1 certainly4 ,on the whole1 ,i gather from your evidence that you are not very sanguine as to the beneficial results that would arise from the opening of the ,british ,museum and the ,national ,gallery of an evening1 as those institutions are at present constituted1 from a want of space and the crowding of the objects there8--,whatever the results might be1 from opening them1 as at present constituted1 ,i think better results might be attained by preparing institutions for the workman himself alone4 ,do you think that museums of birds and plants1 established in various parts of the metropolis1 illustrated and furnished with pictures of domestic interest1 and possibly with specimens of manufactures1 would be more desirable1 considering the mode in which the large institutions are now seen8--,i think in these great institutions attention ought specially to be paid to giving perfect security to all the works and objects of art which they possess2 and to giving convenience to the thorough student1 whose business lies with those museums2 and that collections for the amusement and improvement of the working classes ought to be entirely separate4 ,if such institutions as ,i have described were to be established1 you would of course desire that they should be opened of an evening1 and be specially arranged1 with a view to evening exhibition8--,certainly4 ,it has been stated that the taxpayer has a right to have these exhibitions opened at hours when the workpeople can go to them1 they being taxpayers2 do not you think that the real interest of the taxpayer is1 first1 to have the pictures as carefully preserved as possible1 and secondly1 that they should be accessible to those whose special occupation in life is concerned in their study8--,most certainly4 ,is not the interest of the taxpayer reached in this way1 rather than by any special opportunity being given of visiting at particular hours8--,most certainly4 #afb4 ,mr4 ,kinnaird4 ,have you ever turned your attention to any peculiar localities1 where museums of paintings and shells1 and of birds and plants1 might be opened for the purpose referred to8--,never2 ,i have never examined the subject4 ,has it ever occurred to you that the ,vestry ,halls1 which have recently been erected1 and which are lighted1 might be so appropriated8--,no2 ,i have never considered the subject at all4 ,supposing that suitable premises could be found1 do you not think that many people would contribute modern paintings1 and engravings1 and various other objects of interest8--,i think it is most probable2 in fact1 ,i should say certain4 ,you would view such an attempt with great favor8--,yes2 with great delight indeed4 ,you rather look upon it as the duty of the ,government to provide such institutions for the people8--,i feel that very strongly indeed4 ,do you not think that the plan which has been adopted at ,versailles1 of having modern history illustrated by paintings1 would prove of great interest to the people8--,i should think it would be an admirable plan in every way4 ,and a very legitimate step to be taken by the ,government1 for the purpose of encouraging art in that way8--,most truly4 ,would it have1 do you think1 an effect in encouraging art in this country8--,i should think so1 certainly4 ,whose duty would you consider it to be to superintend the formation of such collections8 are there any ,government officers who are at present capable of organizing a staff for employment in local museums that you are aware of8--,i do not know2 ,i have not examined that subject at all4 #afc4 ,chairman4 ,the ,committee would like to understand you more definitely upon the point that has been referred to1 as to foreigners and ,englishmen4 ,i presume that what you wished the ,committee to understand was1 that upon the whole1 so far as you have observed1 more facilities are in point of fact afforded to the working classes1 in some way or other1 abroad than in this country for seeing pictures and visiting public institutions8--,my answer referred especially to the aspect of the working classes as ,i have watched them in their times of recreation2 ,i see them associated with the upper classes1 more happily for themselves2 ,i see them walking through the ,louvre1 and walking through the gardens of all the great cities of ,europe1 and apparently less ashamed of themselves1 and more happily combined with all the upper classes of society1 than they are here4 ,here our workmen1 somehow1 are always miserably dressed1 and they always keep out of the way1 both at such institutions and at church4 ,the temper abroad seems to be1 while there is a sterner separation and a more aristocratic feeling between the upper and the lower classes1 yet just on that account the workman confesses himself for a workman1 and is treated with affection4 ,i do not say workmen merely1 but the lower classes generally1 are treated with affection1 and familiarity1 and sympathy by the master or employer1 which has to me often been very touching in separate eases2 and that impression being on my mind1 ,i answered1 not considering that the question was of any importance1 hastily2 and ,i am not at present prepared to say how far ,i could1 by thinking1 justify that impression4 #afd4 ,mr4 ,kinnaird4 ,in your experience1 in the last few years1 have you not seen a very marked improvement in the working classes in this country in every respect to which you have alluded2 take the last twenty years1 or since you have turned your attention that way8--,i have no evidence before me in ,england of that improvement1 because ,i think that the struggle for existence becomes every day more severe1 and that1 while greater efforts are made to help the workman1 the principles on which our commerce is conducted are every day oppressing him1 and sinking him deeper4 ,have you ever visited the manufacturing districts of ,lancashire and ,yorkshire1 with a view of ascertaining the state of the people there8--,not with a definite view4 ,my own work has nothing to do with those subjects2 and it is only incidentally1 because ,i gratuitously give such instruction as ,i am able to give at the ,working ,men's ,college1 that ,i am able to give you any facts on this subject4 ,all the rest that ,i can give is1 as ,sir ,robert ,peel accurately expressed it1 nothing but personal impression4 ,you admit that the ,working ,men's ,college is1 after all1 a very limited sphere8--,a very limited sphere4 #afe4 ,sir ,robert ,peel4 ,you have stated that1 in the ,louvre1 a working man looks at the pictures with a greater degree of self-respect than the same classes do in the ,national ,gallery here8--,i think so4 ,you surely never saw a man of the upper class1 in ,england1 scorn at a working man because he appeared in his working dress in the ,national ,gallery in ,london8--,i have certainly seen working men apprehensive of such scorn4 ,chairman4 ,is it not the fact1 that the upper and lower classes scarcely ever meet on the same occasions8--,i think1 if possible1 they do not4 ,is it not the fact that the laboring classes almost invariably cease labor at such hours as would prevent them from going to see pictures at the time when the upper classes do go8--,i meant1 before1 to signify assent to your question1 that they do not meet if it can be avoided4 ,sir ,robert ,peel4 ,take the ,crystal ,palace as an example2 do not working men and all classes meet there together1 and did you ever see a working man gn in the examination of works of art8--,i am sure that a working man very often would not go where he would like to go4 ,but you think he would abroad8--,i think they would go abroad2 ,i only say that ,i believe such is the fact4 ,mr4 ,slaney4 ,do not you think that the light-hearted temperament of our southern neighbors1 and the fineness of the climate1 which permits them to enjoy themselves more in the open air1 has something to do with it8--,i hope that the old name of ,merry ,england may be recovered one of these days4 ,i do not think that it is in the disposition of the inhabitants to be in the least duller than other people4 ,sir ,robert ,peel4 ,when was that designation lost8--,i am afraid ever since our manufactures have prospered4 ,chairman4 ,referring to the ,crystal ,palace1 do you think that that was an appropriate instance to put1 considering the working man pays for his own1 and is not ashamed to enjoy his own for his own money8--,i have never examined the causes of the feeling2 it did not appear to me to be a matter of great importance what was the state of feeling in foreign countries4 ,i felt that it depended upon so many circumstances1 that ,i thought it would be a waste of time to trace it4 #aff4 ,sir ,robert ,peel4 ,you stated that abroad the working classes were much better dressed8--,yes4 ,do you think so8--,yes4 ,surely they cannot be better dressed than they are in ,england1 for you hardly know a working man here from an aristocrat8--,it is precisely because ,i do know working men on a ,sunday and every other day of the week from an aristocrat that ,i like their dress better in ,france2 it is the ordinary dress belonging to their position1 and it expresses momentarily what they are2 it is the blue blouse which hangs freely over their frames1 keeping them sufficiently protected from cold and dust2 but here it is a shirt open at the collar1 very dirty1 very much torn1 with ragged hair1 and a ragged coat1 and altogether a dress of misery4 ,you think that they are better dressed abroad because they wear a blouse8--,because they wear a costume appropriate to their work4 ,are you aware that they make it an invariable custom to leave off the blouse on ,sundays and on holidays1 and that after they have finished their work they take off their blouse8--,i am not familiar1 nor do ,i profess to be familiar1 with the customs of the ,continent2 ,i am only stating my impressions2 but ,i like especially their habit of wearing a national costume4 ,i believe the national costume of work in ,switzerland to be at the root of what prosperity ,switzerland yet is retaining4 ,i think1 for instance1 although it may sound rather singular to say so1 that the pride which the women take in their clean chemise sleeves1 is one of the healthiest things in ,switzerland1 and that it is operative in every way on the health of the mind and the body1 their keeping their costume pure1 fresh1 and beautiful4 ,you stated that the working classes were better dressed abroad than in ,england8--,as far as ,i know1 that is certainly the fact4 ,still their better dress consists of a blouse1 which they take off when they have finished their work8--,i bow to your better knowledge of the matter4 ,chairman4 ,are you aware that a considerable number of the working classes are in bed on the ,sunday8--,perhaps it is the best place for them4 #afg4 ,mr4 ,kinnaird4 ,you trace the deterioration in the condition of the working classes to the increase of trade and manufactures in this country8--,to the increase of competitive trades and manufactures4 ,it is your conviction that we may look upon this vast extension of trade1 and commerce1 and competition1 altogether as an evil8--,not on the vast extension of trade1 but on the vast extension of the struggle of man with man1 instead of the principle of help of man by man4 ,chairman4 ,i understood you to say1 that you did not object to trade1 but that you wished each country to produce that which it was best fitted to produce1 with a view to an interchange of its commodities with those of other countries8--,yes4 ,you did not intend to cast a slur upon the idea of competition8--,yes1 very distinctly2 ,i intended not only to cast a slur1 but to express my excessive horror of the principle of competition1 in every way2 for instance1 we ought not to try to grow claret here1 nor to produce silk2 we ought to produce coal and iron1 and the ,french should give us wine and silk4 ,you say that1 with a view to an interchange of such commodities8--,yes4 ,each country producing that which it is best fitted to produce8--,yes1 as well as it can2 not striving to imitate or compete with the productions of other countries4 ,finally1 ,i believe that the way of ascertaining what ought to be done for the workman in any position1 is for any one of us to suppose that he was our own son1 and that he was left without any parents1 and without any help2 that there was no chance of his ever emerging out of the state in which he was1 and then1 that what we should each of us like to be done for our son1 so left1 we should strive to do for the workman4 ,the following analysis of the above evidence was mainly given in the ,index to the ,report 7p4 #aec74--;,,ed4 #aci4 ,is well acquainted with the museums1 picture galleries1 etc41 in the metropolis4--,conducts a drawing class at the ,working ,men's ,college4 #adj4 ,desirableness of the public institutions being open in the evening 7cp4 #aed1 #afa74 #ada4 ,remarks relative to the system of teaching expedient for the working classes2 system pursued by witness at the ,working ,men's ,college4--,workmen to aim at rising in their class1 not out of it 7cp4 #aee74 #adb4 ,backward state1 intellectually1 of the working man of the present time2 superiority of the foreigner4 #adc4 ,improvement of the ,national ,gallery suggested 7cp4 #aeg1 #afj74 #add4 ,inexpediency of submitting valuable ancient pictures to the risk of injury from gas1 etc4 7cp4 #adf1 #aeg74 #ade4 ,statement as to the minds of the working classes after their day's labor being too much oppressed to enable them to enjoy or appreciate the public institutions1 if merely opened in the evening4 #adf4 ,suggested collection of pictures and prints of a particular character for the inspection of the working classes4--,suggestions with a view to special collections of shells1 birds1 and plants being prepared for the use of the working classes2 system of lectures1 of illustration1 and of intermediate study necessary in connection with such collections 7cp4 #aea-eb74 #adg4 ,statement as to greater interest being taken in ,france and other foreign countries than in ,england in the intellectual development of the working classes2 examination on this point1 and on the effect produced thereby upon the character and demeanor of the working people 7cp4 #aeh1 #afc-fd74 #adh4 ,objection to circulating valuable or rare works of art throughout the country1 on account of the risk of injury--,disapproval of inspectors1 etc41 going about with the visitors 7cp4 #aei74--;,advantage in the upper classes lending pictures1 etc41 for public exhibition4 #adi4 ,lectures to working men4 ,advantage if large printed explanations were placed under every picture 7cp4 #aeg1 #afa74 #aej4 ,great desire among the working classes to acquire knowledge2 grounds of such desire 7cp4 #aee74--;,great boon if a museum were formed at the east end of ,london4 #aea4 ,lectures on natural history for working men4 #aeb4 ,books available on ,british birds4 #aec4 ,intermediate study essential to use of ,lectures4--,good attendance at ,working ,men's ,college4--,terms and conditions of admission to it4 #aed4 ,approval of ,saturday half-holiday movement 7cp4 #adj1 #afa74 #aee4 ,see above1 s4 #adb4 #aef4 ,competition in trade and labor regarded by witness as a great evil4 #aeg4 ,see above1 s4 #adc1 #adi4 #aeh-ei4 ,happier condition of lower classes abroad than at home4 ,their dress also better abroad4 #afc-fd1 #aff1 and see above1 s4 #adb4 #afj4 ,see above1 s4 #adc1 #adi1 #aeg4 #afa4 ,see above1 s4 #adi1 #aed4 #afb4 ,use of existing public buildings for art collections4 #afc-fd4 ,see above1 s4 #aeh-ei4 #afe4 ,surely ,england may one day be ,merry ,england again4--,when it ceased to be so4 #aff4 ,see above1 s4 #aeh-ei4 #afg4 ,increase of trade and deteriorated condition of working-classes4--,our duty to them4 ,,footnotes3 ,footnote #b3 ,reprinted from ,the ,report of the ,select ,committee on ,public ,institutions4 ,ordered by the ,house of ,commons to be printed1 #bg ,march #ahfj1 pp4 #aac-abc4 ,the following members of the ,committee were present on the occasion of the above evidence being given3 -,sir ,john ,trelawny 7,chairman71 ,mr4 ,sclater ,booth1 ,mr4 ,du ,pre1 ,mr4 ,kinnaird1 ,mr4 ,hanbury1 ,sir ,robert ,peel1 ,mr4 ,slaney1 and ,mr4 ,john ,tollemache4--,,ed4 ,,picture ,,galleries--,,their ,,functions ,,and ,,formation4 ,,the ,,royal ,,academy ,,commission4#c ,evidence of ,john ,ruskin1 ,monday1 ,june #hth1 #ahfc4 #afh4 ,chairman4 ,you have1 no doubt1 frequently considered the position of the ,royal ,academy in this country8--,yes4 ,is it in all points satisfactory to you8--,no1 certainly not4 ,do you approve1 for example1 of the plan by which1 on a vacancy occurring1 the ,royal ,academicians supply that vacancy1 or would you wish to see that election confided to any other hands8--,i should wish to see the election confided to other hands4 ,i think that all elections are liable to mistake1 or mischance1 when the electing body elect the candidate into them4 ,i rather think that elections are only successful where the candidate is elected into a body other than the body of electors2 but ,i have not considered the principles of election fully enough to be able to give any positive statement of opinion upon that matter4 ,i only feel that at present the thing is liable to many errors and mischances4 ,does it not seem1 however1 that there are some precedents1 such1 for example1 as the ,institute of ,france1 in which the body electing to the vacancies that occur within it keeps up a very high character1 and enjoys a great reputation8--,there are many such precedents2 and1 as every such body for its own honor must sometimes call upon the most intellectual men of the country to join it1 ,i should think that every such body must retain a high character where the country itself has a proper sense of the worth of its best men2 but the system of election may be wrong1 though the sense of the country may be right2 and ,i think1 in appealing to a precedent to justify a system1 we should estimate properly what has been brought about by the feeling of the country4 ,we are all1 ,i fancy1 too much in the habit of looking to forms as the cause of what really is caused by the temper of the nation at the particular time1 working1 through the forms1 for good or evil4 ,if1 however1 the election of ,academicians were to be confided to artists who were not already ,academicians themselves1 would it be easy to meet this objection1 that they would have in many cases a personal interest in the question2 that each might be striving for his own admission to that distinction2 whereas1 when the election takes place among those who have already attained that distinction1 direct personal interest at all events is absent8--,i should think personal interest would act in a certain sense in either case2 it would branch into too many subtleties of interest to say in what way it would act4 ,i should think that it would be more important to the inferior body to decide rightly upon those who were to govern them1 than to the superior body to decide upon those who were to govern other people2 and that the superior body would therefore generally choose those who were likely to be pleasant to themselves2--pleasant1 either as companions1 or in carrying out a system which they chose for their own convenience to adopt2 while the inferior body would choose men likely to carry out the system that would tend most to the general progress of art4 #afi4 ,as ,i understand you1 though you have a decided opinion that it would be better for some other constituent body to elect the members of the ,royal ,academy1 you have not a decided opinion as to how that constituent body would best be composed8--,by no means4 ,i presume you would wish that constituent body to consist of artists1 though you are not prepared to say precisely how they should be selected8--,i should like the constituent body to consist both of artists and of the public4 ,i feel great difficulties in offering any suggestion as to the manner in which the electors should elect3 but ,i should like the public as well as artists to have a voice1 so that we might have the public feeling brought to bear upon painting as we have now upon music2 and that the election of those who were to attract the public eye1 or direct the public mind1 should indicate also the will of the public in some respects2 not that ,i think that will always wise1 but ,i think you would then have pointed out in what way those who are teaching the public should best regulate the teaching2 and also it would give the public itself an interest in art1 and a sense of responsibility1 which in the present state of things they never can have4 ,will you explain more fully the precedent of music to which you have just adverted8--,the fame of any great singer or any great musician depends upon the public enthusiasm and feeling respecting him4 ,no ,royal ,academy can draw a large audience to the opera by stating that such and such a piece of music is good1 or that such and such a voice is clear2 if the public do not feel the voice to be delicious1 and if they do not like the music1 they will not go to hear it4 ,the fame of the musician1 whether singer1 instrumentalist1 or composer1 is founded mainly upon his having produced a strong effect upon the public intellect and imagination4 ,i should like that same effect to be produced by painters1 and to be expressed by the public enthusiasm and approbation2 not merely by expressions of approbation in conversation1 but by the actual voice which in the theater is given by the shout and by the clapping of the hands4 ,you cannot clap a picture1 nor clap a painter at his work1 but ,i should like the public in some way to bring their voice to bear upon the painter's work4 #agj4 ,have you formed any opinion upon the position of the ,associates in the ,royal ,academy8--,i have thought of it a little1 but the present system of the ,academy is to me so entirely nugatory1 it produces so little effect in any way 7what little effect it does produce being in my opinion mischievous71 that it has never interested me2 and ,i have felt the difficulty so greatly1 that ,i never1 till your lordship's letter reached me1 paid much attention to it4 ,i always thought it would be a waste of time to give much time to thinking how it might be altered2 so that as to the position of ,associates ,i can say little1 except that ,i think1 in any case1 there ought to be some period of probation1 and some advanced scale of dignity1 indicative of the highest attainments in art1 which should be only given to the oldest and most practiced painters4 ,from the great knowledge which you possess of ,british art1 looking to the most eminent painters1 sculptors1 and architects at this time1 should you say that the number of the ,royal ,academy is sufficient fully to represent them1 or would you recommend an increase in the present number of ,academicians8--,i have not considered in what proportion the ,academicianships at present exist4 ,that is rather a question bearing upon the degree of dignity which one would be glad to confer4 ,i should like the highest dignity to be limited1 but ,i should like the inferior dignity corresponding to the ,associateship to be given1 as the degrees are given in the universities1 without any limitation of number1 to those possessing positive attainments and skill4 ,i should think a very limited number of ,academicianships would always meet all the requirements of the highest intellect of the country4 #aga4 ,have you formed any opinion upon the expediency of intrusting laymen with some share in the management of the affairs of the ,academy8--,no1 ,i have formed no opinion upon that matter4 ,i do not know what there is at present to be managed in the ,academy4 ,i should think if the ,academy is to become an available school1 laymen cannot be joined in the management of that particular department4 ,in matters of revenue1 and in matters concerning the general interests and dignity of the ,academy1 they might be4 ,should you think that non-professional persons would be fitly associated with artists in such questions as the selection and hanging of the pictures sent in for exhibition8--,no1 ,i think not4 ,some persons have suggested that the president of the ,academy should not always nor of necessity be himself an artist2 should you approve of any system by which a gentleman of high social position1 not an artist1 was placed at the head of such a body as the ,academy8--,of such a body as the ,academy1 if ,i may be permitted to repeat your words1 must of course have reference to the constitution to be given to it4 ,as at present constituted1 ,i do not know what advantage might or might not be derived from such a gentleman being appointed president4 ,as ,i should like to see it constituted1 ,i think he ought to be an artist only4 #agb4 ,have you had any reason to observe or to make yourself acquainted with the working of the schools of the ,royal ,academy8--,yes1 ,i have observed it4 ,i have not made myself acquainted with the actual methods of teaching at present in use1 but ,i know the general effect upon the art of the country4 ,what should you say was that effect8--,nearly nugatory3 exceedingly painful in this respect1 that the teaching of the ,academy separates1 as the whole idea of the country separates1 the notion of art-education from other education1 and when you have made that one fundamental mistake1 all others follow4 ,you teach a young man to manage his chalk and his brush--not always that--but having done that1 you suppose you have made a painter of him2 whereas to educate a painter is the same thing as to educate a clergyman or a physician--you must give him a liberal education primarily1 and that must be connected with the kind of learning peculiarly fit for his profession4 ,that error is partly owing to our excessively vulgar and excessively shallow ,english idea that the artist's profession is not1 and cannot be1 a liberal one4 ,we respect a physician1 and call him a gentleman1 because he can give us a purge and clean out our stomachs2 but we do not call an artist a gentleman1 whom we expect to invent for us the face of ,christ4 ,when we have made that primary mistake1 all other mistakes in education are trivial in comparison4 ,the very notion of an art academy should be1 a body of teachers of the youth who are to be the guides of the nation through its senses2 and that is a very important means of guiding it4 ,we have done a good deal through dinners1 but we may some day do a good deal more through pictures4 ,you would have a more comprehensive system of teaching8--,much more comprehensive4 #agc4 ,do ,i rightly understand you that you would wish it to embrace branches of liberal education in general1 and not be merely confined to specific artistic studies8--,certainly4 ,i would have the ,academy education corresponding wholly to the university education4 ,the schools of the country ought to teach the boy the first conditions of manipulation4 ,he should come up1 ,i say not at what age1 but probably at about fourteen or fifteen1 to the central university of art1 wherever that was established2 and then1 while he was taught to paint and to carve and to work in metal--just as in old times he would have been taught to manage the sword and lance1 they being the principal business of his life1--during the years from fifteen to twenty1 the chief attention of his governors should be to make a gentleman of him in the highest sense2 and to give him an exceedingly broad and liberal education1 which should enable him not only to work nobly1 but to conceive nobly4 #agd4 ,as to the point1 however1 of artistic manipulation1 is not it the fact that many great painters have differed1 and do differ1 from each other1 and would it therefore be easy for the ,academy to adopt any authoritative system of teaching1 excluding one mode and acknowledging another8--,not easy1 but very necessary4 ,there have been many methods2 but there has never been a case of a great school which did not fix upon its method3 and there has been no case of a thoroughly great school which did not fix upon the right method1 as far as circumstances enabled it to do so4 ,the meaning of a successful school is1 that it has adopted a method which it teaches to its young painters1 so that right working becomes a habit with them2 so that with no thought1 and no effort1 and no torment1 and no talk about it1 they have the habit of doing what their school teaches them4 ,you do not think a system is equally good which leaves to each eminent professor1 according to the bent of his genius or the result of his experience1 to instruct young men1 the instruction varying with the character of each professor8--,great benefit would arise if each professor founded his own school1 and were interested in his own pupils2 but1 as has been sufficiently illustrated in the schools of ,domenichino and ,guido1 there is apt to arise rivalry between the masters1 with no correlative advantages1 unless the masters are all of one mind4 ,and the only successful idea of an academy has been where the practice was consistent1 and where there was no contradiction4 ,considering the knowledge we now have1 and the means we now have of comparing all the works of the greatest painters1 though1 as you suggest by your question1 it is not easy to adopt an authoritative system1 yet it is perfectly possible4 ,let us get at the best method and let us teach that4 ,there is unquestionably a best way if we can find it2 and we have now in ,england the means of finding it out4 ,the teaching in the ,academy is now1 under all circumstances1 gratuitous2 would you wish that system to continue1 or should you prefer to see a system of payment8--,i am not prepared to answer that question4 ,it would depend upon the sort of system that was adopted and on the kind of persons you received into your schools4 #age4 ,i presume you would say that in artistic teaching there are some points on which there would be common ground1 and others upon which there must be specific teaching2 for instance1 in sculpture and painting there is a point up to which the proportions of the human figure have to be studied1 but afterwards there is a divergence between the two arts of chiseling marble and laying colors on the canvas8--,certainly4 ,i should think all that might be arranged in an ,academy system very simply4 ,you would have first your teaching of drawing with the soft point2 and associated with that1 chiaroscuro3 you would then have the teaching of drawing with the hard or black point1 involving the teaching of the best system of engraving1 and all that was necessary to form your school of engravers3 you would then proceed to metal work2 and on working in metal you would found your school of sculpture1 and on that your school of architecture3 and finally1 and above all1 you would have your school of painting1 including oil painting and fresco painting1 and all painting in permanent material2 7not comprising painting in any material that was not permanent37 and with that you would associate your school of chemistry1 which should teach what was permanent and what was not2 which school of chemistry should declare authoritatively1 with the ,academy's seal1 what colors would stand and what process would secure their standing3 and should have a sort of ,apothecaries' ,hall where anybody who required them could procure colors in the purest state2 all these things being organized in one great system1 and only possibly right by their connection and in their connection4 #agf4 ,do you approve of the encouragement which of late years has been given to fresco painting1 and do you look forward to much extension of that branch of art in ,england8--,i found when ,i was examining the term fresco painting1 that it was a wide one1 that none of us seemed to know quite the limitation or extent of it2 and after giving a good deal more time to the question ,i am still less able to answer distinctly on an understanding of the term fresco painting3 but using the term decorative painting1 applicable to walls in permanent materials1 ,i think it essential that every great school should include as one of its main objects the teaching of wall painting in permanent materials1 and on a large scale4 ,you think it should form a branch of the system of teaching in the ,academy8--,i think it should form a branch of the teaching in the ,academy1 possibly the principal branch4 ,does it so far as you know form a separate branch of teaching in any of the foreign academies8--,i do not know4 #agg4 ,looking generally1 and of course without mentioning any names1 have you in the course of the last few years been generally satisfied with the selection of artists into the ,royal ,academy8--,no1 certainly not4 ,do you think that some artists of merit have been excluded1 or that artists whom you think not deserving of that honor have been elected8--,more2 that artists not deserving of the honor have been elected4 ,i think it does no harm to any promising artist to be left out of the ,academy1 but it does harm to the public sometimes that an unpromising artist should be let into it4 ,you think there have been cases within the last few years in which persons1 in your judgment1 not entitled to that distinction have nevertheless been elected8--,certainly4 #agh4 ,with respect to the selection of pictures for the exhibition1 are you satisfied in general with that selection1 or have you in particular instances seen ground to think that it has been injudiciously exercised8--,in some cases it has been injudiciously exercised1 but it is a matter of small importance2 it causes heartburning probably1 but little more4 ,if a rejected picture is good1 the public will see it some day or other1 and find out that it is a good picture4 ,i care little about what pictures are let in or not1 but ,i do care about seeing the pictures that are let in4 ,the main point1 which everyone would desire to see determined1 is how the pictures that are admitted are to be best seen4 ,no picture deserving of being seen at all should be so hung as to give you any pain or fatigue in seeing it4 ,if you let a picture into the room at all1 it should not be hung so high as that either the feelings of the artist or the neck of the public should be hurt4 #agi4 ,viscount ,hardinge4 ,i gather from your evidence that you would wish to see the ,royal ,academy a sort of central university to which young men from other institutions should be sent4 ,assuming that there were difficulties in the way of carrying that out1 do you think1 under the present system1 you could exact from young men who are candidates for admission into the ,royal ,academy1 some educational test8--,certainly2 ,i think much depends upon that4 ,if the system of education which ,i have been endeavoring to point out were adopted1 you would have in every one of those professions very practiced workmen4 ,you could not have any of this education carried out1 unless you had thoroughly practiced workmen2 and you should fix your pass as you fix your university pass1 and you should pass a man in architecture1 sculpture1 and painting1 because he knows his business1 and knows as much of any other science as is necessary for his profession4 ,you require a piece of work from him1 and you examine him1 and then you pass him1--call him whatever you like2--but you say to the public1 ,here is a workman in this branch who will do your work well4 ,you do not think there would in such a system be any risk of excluding men who might hereafter be great men who under such a system might not be able to pass8--,there are risks in every system1 but ,i think every man worth anything would pass4 ,a great many who would be good for nothing would pass1 but your really great man would assuredly pass4 #ahj4 ,has it ever struck you that it would be advantageous to art if there were at the universities professors of art who might give lectures and give instruction to young men who might desire to avail themselves of it1 as you have lectures on botany and geology8--,yes1 assuredly4 ,the want of interest on the part of the upper classes in art has been very much at the bottom of the abuses which have crept into all systems of education connected with it4 ,if the upper classes could only be interested in it by being led into it when young1 a great improvement might be looked for2 therefore ,i feel the expediency of such an addition to the education of our universities4 #aha4 ,is not that want of refinement which may be observed in many of the pictures from time to time exhibited in the ,royal ,academy to be attributed in a great measure to the want of education amongst artists8--,it is to be attributed to that1 and to the necessity which artists are under of addressing a low class of spectators3 an artist to live must catch the public eye4 ,our upper classes supply a very small amount of patronage to artists at present1 their main patronage being from the manufacturing districts and from the public interested in engravings2--an exceedingly wide sphere1 but a low sphere1--and you catch the eye of that class much more by pictures having reference to their amusements than by any noble subject better treated1 and the better treated it was the less it would interest that class4 ,is it not often the case that pictures exhibiting such a want of refinement1 at the same time fetch large prices amongst what ,i may call the mercantile patrons of art8--,certainly2 and1 the larger the price1 the more harm done of course to the school1 for that is a form of education you cannot resist4 ,plato said long ago1 when you have your demagogue against you no human form of education can resist that4 #ahb4 ,sir ,e4 ,head4 ,what is your opinion of the present mode of teaching in the life school and the painting school1 namely1 by visitors constantly changing8--,i should think it mischievous4 ,the unfortunate youths1 ,i should imagine1 would just get what they could pick up2 it would be throwing them crumbs very much as you throw bones to the animals in the ,zoological ,gardens4 ,do you conceive that anything which can be properly called a school1 is likely to be formed where the teaching is conducted in that way8--,assuredly not4 #ahc4 ,you stated that in the event of the introduction of lay members into the ,academy1 you would not think it desirable that they should take part in the selection or hanging of pictures for exhibition4 ,is not there a great distinction between the selection of the pictures and the hanging of the pictures1 and might not they take part in the one without taking part in the other8--,i should think hardly4 ,my notion of hanging a picture is to put it low enough to be seen4 ,if small it should be placed near the eye4 ,anybody can hang a picture1 but the question should be1 is there good painting enough in this picture to make it acceptable to the public1 or to make it just to the artist to show it8 ,and none but artists can quite judge of the workmanship which should entitle it to enter the ,academy4 ,do you think it depends solely upon the workmanship8--,not by any means solely1 but ,i think that is the first point that should be looked to4 ,an ill-worked picture ought not to be admitted2 let it be exhibited elsewhere if you will1 but your ,academy has no business to let bad work pass4 ,if a man cannot carve or paint1 though his work may be well conceived1 do not let his work pass4 ,unless you require good work in your ,academy exhibition1 you can form no school4 ,mr4 ,reeve4 ,applying the rule you have just laid down1 would the effect be to exclude a considerable proportion of the works now exhibited in the ,academy8--,yes2 more of the ,academicians' than of others4 ,sir ,e4 ,head4 ,selection now being made by technical artists8--,no4 ,professional8--,yes4 ,lord ,elcho4 ,do you think that none but professional artists are capable of judging of the actual merit or demerit of a painting8--,non-professional persons may offer a very strong opinion upon the subject1 which may happen to be right1--or which may be wrong4 ,your opinion is that the main thing with respect to the exhibition is1 that the pictures should be seen2 that they should not be hung too high or too low4 ,that question has been already raised before the ,commission1 and it has been suggested that two feet from the ground should be the minimum height for the base of the picture1 and some witnesses have said that six feet and others eight feet should be the maximum height for the base of the picture2 what limit would you fix8--,i should say that the horizontal line in the perspective of the picture ought always to be opposite the spectator's eye1 no matter what the height may be from the floor4 ,if the horizontal line is so placed that it must be above the spectator's eye1 in consequence of the size of the picture1 it cannot be helped1 but ,i would always get the horizontal line opposite the eye if possible4 #ahd4 ,chairman4 ,should you concur in the suggestion which a witness has made before this ,commission1 that it would be an improvement1 if the space admitted of it1 that works of sculpture should be intermixed in the same apartment with works of painting1 instead of being kept as at present in separate apartments8--,i should think it would be very delightful to have some works of sculpture mixed with works of painting2 that it would make the exhibition more pleasing1 and that the eye would be rested sometimes by turning from the colors to the marble1 and would see the colors of the paintings better in return4 ,sir ,joshua ,reynolds mentions the power which some of the ,flemish pictures seemed to derive1 in his opinion1 by looking at them after having consulted his note-book4 ,statuary placed among the pictures would have the same effect4 ,i would not have the sculpture that was sent in for the exhibition of the year exhibited with the paintings1 but ,i would have works of sculpture placed permanently in the painting rooms4 ,lord ,elcho4 ,supposing there were no works of sculpture available for being placed in the rooms permanently1 and supposing among the works sent in for annual exhibition there were works of a character fit to be placed among the paintings1 should you see any objection to their being so placed8--,that would cause an immense amount of useless trouble1 and perpetual quarrels among the sculptors1 as to whose works were entitled to be placed in the painting rooms or not4 ,are you aware that in the exhibition in ,paris in #ahee1 that was the system adopted8--,no4 ,if the ,french adopted it1 it was likely to be useful1 and doubtless they would carry it out very cleverly2 but we have not the knack of putting the right things in the right places by any means4 ,did you see our own ,international ,exhibition last year8--,no4 ,are you aware that a similar system was resorted to in the exhibition of pictures there8--,i should think in our exhibitions we must put anything where it would go1 in the sort of way that we manage them4 #ahe4 ,at the present moment there are on the books of the ,academy five honorary members1 who hold certain titular offices1 ,earl ,stanhope being antiquary to the ,academy1 ,mr4 ,grote being professor of ancient history1 ,dean ,milman being professor of ancient literature1 the ,bishop of ,oxford being chaplain1 and ,sir ,henry ,holland being secretary for foreign correspondence2 these professors never deliver any lectures and have no voice whatever in the management1 but have mere honorary titular distinctions2 should you think it desirable that gentlemen of their position and character should have a voice in the management of the affairs of the ,academy8--,it would be much more desirable that they should give lectures upon the subjects with which they are acquainted4 ,i should think ,earl ,stanhope and all the gentlemen you have mentioned1 would be much happier in feeling that they were of use in their positions2 and that if you gave them something to do they would very nobly do it4 ,if you give them nothing to do ,i think they ought not to remain in the institution4 #ahf4 ,it has been suggested that the ,academy now consisting of forty-two might be increased advantageously to fifty professional members1 architecture1 sculpture1 and painting being fairly represented1 and that in addition to those fifty there might be elected or nominated somehow or other ten non-professional persons1 that is1 men taking an interest in art1 who had a certain position and standing in the country1 and who might take an active part in the management of the affairs of the institution1 so tending to bring the ,royal ,academy and the public together8--,i do not know enough of society to be able to form an opinion upon the subject4 ,irrespective of society1 as a question of art1 you know enough of non-professional persons interested in art to judge as to whether the infusion of such an element into the ,academy might be of advantage to the ,academy and to art generally8--,i think if you educate our upper classes to take more interest in art1 which implies1 of course1 to know something about it1 they might be most efficient members of the ,academy2 but if you leave them1 as you leave them now1 to the education which they get at ,oxford and ,cambridge1 and give them the sort of scorn which all the teaching there tends to give1 for art and artists1 the less they have to do with an academy of art the better4 ,assuming that1 at present1 you have not a very great number of those persons in the country1 do you not think that the mere fact of the adoption of such a principle in any reform in the constitution of the ,academy might have the effect of turning attention more to this matter at the ,universities1 and leading to the very thing which you think so desirable8--,no1 ,i should think not4 ,it would only at present give the impression that the whole system was somewhat artificial1 and that it was to remain ineffective4 ,notwithstanding the neglect of this matter at the ,universities1 do you think1 at the present moment1 you could not find ten non-professional persons1 of the character you would think desirable1 to add to the ,academy8--,if ,i may be so impertinent1 ,i may say that you as one of the upper classes1 and ,i as a layman in the lower classes1 are tolerably fair examples of the kind of persons who take an interest in art1 and ,i think both of us would do a great deal of mischief if we had much to do with the ,academy4 #ahg4 ,assuming those two persons to be appointed lay members1 will you state in what way you think they would do mischief in the councils of the ,academy8--,we should be disturbing elements1 whereas what ,i should try to secure1 if ,i had anything to do with its arrangements1 would be entire tranquillity1 a regular system of tuition in which there should be little excitement1 and little operation of popular1 aristocratic1 or any other disturbing influence2 none of criticism1 and therefore none of tiresome people like myself2--none of money patronage1 or even of aristocratic patronage4 ,the whole aim of the teachers should be to produce work which could be demonstrably shown to be good and useful1 and worthy of being bought1 or used in any way2 and after that the whole question of patronage and interest should be settled4 ,the school should teach its art-grammar thoroughly in everything1 and in every material1 and should teach it carefully2 and that could be done if a perfect system were adopted1 and above all1 if a few thoroughly good examples were put before the students4 ,that is a point which ,i think of very great importance4 ,i think it very desirable that grants should be made by the ,government to obtain for the pupils of the ,academy beautiful examples of every kind1 the very loveliest and best2 not too many2 and that their minds should not be confused by having placed before them examples of all schools and times2 they are confused enough by what they see in the shops1 and in the annual exhibitions4 ,let engraving be taught by ,marc ,antonio and ,albert ,drer1--painting by ,giorgione1 ,paul ,veronese1 ,titian and ,velasquez1--and sculpture by good ,greek and selected ,roman examples1 and let there be no question of other schools or their merits4 ,let those things be shown as good and right1 and let the student be trained in those principles3--if afterwards he strikes out an original path1 let him2 but do not let him torment himself and other people with his originalities1 till he knows what is right1 so far as is known at present4 ,you are opposed1 on the whole1 to the introduction of the lay element8--,yes2 but ,i am not opposed strongly or distinctly to it1 because ,i have not knowledge enough of society to know how it would work4 ,your not being in favor of it results from your belief that the lay element that would be useful to the ,academy does not at present exist in this country2 but you think1 if it did exist1 and if it could be made to grow out of our schools and universities by art teaching1 it might1 with advantage to the ,academy and to artists1 be introduced into the ,academy8--,yes4 #ahh4 ,supposing the class of ,royal ,academicians to be retained1 and that you had fifty ,royal ,academicians1 should you think it desirable that their works should be exhibited by themselves1 so that the public might see together the works of those considered to be the first artists of this country8--,certainly1 ,i should like all pictures to be well seen1 but ,i should like one department of the exhibition to be given to the ,associates or ,graduates4 ,i use that term because ,i suppose those ,associates to have a degree given them for a certain amount of excellence1 and any person who had attained that degree should be allowed to send in so many pictures4 ,then the pictures sent in by persons who had attained the higher honor of ,royal ,academician should be separately exhibited4 ,that would act as a stimulus to them to keep up their position and show themselves worthy of the honor8--,yes4 ,i do not think they ought to be mixed at all as they are now4 #ahi4 ,what is your opinion with reference to the present system of traveling studentships8--,i think it might be made very useful indeed4 ,on the one hand it has been suggested that there should be1 as is the system adopted by the ,french ,academy1 a permanent professor at ,rome to look after the students2 on the other hand it has been said that it is not desirable1 if you have those traveling studentships1 that the students should go to ,rome1 that it is better for them to travel1 and to go to ,venice or ,lombardy1 and to have no fixed school in connection with the ,academy at ,rome4 ,to which of those two systems do you give the preference8--,i should prefer the latter2 if a man goes to travel1 he ought to travel1 and not be plagued with schools4 ,it has been suggested that fellowships might be given to rising artists1 pecuniary assistance being attached to those fellowships1 the artist being required annually to send in some specimen of his work to show what he was doing1 but it being left optional with him to go abroad or to work at home2 should you think that would be desirable1 or as has been suggested in a letter by ,mr4 ,armitage1 supposing those fellowships to be established for four years1 that two of those years should be spent abroad and two at home8--,without entering into any detail as to whether two years should be spent abroad and two years at home1 ,i feel very strongly that one of the most dangerous and retarding influences you have operating upon art is the enormous power of money1 and the chances of entirely winning or entirely losing1 that is1 of making your fortune in a year by a large taking picture1 or else starving for ten years by very good small ones4 ,the whole life of an artist is a lottery1 and a very wild lottery1 and the best artist is liable to be warped away from what he knows is right by the chance of at once making a vast fortune by catching the public eye1 the public eye being only to be caught by bright colors and certain conditions of art not always desirable4 ,if1 therefore1 connected with the ,academy schools there could be the means of giving a fixed amount of income to certain men1 who would as a consideration for that income furnish a certain number of works that might be agreed upon1 or undertake any national work that might be agreed upon1 that ,i believe would be the healthiest way in which a good painter could be paid4 ,to give him his bread and cheese1 and so much a day1 and say1 ,here are such and such things we want you to do1 is1 ,i believe1 the healthiest1 simplest1 and happiest way in which great work can be produced4 ,but whether it is compatible with our present system ,i cannot say1 nor whether every man would not run away as soon as he found he could get two or three thousand pounds by painting a catching picture4 ,i think your best men would not4 ,you would be in favor of those fellowships8--,yes4 #aij4 ,i gather that you are in favor of the encouragement of mural decoration1 fresco painting1 and so forth4 ,the system that prevails abroad1 in ,france1 for instance1 is for painters to employ pupils to work under them4 ,it was in that way that ,delaroche painted his hemicycle at the ,acadmie des ,beaux-,arts1 employing four pupils1 who worked for him1 and who from his small sketch drew the full-sized picture on the walls1 which was subsequently corrected by him4 ,they then colored it up to his sketch1 after which he shut himself up again1 and completed it4 ,on the other hand1 if you go to the ,victoria ,gallery in the ,house of ,lords1 you find ,mr4 ,maclise at work on a space of wall forty-eight feet long1 painting the ,death of ,nelson on the deck of the ,victory1 every figure being life size1 the deck of the ship and the ropes and everything being the actual size1 and you see him painting with his own hand each little bit of rope and the minutest detail4 ,which of the two systems do you think is the soundest and most calculated to produce great and noble work8--,the first is the best for the pupils1 the other is the best for the public4 ,but unquestionably not only can a great work be executed as ,mr4 ,maclise is executing his1 but no really great work was executed otherwise1 for in all mighty work1 whether in fresco or oil1 every touch and hue of color to the last corner has been put on lovingly by the painter's own hand1 not leaving to a pupil to paint so much as a pebble under a horse's foot4 #aia4 ,do you believe that most of the works of the great masters in ,italy were so executed8--,no2 because the pupils were nearly as mighty as the masters4 ,great men took such an interest in their work1 and they were so modest and simple that they were repeatedly sacrificing themselves to the interests of their religion or of the society they were working for2 and when a thing was to be done in a certain time it could only be done by bringing in aid2 but whenever precious work was to be done1 then the great man said1 ,lock me up here by myself1 give me a little wine and cheese1 and come in a month1 and ,i will show you what ,i have done4 ,do you think it desirable that the pupils should be so trained as to be capable of assisting great masters in such works8--,assuredly4 ,,note4--,the following analysis of the above evidence was given in the ,index to the ,report 7pp4 #aci1 #adj74--;,,ed4 #afh-fi4 ,the ,academy not in all points satisfactory4 ,would wish to see the ,academicians not self-elected4--,but by a constituency consisting both of artists and the public4--,public influence to be the same in painting as in music4 #agj4 ,as to the ,associates3 is in favor of some period of probation4--,their class to be unlimited1 with a very limited number of ,academicians4 #aga4 ,has formed no opinion on the question of introducing laymen into the ,academy2 in matters of revenue they might be joined with artists1 but not in the selection and hanging of pictures3 opposed on the whole to their introduction1 considering the present state of art education4--,as he would like to see the ,academy constituted1 thinks the president ought to be an artist4 #agb4 ,general effect of the ,academy's teaching upon the art of the country merely nugatory4--,would have a much more comprehensive system of teaching4 #agc4 ,the ,academy education to correspond wholly to the ,university education4 #agd4 ,not easy but very necessary for the ,academy to adopt an authoritative system of teaching4 #age4 ,his idea of what the ,academy teaching should be2 would have a school of chemistry4 #agf4 ,the teaching of wall-painting in permanent materials should be a branch1 possibly the principal branch4 #agg4 ,not satisfied with the selection of artists to be members of the ,academy4 #agh4 ,in some cases the selection of pictures has been injudicious1 but this a matter of small importance2 the main point is how the pictures that are admitted are to be best seen4 #agi4 ,in favor of an educational test for candidates for admission into the ,academy4 #ahj4 ,and of professors of art at the ,universities4 #aha4 ,causes of the want of refinement observable in many modern pictures2 the large prices they fetch harmful4 #ahb4 ,teaching by visitors constantly changing mischievous4 #ahc4 ,how a picture should be hung4--,an ill-worked picture ought not to be admitted by the ,academy4--,bearing of this last opinion upon the present ,exhibition4 #ahd4 ,would have works of sculpture placed permanently in the painting-room1 but not any of those sent in for the ,exhibition of the year4 #ahe4 ,in favor of the present honorary members being made of use in their positions4 #ahf4 ,introduction of laymen into the ,academy deprecated under present circumstances1 and why4--,present feeling towards art and artists at the ,universities4 #ahg4 ,desirable that ,government grants should be made to obtain for the pupils of the ,academy beautiful examples of every kind of art4 #ahh4 ,in favor of separate exhibitions of the works of ,associates 7or ,graduates7 and ,academicians4 #ahi4 ,in favor of art-fellowships1 but not of a fixed school in connection with the ,academy at ,rome4 #aij4 ,comparison of the ,french1 and ,english systems 7as regards assistance from pupils7 in the production of great public paintings4 #aia4 ,how the works of the ,italian masters were executed4--,desirable that pupils should be trained to assist great masters in public works4 ,,footnotes3 ,footnote #c3 ,reprinted from ,the ,report of the ,commissioners appointed to inquire into the ,present ,position of the ,royal ,academy in ,relation to the ,fine ,arts4 ,london3 ,eyre and ,spottiswoode1 #ahfc 7pp4 #edf-ee4 ,questions #ejgi-eadb74 ,the ,commission consisted of ,earl ,stanhope 7,chairman71 ,viscount ,hardinge1 ,lord ,elcho1 ,sir ,e4 ,w4 ,head1 ,mr4 ,william ,stirling1 ,mr4 ,h4 ,d4 ,seymour1 and ,mr4 ,henry ,reeve1 all of whom1 except ,mr4 ,seymour1 were present at the above sitting4--,,ed4 ,a ,,museum ,,or ,,picture ,,gallery3 ,,its ,,functions ,,and ,,its ,,formation4#d ,march #bjth1 #ahhj4 ,,my ,,dear ----1 #aib4 ,if ,i put off writing the paper you asked me for1 till ,i can do it conveniently1 it may hang fire till this time next year4 ,if you will accept a note on the subject now and then1 keeping them till there are enough to be worth printing1 all practical ends may be enough answered1 and much more quickly4 ,the first function of a ,museum--7for a little while ,i shall speak of ,art and ,natural ,history as alike cared for in an ideal one7--is to give example of perfect order and perfect elegance1 in the true sense of that test word1 to the disorderly and rude populace4 ,everything in its own place1 everything looking its best because it is there1 nothing crowded1 nothing unnecessary1 nothing puzzling4 ,therefore1 after a room has been once arranged1 there must be no change in it4 ,for new possessions there must be new rooms1 and after twenty years' absence--coming back to the room in which one learned one's bird or beast alphabet1 we should be able to show our children the old bird on the old perch in the accustomed corner4 ,but--first of all1 let the room be beautifully complete1 i4e4 complete enough for its proper business4 #aic4 ,in the ,british ,museum1 at the top of the stairs1 we encounter in a terrific alliance a giraffe1 a hippopotamus1 and a basking shark4 ,the public--young and old--pass with a start and a stare1 and remain as wise as they were before about all the three creatures4 ,the day before yesterday ,i was standing by the big fish--a father came up to it with his little boy4 ,that's a shark1 says he2 it turns on its side when it wants to eat you1 and so went on--literally as wise as he was before2 for he had read in a book that sharks turn on their side to bite1 and he never looked at the ticket1 which told him this particular shark only ate small fish4 ,now he never looked at the ticket1 because he didn't expect to find anything on it except that this was the ,sharkogobalus ,smith-,jonesianius4 ,but if1 round the walls of the room1 there had been all the well-known kinds of shark1 going down1 in graduated sizes1 from that basking one to our waggling dog-fish1 and if every one of these had had a plain ,english ticket1 with ten words of common sense on it1 saying where and how the beast lived1 and a number 7unchangeable7 referring to a properly arranged manual of the shark tribe 7sold by the ,museum publisher1 who ought to have his little shop close by the porter's lodge71 both father and son must have been much below the level of average ,english man and boy in mother wit if they did not go out of the room by the door in front of them very distinctly1 and--to themselves--amazingly1 wiser than they had come in by the door behind them4 #aid4 ,if ,i venture to give instances of fault from the ,british ,museum1 it is because1 on the whole1 it is the best-ordered and pleasantest institution in all ,england1 and the grandest concentration of the means of human knowledge in the world4 ,and ,i am heartily sorry for the break-up of it1 and augur no good from any changes of arrangement likely to take place in concurrence with ,kensington1 where1 the same day that ,i had been meditating by the old shark1 ,i lost myself in a ,cretan labyrinth of military ironmongery1 advertisements of spring blinds1 model fish-farming1 and plaster bathing nymphs with a year's smut on all the noses of them2 and had to put myself in charge of a policeman to get out again4 ,ever affectionately yours1 ,j4 ,,ruskin4 ,march #bith1 #ahhj4 ,,my ,,dear ----1 #aie4 ,the only chance of my getting these letters themselves into fairly consistent and ,museum-like order is by writing a word or two always the first thing in the morning till ,i get them done2 so1 ,i shall at least remember what ,i was talking of the day before2 but for the rest--,i must speak of one thing or another as it may come into my head1 for there are too many to classify without pedantry and loss of time4 ,my requirement of elegance in that last letter contemplates chiefly architecture and fittings4 ,these should not only be perfect in stateliness1 durability1 and comfort1 but beautiful to the utmost point consistent with due subordination to the objects displayed4 ,to enter a room in the ,louvre is an education in itself2 but two steps on the filthy floor and under the iron forks1 half scaffold1 half gallows1 of the big ,norwood glass bazaar1 debase mind and eye at once below possibility of looking at anything with profit all the day afterwards4 ,i have just heard that a ,french picture dealer is to have charge of the picture gallery there1 and that the whole interior is to become virtually a large caf1 when--it is hoped--the glass monster may at last pay4 ,concerning which beautiful consummation of ,mr4 ,dickens's ,fairyland 7see my pamphlet#e on the opening of the so-called palace71 be it here at once noted1 that all idea of any payment1 in that sense1 must be utterly and scornfully abjured on the foundation stone of every ,national or ,civic ,museum4 ,there must be neither companies to fill their own pockets out of it1 nor trustees who can cramp the management1 or interfere with the officering1 or shorten the supplies of it4 ,put one man of reputation and sense at its head2 give him what staff he asks for1 and a fixed annual sum for expenditure--specific accounts to be printed annually for all the world's seeing--and let him alone4 ,the original expenditure for building and fitting must be magnificent1 and the current expenditure for cleaning and refitting magnanimous2 but a certain proportion of this current cost should be covered by small entrance fees1 exacted1 not for any miserly helping out of the floor-sweepers' salaries1 but for the sake of the visitors themselves1 that the rooms may not be incumbered by the idle1 or disgraced by the disreputable4 ,you must not make your ,museum a refuge against either rain or ennui1 nor let into perfectly well-furnished1 and even1 in the true sense1 palatial1 rooms1 the utterly squalid and ill-bred portion of the people4 ,there should1 indeed1 be refuges for the poor from rain and cold1 and decent rooms accessible to indecent persons1 if they like to go there2 but neither of these charities should be part of the function of a ,civic ,museum4 #aif4 ,make the entrance fee a silver penny 7a silver groat1 typically representing the father1 mother1 eldest son1 and eldest daughter1 passing always the total number of any one family71 and every person admitted1 however young1 being requested to sign their name1 or make their mark4 ,that the entrance money should be always of silver is one of the beginnings of education in the place--one of the conditions of its elegance on the very threshold4 ,and the institution of silver for bronze in the lower coinage is a part of the system of ,national education which ,i have been teaching these last ten years--a very much deeper and wider one than any that can be given in museums--and without which all museums will ultimately be vain4--,ever affectionately yours1 ,j4 ,r4 ,p4,s4--,there should be a well-served coffee-room attached to the building2 but this part of the establishment without any luxury in furniture or decoration1 and without any cooking apparatus for carnivora4 ,easter ,monday1 #ahhj4 ,,dear ----1 #aig4 ,the day is auspicious for the beginning of reflection on the right manner of manifestation of all divine things to those who desire to see them4 ,for every house of the ,muses1 where1 indeed1 they live1 is an ,interpreter's by the wayside1 or rather1 a place of oracle and interpretation in one4 ,and the right function of every museum1 to simple persons1 is the manifestation to them of what is lovely in the life of ,nature1 and heroic in the life of ,men4 ,there are already1 you see1 some quaint restrictions in that last sentence1 whereat sundry of our friends will start1 and others stop4 ,i must stop also1 myself1 therefore1 for a minute or two1 to insist on them4 #aih4 ,a ,museum1 primarily1 is to be for simple persons4 ,children1 that is to say1 and peasants4 ,for your student1 your antiquary1 or your scientific gentleman1 there must be separate accommodation1 or they must be sent elsewhere4 ,the ,town ,museum is to be for the ,town's ,people1 the ,village ,museum for the ,villagers4 ,keep that first principle clear to start with4 ,if you want to found an academy of painting in ,littleborough1 or of literature in ,squattlesea ,mere1 you must get your advice from somebody else1 not me4 #aii4 ,secondly4 ,the museum is to manifest to these simple persons the beauty and life of all things and creatures in their perfectness4 ,not their modes of corruption1 disease1 or death4 ,not even1 always1 their genesis1 in the more or less blundering beginnings of it2 not even their modes of nourishment1 if destructive2 you must not stuff a blackbird pulling up a worm1 nor exhibit in a glass case a crocodile crunching a baby4 ,neither must you ever show bones or guts1 or any other charnel-house stuff4 ,teach your children to know the lark's note from the nightingale's2 the length of their larynxes is their own business1 and ,god's4 ,i cannot enough insist upon this point1 nor too solemnly4 ,if you wish your children to be surgeons1 send them to ,surgeons' ,college2 if jugglers or necromancers1 to ,messrs4 ,maskelyne and ,cooke2 and if butchers1 to the shambles3 but if you want them to lead the calm life of country gentlemen and gentlewomen1 manservants and maidservants1 let them seek none of ,death's secrets till they die4 ,ever faithfully and affectionately yours1 ,j4 ,r4 ,easter ,tuesday1 #ahhj4 ,,dear ----1 #bjj4 ,i must enter to-day somewhat further on the practical1 no less than emotional1 reason for the refusal of anatomical illustrations to the general public4 ,it is difficult enough to get one clear idea into anybody1 of any single thing4 ,but next to impossible to get two clear ideas into them1 of the same thing4 ,we have had lions' heads for door-knockers these hundred and fifty years1 without ever learning so much as what a lion's head is like4 ,but with good modern stuffing and fetching1 ,i can manage now to make a child really understand something about the beast's look1 and his mane1 and his sullen eyes and brindled lips4 ,but if ,i'm bothered at the same time with a big bony box1 that has neither mane1 lips1 nor eyes1 and have to explain to the poor wretch of a parish schoolboy how somehow this fits on to that1 ,i will be bound that1 at a year's end1 draw one as big as the other1 and he won't know a lion's head from a tiger's--nor a lion's skull from a rabbit's4 ,nor is it the parish boy only who suffers4 ,the scientific people themselves miss half their points from the habit of hacking at things1 instead of looking at them4 ,when ,i gave my lecture on the ,swallow#f at ,oxford1 ,i challenged every anatomist there to tell me the use of his tail 7,i believe half of them didn't know he had one74 ,not a soul of them could tell me1 which ,i knew beforehand2 but ,i did not know1 till ,i had looked well through their books1 how they were quarreling about his wings6 ,actually at this moment 7,easter ,tuesday1 #ahhj71 ,i don't believe you can find in any scientific book in ,europe a true account of the way a bird flies--or how a snake serpentines4 ,my ,swallow lecture was the first bit of clear statement on the one point1 and when ,i get my ,snake lecture published1 you will have the first extant bit of clear statement on the other2 and that is simply because the anatomists can't1 for their life1 look at a thing till they have skinned it4 #bja4 ,and matters get worse and worse every hour4 ,yesterday1 after writing the first leaf of this note1 ,i went into the ,british ,museum1 and found a nasty skeleton of a lizard1 with its under jaw dropped off1 on the top of a table of butterflies--temporarily of course--but then everything has been temporary or temporizing at the ,british ,museum for the last half-century2 making it always a mere waste and weariness to the general public1 because1 forsooth1 it had always to be kept up to the last meeting of the ,zoological ,society1 and last edition of the ,times4 ,as if there had not been beasts enough before the ,ark to tell our children the manners of1 on a ,sunday afternoon6 #bjb4 ,i had gone into the ,museum that day to see the exact form of a duck's wing1 the examination of a lively young drake's here at ,coniston having closed in his giving me such a cut on the wrist with it1 that ,i could scarcely write all the morning afterwards4 ,now in the whole bird gallery there are only two ducks' wings expanded1 and those in different positions4 ,fancy the difference to the mob1 and me1 if the shells and monkey skeletons were taken away from the mid-gallery1 and instead1 three gradated series of birds put down the length of it 7or half the length--or a quarter would do it--with judgment71 showing the transition1 in length of beak1 from bunting to woodcock--in length of leg1 from swift to stilted plover--and in length of wing1 from auk to frigate-bird2 the wings1 all opened1 in one specimen of each bird to their full sweep1 and in another1 shown at the limit of the down back stroke4 ,for what on earth--or in air--is the use to me of seeing their boiled sternums and scalped sinciputs1 when ,i'm never shown either how they bear their breasts--or where they carry their heads8 ,enough of natural history1 you will say6 ,i will come to art in my next letter--finishing the ugly subject of this one with a single sentence from section ix4 of the ,tale of a ,tub1 commending the context of it to my friends of the ,royal ,academy4 ,last week1 ,i saw a woman flayed1 and you will hardly believe how much it altered her person for the worse4--,ever1 my dear ----1 affectionately yours1 ,j4 ,r4 #gth ,april1 #ahhj4 ,,my ,,dear ----1 #bjc4 ,i suppose that proper respect for the great first principles of the ,british ,constitution1 that every man should do as he pleases1 think what he likes1 and see everything that can be seen for money1 will make most of your readers recoil from my first principle of ,museum arrangement1--that nothing should be let inside the doors that isn't good of its sort1--as from an attempt to restore the ,papacy1 revive the ,inquisition1 and away with everybody to the lowest dungeon of the castle moat4 ,they must at their pleasure charge me with these sinister views2 they will find that there is no dexter view to be had of the business1 which does not consist primarily in knowing ,bad from ,good1 and ,right from ,wrong4 ,nor1 if they will condescend to begin simply enough1 and at the bottom of the said business1 and let the cobbler judge of the crepida1 and the potter of the pot1 will they find it so supremely difficult to establish authorities that shall be trustworthy1 and judgments that shall be sure4 #bjd4 ,suppose1 for instance1 at ,leicester1 whence came first to us the inquiry on such points1 one began by setting apart a ,hunter's ,room1 in which a series of portraits of their ,master's favorites1 for the last fifty years or so1 should be arranged1 with certificate from each ,squire of his satisfaction1 to such and such a point1 with the portrait of ,lightfoot1 or ,lucifer1 or ,will o' the ,wisp2 and due notification1 for perhaps a recreant and degenerate future1 of the virtues and perfections at this time sought and secured in the ,english horse4 ,would not such a chamber of chivalry have1 in its kind1 a quite indisputable authority and historical value1 not to be shaken by any future impudence or infidelity8 ,or again in ,staffordshire1 would it not be easily answered to an honest question of what is good and not1 in clay or ware1 ,this will work1 and that will stand8 and might not a series of the mugs which have been matured with discrimination1 and of the pots which have been popular in use1 be so ordered as to display their qualities in a convincing and harmonious manner against all gainsayers8 #bje4 ,nor is there any mystery of taste1 or marvel of skill1 concerning which you may not get quite easy initiation and safe pilotage for the common people1 provided you once make them clearly understand that there is indeed something to be learned1 and something to be admired1 in the arts1 which will need their attention for a time2 and cannot be explained with a word1 nor seen with a wink4 ,and provided also1 and with still greater decision1 you set over them masters1 in each branch of the arts1 who know their own minds in that matter1 and are not afraid to speak them1 nor to say1 ,we know1 when they know1 and ,we don't know1 when they don't4 ,to which end1 the said several branches must be held well apart1 and dealt with one at a time4 ,every considerable town ought to have its exemplary collections of woodwork1 iron-work1 and jewelry1 attached to the schools of their several trades1 leaving to be illustrated in its public museum1 as in an hexagonal bee's cell1 the six queenly and muse-taught arts of needlework1 writing1 pottery1 sculpture1 architecture1 and painting4 #bjf4 ,for each of these1 there should be a separate ,tribune or ,chamber of absolute tribunal1 which need not be large--that1 so called1 of ,florence1 not the size of a railway waiting-room1 has actually for the last century determined the taste of the ,european public in two arts6--in which the absolute best in each art1 so far as attainable by the communal pocket1 should be authoritatively exhibited1 with simple statement that it is good1 and reason why it is good1 and notification in what particulars it is unsurpassable1 together with some not too complex illustrations of the steps by which it has attained to that perfection1 where these can be traced far back in history4 #bjg4 ,these six ,tribunes1 or ,temples1 of ,fame1 being first set with their fixed criteria1 there should follow a series of historical galleries1 showing the rise and fall 7if fallen7 of the arts in their beautiful associations1 as practiced in the great cities and by the great nations of the world4 ,the history of ,egypt1 of ,persia1 of ,greece1 of ,italy1 of ,france1 and of ,england1 should be given in their arts1--dynasty by dynasty and age by age2 and for a seventh1 a ,sunday ,room1 for the history of ,christianity in its art1 including the farthest range and feeblest efforts of it2 reserving for this room1 also1 what power could be reached in delineation of the great monasteries and cathedrals which were once the glory of all ,christian lands4 #bjh4 ,in such a scheme1 every form of noble art would take harmonious and instructive place1 and often very little and disregarded things be found to possess unthought-of interest and hidden relative beauty2 but its efficiency--and in this chiefly let it be commended to the patience of your practical readers--would depend1 not on its extent1 but on its strict and precise limitation4 ,the methods of which1 if you care to have my notions of them1 ,i might perhaps enter into1 next month1 with some illustrative detail4--,ever most truly yours1 ,j4 ,r4 #ajth ,june1 #ahhj4g ,,my ,,dear ----1 #bji4 ,i can't give you any talk on detail1 yet2 but1 not to drop a stitch in my story1 ,i want to say why ,i've attached so much importance to needlework1 and put it in the opening court of the six4 ,you see they are progressive1 so that ,i don't quite put needlework on a level with painting4 ,but a nation that would learn to touch must primarily know how to stitch4 ,i am always busy1 for a good part of the day1 in my wood1 and wear out my leathern gloves fast1 after once ,i can wear them at all3 but that's the precise difficulty of the matter4 ,i get them from the shop looking as stout and trim as you please1 and half an hour after ,i've got to work they split up the fingers and thumbs like ripe horse-chestnut shells1 and ,i find myself with five dangling rags round my wrist1 and a rotten white thread draggling after me through the wood1 or tickling my nose1 as if ,ariadne and ,arachne had lost their wits together4 ,i go home1 invoking the universe against sewing-machines2 and beg the charity of a sound stitch or two from any of the maids who know their woman's art2 and thenceforward the life of the glove proper begins4 ,wow1 it is not possible for any people that put up with this sort of thing1 to learn to paint1 or do anything else with their fingers decently3--only1 for the most part they don't think their museums are meant to show them how to do anything decently1 but rather how to be idle1 indecently4 ,which extremely popular and extremely erroneous persuasion1 if you please1 we must get out of our way before going further4 #baj4 ,i owe some apology1 by the way1 to ,mr4 ,frith1 for the way ,i spoke of his picture#h in my letter to the ,leicester committee1 not intended for publication1 though ,i never write what ,i would not allow to be published1 and was glad that they asked leave to print it4 ,it was not ,i who instanced the picture1 it had been named in the meeting of the committee as the kind of thing that people best like1 and ,i was obliged to say why people best liked it3--namely1 not for the painting1 which is good1 and worthy their liking1 but for the sight of the racecourse and its humors4 ,and the reason that such a picture ought not to be in a museum1 is precisely because in a museum people ought not to fancy themselves on a racecourse4 ,if they want to see races1 let them go to races2 and if rogues1 to ,bridewells4 ,they come to museums to see something different from rogues and races4 #baa4 ,but1 to put the matter at once more broadly1 and more accurately1 be it remembered1 for sum of all1 that a museum is not a theater4 ,both are means of noble education--but you must not mix up the two4 ,dramatic interest is one thing2 aesthetic charm another2 a pantomime must not depend on its fine color1 nor a picture on its fine pantomime4 ,take a special instance4 ,it is long since ,i have been so pleased in the ,royal ,academy as ,i was by ,mr4 ,britton ,rivire's ,sympathy4 ,the dog in uncaricatured doggedness1 divine as ,anubis1 or the ,dog-star2 the child entirely childish and lovely1 the carpet might have been laid by ,veronese4 ,a most precious picture in itself1 yet not one for a museum4 ,everybody would think only of the story in it2 everybody be wondering what the little girl had done1 and how she would be forgiven1 and if she wasn't1 how soon she would stop crying1 and give the doggie a kiss1 and comfort his heart4 ,all which they might study at home among their own children and dogs just as well2 and should not come to the museum to plague the real students there1 since there is not anything of especial notableness or unrivaled quality in the actual painting4 #bab4 ,on the other hand1 one of the four pictures ,i chose for permanent teaching in ,fors was one of a child and a dog4 ,the child is doing nothing2 neither is the dog4 ,but the dog is absolutely and beyond comparison the best painted dog in the world--ancient or modern--on this side of it1 or at the ,antipodes1 7so far as ,i've seen the contents of said world74 ,and the child is painted so that child cannot be better done4 ,that is a picture for a museum4 ,not that dramatic1 still less didactic1 intention should disqualify a work of art for museum purposes4 ,but--broadly--dramatic and didactic art should be universally national1 the luster of our streets1 the treasure of our palaces1 the pleasure of our homes4 ,much art that is weak1 transitory1 and rude may thus become helpful to us4 ,but the museum is only for what is eternally right1 and well done1 according to divine law and human skill4 ,the least things are to be there--and the greatest--but all good with the goodness that makes a child cheerful and an old man calm2 the simple should go there to learn1 and the wise to remember4 #bac4 ,and now to return to what ,i meant to be the subject of this letter--the arrangement of our first ideal room in such a museum4 ,as ,i think of it1 ,i would fain expand the single room1 first asked for1 into one like ,prince ,houssain's1--no1 ,prince ,houssain had the flying tapestry1 and ,i forget which prince had the elastic palace4 ,but1 indeed1 it must be a lordly chamber which shall be large enough to exhibit the true nature of thread and needle--omened in ,thread-needle ,street6 ,the structure1 first of wool and cotton1 of fur1 and hair1 and down1 of hemp1 flax1 and silk3--microscope permissible if any cause can be shown why wool is soft1 and fur fine1 and cotton downy1 and down downier2 and how a flax fiber differs from a dandelion stalk1 and how the substance of a mulberry leaf can become velvet for ,queen ,victoria's crown1 and clothing of purple for the housewife of ,solomon4 ,then the phase of its dyeing4 ,what azures1 and emeralds1 and ,tyrians scarlets can be got into fibers of thread4 #bad4 ,then the phase of its spinning4 ,the mystery of that divine spiral1 from finest to firmest1 which renders lace possible at ,valenciennes--anchorage possible1 after ,trafalgar--if ,hardy had but done as he was bid4 ,then the mystery of weaving4 ,the eternal harmony of warp and woof1 of all manner of knotting1 knitting1 and reticulation1 the art which makes garment possible1 woven from the top throughout1 draughts of fishes possible1 miraculous enough in any pilchard or herring shoal1 gathered into companionable catchableness2--which makes1 in fine1 so many ,nations possible1 and ,saxon and ,norman beyond the rest4 #bae4 ,and finally1 the accomplished phase of needlework1 the ,acu ,tetigisti of all time1 which does1 indeed1 practically exhibit what medival theologists vainly tried to conclude inductively--,how many angels can stand on a needle-point4 ,to show the essential nature of a stitch--drawing the separate into the inseparable1 from the lowly work of duly restricted sutor1 and modestly installed cobbler1 to the needle-,scripture of ,matilda1 the ,queen4 ,all the acicular ,art of ,nations1 savage and civilized1 from ,lapland boot1 letting in no snow-water--to ,turkey cushion bossed with pearl--to valance of ,venice gold in needlework -to the counterpanes and samplers of our own lovely ancestresses1 imitable1 perhaps1 once more1 with good help from ,whiteland's ,college--and ,girton4 #baf4 ,it was but yesterday1 my own womankind were in much wholesome and sweet excitement delightful to behold1 in the practice of some new device of remedy for rents 7to think how much of evil there is in the two senses of that four-lettered word6 as in the two methods of intonation of its synonym tear67 whereby they might be daintily effaced1 and with a newness which would never make them worse4 ,the process began beautifully1 even to my uninformed eyes1 in the likeness of herring-bone masonry1 crimson on white1 but it seemed to me marvelous that anything should yet be discoverable in needle process1 and that of so utilitarian character4 ,all that is reasonable1 ,i say of such work is to be in our first museum room4 ,all that ,athena and ,penelope would approve4 ,nothing that vanity has invented for change1 or folly loved for costliness2 but all that can bring honest pride into homely life1 and give security to health--and honor to beauty4 ,j4 ,,ruskin4 ,,footnotes3 ,footnote #d3 ,these letters are reprinted from the ,art ,journal of ,june and ,august #ahhj1 where they were prefaced with the following note by the editor in explanation of their origin3--,we are enabled1 through ,mr4 ,ruskin's kindness1 to publish this month a series of letters to a friend upon the functions and formation of a model ,museum or ,picture ,gallery4 ,as stated in our last issue the question arose thus3--,at the distribution of the prizes to the ,school of ,art at ,leicester by ,mr4 ,j4 ,d4 ,linton and ,mr4 ,james ,orrock1 members of the ,institute of ,painters in ,water ,colors1 the latter1 after stating the vital importance of study from nothing but the finest models1 and expressing his regret that the present price of works of ,art of the first class rendered their attainment by schools almost prohibitory1 offered drawings by ,william ,hunt and ,david ,cox as a nucleus for a collection4 ,he urged others to follow this example1 and with so much success that a few days saw a large sum and many works of ,art promised in aid of a students' gallery4 ,the attention of the ,leicester ,corporation was thereupon drawn to the movement1 and they at once endeavored to annex the scheme to their ,museum4 ,failing in this1 they in friendly rivalry subscribed a large sum of money1 and the question at once arose how best to dispose of it1 each naturally thinking his own ideas the best4 ,at this juncture ,mr4 ,ruskin's aid was invoked by one section of the subscribers1 and he replied in a letter which1 owing to its having been circulated without its context1 has been open to some misconstruction4 ,as he was only asked1 so he only advised1 what should not be done4 ,however1 the letter bore its fruits1 for both parties have had the attention of the country drawn to their proposals1 and so are now more diffident how to set about carrying them into effect than they were before4 ,under these circumstances ,mr4 ,ruskin has been induced to set out the mode in which he considers an ,art ,museum should be formed4 ,the letter which was open to some misconstruction may be found in ,arrows of the ,chace4 ,footnote #e3 ,reprinted in vol4 i41 #bec-bgc4--;,,ed4 ,footnote #f3 ,in #ahgc4 ,see the second lecture of ,love's ,meinie4--,,ed44 ,footnote #g3 ,art ,journal1 ,august1 #ahhj4 ,footnote #h3 ,the ,derby ,day4 ,see ,arrows of the ,chase4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,minor ,,writings ,,upon ,,art4 ,,the ,,cavalli ,,monuments1 ,,verona4 #ahgb4 ,,verona ,,and ,,its ,,rivers 7,,with ,,catalogue74 #ahgj4 ,,christian ,,art ,,and ,,symbolism4 #ahgb4 ,,art ,,schools ,,of ,,medi,,val ,,christendom4 #ahgf4 ,,the ,,extension ,,of ,,railways4 #ahgf4 ,,the ,,study ,,of ,,beauty4 #ahhc4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,the ,,cavalli ,,monuments ,,in ,,the ,,church ,,of ,,st4 ,,anastasia1 ,,verona4#i #bag4 ,the tomb of ,federigo and ,nicola ,cavalli is in the southernmost chapel of the five which form the east end of the church of ,st4 ,anastasia at ,verona4 ,the traveler in ,italy is so often called upon to admire what he cannot enjoy1 that it must relieve the mind of any reader intending to visit ,verona to be assured that this church deserves nothing but extraordinary praise2 it has1 however1 some characters which a quarter of an hour's attention will make both interesting and instructive1 and which ,i will note briefly before giving an account of the ,cavalli chapel4 ,this church would1 if the font were finished1 probably be the most perfect specimen in existence of the style to which it belongs1 says a critic quoted in ,murray's ,guide4 ,the conjecture is a bold one1 for the font is not only unfinished1 and for the most part a black mass of ragged brickwork1 but the portion pretending to completion is in three styles2 approaches excellence only in one of them2 and in that the success is limited to the sides of the single entrance door4 ,the flanks and vaults of this porch1 indeed1 deserve our almost unqualified admiration for their beautiful polychrome masonry4 ,they are built of large masses of green serpentine alternating with red and white marble1 and the joints are so delicate and firm that a casual spectator might pass the gate with contempt1 thinking the stone was painted4 #bah4 ,the capitals on these two sides1 the carved central shaft1 and the horizontal lintel of this door are also excellent examples of ,veronese thirteenth century sculpture1 and have merits of a high order1 but of which the general observer cannot be cognizant4 ,i do not mean1 in saying this1 to extol them greatly2 the best art is pleasing to all1 and its virtue1 or a portion of its virtue1 instantly manifest4 ,but there are some good qualities in every earnest work which can only be ascertained by attention2 and in saying that a casual observer cannot see the good qualities in early ,veronese sculpture1 ,i mean that it possesses none but these1 nor of these many4 #bai4 ,yet it is worth a minute's delay to observe how much the sculpture has counted on attention4 ,in later work1 figures of the size of life1 or multitudinous small ones1 please1 if they do not interest1 the spectator who can spare them a momentary glance4 ,but all the figures on this door are diminutive1 and project so slightly from the stone as scarcely to catch the eye2 there are none in the sides and none in the vault of the gate1 and it is only by deliberate examination that we find the faith which is to be preached in the church1 and the honor of its preacher1 conclusively engraved on the lintel and door-post4 ,the spiral flutings of the central shaft are uninterrupted1 so as to form a slight recess for the figure of ,st4 ,dominic1 with1 ,i believe1 ,st4 ,peter ,martyr and ,st4 ,thomas ,aquinas1 one on each side with the symbols of the sun and moon4 ,at the end of the lintel1 on the left1 is ,st4 ,anastasia2 on the right1 ,st4 ,catherine 7of ,siena72 in the center1 on the projecting capital1 the ,madonna2 and on the lintel1 the story of ,christ1 in the four passages of the ,annunciation1 ,nativity1 ,crucifixion1 and ,resurrection4 #bbj4 ,this is the only part of the front of the church which is certainly part of the first structure in #abfj4 ,the two statues of ,st4 ,anastasia and ,st4 ,catherine are so roughly joined to the lateral capitals as to induce a suspicion that even these latter and the beautiful polychrome vault are of later work1 not1 however1 later than #acjj4 ,the two pointed arches which divide the tympanum are assuredly subsequent1 and the fresco which occupies it is a bad work of the end of the fourteenth century2 and the marble frieze and foundations of the front are at least not earlier than #adbf4 ,of this portion of the building the foundation is noble1 and its color beautifully disposed1 but the sculpture of the paneling is poor1 and of no interest or value4 #bba4 ,on entering the church1 and turning immediately to the left1 there will be seen on the inner side of the external wall a tomb under a boldly trefoiled canopy4 ,it is a sarcophagus with a recumbent figure on it1 which is the only work of art in the church deserving serious attention4 ,it is the tomb of ,gerard ,bolderius sui temporis physicorum principi1 says his epitaph1#aj not1 as far as ,i can discover1 untruly4 ,on the front of the sarcophagus is the semi-figure of ,christ rising from the tomb1 used generally at the period for the type of resurrection1 between the ,virgin and ,st4 ,john2 and two shields1 bearing1 one the fleur-de-lys1 the other an eagle4 ,the recumbent figure is entirely simple and right in treatment1 sculptured without ostentation of skill or exaggeration of sentiment1 by a true artist1 who endeavors only to give the dead due honor1 and his own art subordinate and modest scope4 ,this monument1 being the best in ,st4 ,anastasia1 is1 by the usual spite of fortune1 placed where it is quite invisible except on bright days4 ,on the opposite side of the church1 the first monument on the right1 well lighted by the tall western window1 should be looked at next to the physician's2 for as that is the best1 this is essentially the worst1 piece of sculptured art in the building2 a series of academy studies in marble1 well executed1 but without either taste or invention1 and necessarily without meaning1 the monument having been erected to a person whose only claim to one was his having stolen money enough to pay for it before he died4 ,it is one of the first pieces extant of entirely mechanical art workmanship1 done for money2 and the perfection of its details may justify me in directing special attention to it4 #bbb4 ,there are no other monuments1 still less pictures1 in the body of the church deserving notice4 ,the general effect of the interior is impressive1 owing partly to the boldness and simplicity of the pillars which sustain the roof2 partly to the darkness which involves them3 these ,dominican churches being1 in fact1 little more than vast halls for preaching in1 and depending little on decoration1 and not at all on light4 ,but the sublimity of shadow soon fails when it has nothing interesting to shade2 and the chapel or monuments which1 opposite each interval between the pillars1 fill the sides of the aisles1 possess no interest except in their arabesques of cinque-cento sculpture1 of which far better examples may be seen elsewhere2 while the differences in their ages1 styles1 and purposes hinder them from attaining any unity of decorative effect1 and break the unity of the church almost as fatally1 though not as ignobly1 as the incoherent fillings of the aisles at ,westminster4 ,the ,cavalli chapel itself1 though well deserving the illustration which the ,arundel ,society has bestowed upon it1 is filled with a medley of tombs and frescoes of different dates1 partly superseding1 none illustrating1 each other1 and instructive mainly as showing the unfortunate results of freedom and private enterprise in matters of art1 as compared with the submission to the design of one ruling mind which is the glory of all the chapels in ,italy where the art is entirely noble4 #bbc4 ,instructive1 thus1 at least1 even if seen hastily2 much better teaching may be had even from the unharmonious work1 if we give time and thought to it4 ,the upper fresco on the north wall1 representing the ,baptism of ,christ1 has no beauty1 and little merit as art2 yet the manner of its demerit is interesting4 ,st4 ,john kneels to baptize4 ,this variation from the received treatment1 in which he stands above the ,christ1 is enough in itself to show that the poor ,veronese painter had some intelligence of his subject2 and the quaint and haggard figure1 grim-featured1 with its black hair rising in separate locks like a crown of thorns1 is a curious intermediate type between the grotesque conception which we find in earlier art 7or1 for instance1 on the coins of ,florence7 and the beautiful1 yet always melancholy and severe figures of ,st4 ,john painted by ,cima da ,conegliano at ,venice4 ,with this stern figure1 in raiment of camel's hair1 compare the ,magdalen in the frescoes at the side of the altar1 who is veiled from head to foot with her own1 and sustained by six angels1 being the type of repentance from the passions1 as ,st4 ,john of resistance to them4 ,both symbols are1 to us1 to say the very least1 without charm1 and to very few without offense2 yet consider how much nobler the temper of the people must have been who could take pleasure in art so gloomy and unadorned1 than that of the populace of to-day1 which must be caught with bright colors and excited by popular sentiment4 #bbd4 ,both these frescoes1 with the others on the north wall of the chapel1 and ,madonna between four saints on the south side1 by the ,cavalli tomb1 are evidently of fourteenth century work1 none of it good1 but characteristic2 and the last-named work 7seen in the plate7 is so graceful as to be quite worth some separate illustration4 ,but the one above it is earlier1 and of considerable historical interest4 ,it was discovered with the other paintings surrounding the tomb1 about the year #ahch1 when ,persico published his work1 ,verona1 e la sua ,provincia1 in which he says 7p4 #ac71 levatane l'antica incrostatura1 tornarono a vita novella4 ,it would have been more serviceable to us if we could have known the date of the rough cast1 than of its removal2 the period of entire contempt for ancient art being a subject of much interest in the ecclesiastical history of ,italy4 ,but the tomb itself was an incrustation1 having been raised with much rudeness and carelessness amidst the earlier art which recorded the first rise of the ,cavalli family4 #bbe4 ,it will be seen by reference to the plate that the frescoes round the tomb have no symmetrical relation to it4 ,they are all of earlier date1 and by better artists4 ,the tomb itself is roughly carved1 and coarsely painted1 by men who were not trying to do their best1 and could not have done anything very well1 even if they had tried3 it is an entirely commonplace and dull work1 though of a good school1 and has been raised against the highest fresco with a strange disregard of the merit of the work itself1 and of its historical value to the family4 ,this fresco is attributable by ,persico to ,giotto1 but is1 ,i believe1 nothing more than an interesting example of the earnest work of his time1 and has no quality on which ,i care to enlarge2 nor is it ascertainable who the three knights are whom it commemorates1 unless some evidence be found of the date of the painting1 and there is1 yet1 none but that of its manner4 ,but they are all three ,cavallis1 and ,i believe them to represent the three first founders of the family1 ,giovanni1 che fioriva intorno al #abgd1 his son ,nicola 7#abig71 and grandson ,federigo1 who was ,podesta of ,vicenza under the ,scaligers in #acca1 and by whom ,i suppose the fresco to have been commanded4 ,the ,cavallis came first from ,germany into the service of the ,visconti of ,milan1 as condottieri1 thence passing into the service of the ,scaligers4 ,whether ,i am right in this conjecture or not1 we have1 at all events1 record in this chapel of seven knights of the family1 of whom two are named on the sarcophagus1 of which the inscription 7on the projecting ledge under the recumbent figure7 is3-- ,s4 7,sepulchrum7 nobilis et egregii viri ,federici et egregii et strenui viri domini ,nicolai de ,cavalis suorunique heredum1 qui spiritum redidit astris ,ano ,dni ,,mccclxxxx4 ,of which1 ,i think1 the force may be best given thus in modern terms3-- ,the tomb of the noble and distinguished ,herr ,frederic1 and of the distinguished and energetic ,herr the ,lord ,nicholas of the house of the ,horse1 and of their heirs1 who gave back his soul to the stars in the year of our ,lord #acij4 #bbf4 ,this ,frederic and ,nicolas ,cavalli were the brothers of the ,jacopo ,cavalli who is buried at ,venice1 and who1 by a singular fatality1 was enrolled among the ,venetian nobles of the senate in the year in which his brother died at ,verona 7for ,i assume the spiritum redidit to be said of the first-named brother74 ,jacopo married ,constance della ,scala1 of ,verona1 and had five sons1 of whom one1 ,giorgio1 ,conte di ,schio1 plotted1 after the fall of the ,scaligers1 for their restoration to power in ,verona1 and was exiled1 by decree of the ,council of ,ten1 to ,candia1 where he died4 ,from another son1 ,conrad1 are descended the ,cavallis of ,venice1 whose palace has been the principal material from which recent searchers for the picturesque in ,venice compose pictures of the ,grand ,canal4 ,it forms the square mass of architecture on the left1 in the continually repeated view of the ,church of the ,salute seen from the steps of the ,academy4 ,the genealogy of the family1 from the thirteenth century1 when they first appeared in ,italy1 to the founder of this ,venetian lordship1 had better be set before the reader in one view4#aa ,,giovanni1 ,condottiere in service of the ,visconti1 #abgd4 ,,nicola1 ,condottiere1 #abig4 ,,federico1 ,podesta of ,vicenza under the ,scaligers1 #acca4 ,,conrado1 ,condottiere1 #acej4 --------------------------- ,,federigo1 ,,jacopo1 ,,nicola1 --------------------------------------- ,,nicola1 ,,giovanni1 ,,conrado1 ,,federigo1 ,,giorgio4 ,founds ,venetian family4 #bbg4 ,now1 as above stated1 ,i believe that the fresco of the three knights was commanded by the ,podesta of ,vicenza1 on his receiving that authority from the ,scaligers in #acca1 and that it represents ,giovanni1 ,nicola1 and himself2 while the tomb of ,federigo and ,nicola would be ordered by the ,venetian ,cavallis1 and completed without much care for the record of the rise of the family at ,verona4 ,whether my identification of the figures seen kneeling in the fresco be correct or not1 the representation of these three ,cavalli knights to the ,madonna1 each interceded for by his patron saint1 will be found to receive a peculiar significance if the reader care to review the circumstances influencing the relation of the ,german chivalry to the power of the ,church in the very year when ,giovanni ,cavalli entered the ranks of the ,visconti4 #bbh4 ,for the three preceding centuries1 ,milan1 the oldest archbishopric of ,lombardy1 had been the central point at which the collision between the secular and ecclesiastical power took place in ,europe4 ,the ,guelph and ,ghibelline naturally met and warred throughout the plain of ,lombardy2 but the intense civic stubbornness and courage of the ,milanese population formed a kind of rock in their tide-way1 where the quarrel of burgher with noble confused itself with1 embittered1 and brought again and again to trial by battle1 that of pope with emperor4 ,in #ajce their warrior archbishop1 heading their revolt against ,conrad of ,franconia1 organized the first disciplined resistance of foot-soldiers to cavalry by his invention and decoration of the ,carroccio2 and the contest was only closed1 after the rebuilding of the walls of ruined ,milan1 by the wandering of ,barbarossa1 his army scattered1 through the maize fields1 which the traveler now listlessly crosses at speed in the train between ,milan and ,arona1 little noting the name of the small station1 ,legnano1 where the fortune of the ,lombard republic finally prevailed4 ,but it was only by the death of ,frederick ,,ii4 that the supremacy of the ,church was secured2 and when ,innocent ,,iv41 who had written1 on hearing of that death1 to his ,sicilian clergy1 in words of blasphemous exultation1 entered ,milan1 on his journey from ,lyons to ,perugia1 the road1 for ten miles before he reached the gates1 was lined by the entire population of the city1 drawn forth in enthusiastic welcome2 as they had invented a sacred car for the advance of their standard in battle1 they invented some similar honor for the head of their ,church as the harbinger of peace3 under a canopy of silk1 borne by the first gentlemen of ,milan1 the ,pope received the hosannas of a people who had driven into shameful flight their ,caesar-king2 and it is not uninteresting for the ,english traveler to remember1 as he walks through the vast arcades of shops1 in the form of a cross1 by which the ,milanese of to-day express their triumph in liberation from ,teutonic rule1 that the ,baldacchino of all medival religious ceremony owed its origin to the taste of the milliners of ,milan1 as the safety of the best knights in ,european battle rested on the faithful craftsmanship of her armorers4 #bbi4 ,but at the date when the ,cavalli entered the service of the great ,milanese family1 the state of parties within the walls had singularly changed4 ,three years previously 7#abga7 ,charles of ,anjou had drawn together the remnants of the army of his dead brother1 had confiscated to his own use the goods of the crusading knights whose vessels had been wrecked on the coast of ,sicily1 and called the pontifical court to ,viterbo1 to elect a pope who might confirm his dominion over the kingdoms of ,sicily and ,jerusalem4 ,on the deliberations of the ,cardinals at ,viterbo depended the fates of ,italy and the ,northern ,empire4 ,they chose ,tebaldo ,visconti1 then a monk in pilgrimage at ,jerusalem4 ,but1 before that election was accomplished1 one of the candidates for the ,northern ,empire had involuntarily withdrawn his claim2 ,guy de ,montfort had murdered1 at the altar foot1 the ,english ,count of ,cornwall1 to avenge his father1 ,simon de ,montfort1 killed at ,evesham4 ,the death of the ,english king of the ,romans left the throne of ,germany vacant4 ,tebaldo had returned from ,jerusalem with no personal ambition1 but having at heart only the restoration of ,greece to ,europe1 and the preaching of a new crusade in ,syria4 ,a general council was convoked by him at ,lyons1 with this object2 but before anything could be accomplished in the conclave1 it was necessary to balance the overwhelming power of ,charles of ,anjou1 and the ,visconti 7,gregory ,x47 ratified1 in #abgc1 the election of ,rudolph of ,hapsburg4 #bcj4 ,but ,charles of ,anjou owed his throne1 in reality1 to the assistance of the ,milanese4 ,their popular leader1 ,napoleone della ,torre1 had facilitated his passage through ,lombardy1 which otherwise must have been arrested by the ,ghibelline states2 and in the year in which the ,visconti pope had appointed the council at ,lyons1 the ,visconti archbishop of ,milan was heading the exiled nobles in vain attempts to recover their supremacy over the popular party4 ,the new ,emperor ,rudolph not only sent a representative to the council1 but a ,german contingent to aid the exiled archbishop4 ,the popular leader was defeated1 and confined in an iron cage1 in the year #abgd1 and the first entrance of the ,cavalli into the ,italian armies is thus contemporary with the conclusive triumph of the northern monarchic over the republican power1 or1 more literally1 of the wandering rider1 ,eques1 or ,ritter1 living by pillage1 over the sedentary burgher1 living by art1 and hale peasant1 living by labor4 ,the essential nature of the struggle is curiously indicated in relation to this monument by the two facts that the revolt of the ,milanese burghers1 headed by their archbishop1 began by a gentleman's killing an importunate creditor1 and that1 at ,venice1 the principal circumstance recorded of ,jacopo ,cavalli 7see my notice of his tomb in the ,stones of ,venice1 ,vol4 ,,iii4 ch4 ii4 #fi7 is his refusal to assault ,feltre1 because the senate would not grant him the pillage of the town4 ,the reader may follow out1 according to his disposition1 what thoughts the fresco of the three kneeling knights1 each with his helmet-crest1 in the shape of a horse's head1 thrown back from his shoulders1 may suggest to him on review of these passages of history3 one thought only ,i must guard him against1 strictly2 namely1 that a condottiere's religion must necessarily have been false or hypocritical4 ,the folly of nations is in nothing more manifest than in their placid reconciliation of noble creeds with base practices4 ,but the reconciliation1 in the fourteenth as in the nineteenth century1 was usually foolish only1 not insincere4 ,,footnotes3 ,footnote #i3 ,published by the ,arundel ,society 7#ahgb71 together with a chromo-lithograph after a drawing by ,herr ,gnauth4--,,ed4 ,footnote #aj3 ,d4,m4 ,gerardo ,bolderio sui temporis ,physicorum ,principi ,franciscus et ,matthaeus ,nepotes ,p4,p4 ,footnote #aa3 ,i am indebted for this genealogy to the research and to the courtesy of ,mr4 ,j4 ,stefani4 ,the help given me by other ,venetian friends1 especially ,mr4 ,rawdon ,brown1 dates from many years back in matters of this kind4 ,,verona ,,and ,,its ,,rivers4#ab #bca4 ,the discourse began with a description of the scenery of the eastern approach to ,verona1 with special remarks upon its magnificent fortifications1 consisting of a steep ditch1 some thirty feet deep by sixty or eighty wide1 cut out of the solid rock1 and the precipice-like wall above1 with towers crested with forked battlements set along it at due intervals4 ,the rock is a soft and crumbling limestone1 containing fossil creatures still so like the creatures they were once1 that there it first occurred to the human brain to imagine that the buried shapes were not mockeries of life1 but had indeed once lived2 and1 under those white banks by the roadside1 was born1 like a poor ,italian gypsy1 the modern science of geology4 444 ,the wall was chiefly built1 the moat entirely excavated1 by ,can ,grande della ,scala2 and it represents typically the form1 of defense which rendered it possible for the life and the arts of citizens to be preserved and practiced in an age of habitual war4 ,not only so1 but it is the wall of the actual city which headed the great ,lombard league1 which was the beginner of personal and independent power in the ,italian nation1 and the first banner-bearer1 therefore1 of all that has been vitally independent in religion and in art throughout the entire ,christian world to this day4 ,at the upper angle of the wall1 looking down the northern descent1 is seen a great round tower at the foot of it1 not forked in battlements1 but with embrasures for guns4 ,the battlemented wall was the cradle of civic life4 ,that low circular tower is the cradle of modern war and of all its desolation4 ,it is the first ,european tower for artillery2 the beginning of fortification against gunpowder--the beginning1 that is to say1 of the end of all fortification4 #bcb4 ,after noticing the beautiful vegetation of the district1 ,mr4 ,ruskin described the view from the promontory or spur1 about ten miles long1 of which the last rock dies into the plain at the eastern gate of ,verona4 ,this promontory1 he said1 is one of the sides of the great gate out of ,germany into ,italy1 through which the ,goths always entered1 cloven up to ,innspruck by the ,inn1 and down to ,verona by the ,adige4 ,and by this gate not only the ,gothic armies came1 but after the ,italian nation is formed1 the current of northern life enters still into its heart through the mountain artery1 as constantly and strongly as the cold waves of the ,adige itself4 444 ,the rock of this promontory hardens as we trace it back to the ,alps1 first into a limestone having knots of splendid brown jasper in it as our chalk has flints1 and in a few miles more into true marble1 colored by iron into a glowing orange or pale warm red--the peach-blossom marble1 of which ,verona is chiefly built--and then as you advance farther into the hills into variegated marbles very rich and grotesque in their veinings4 #bcc4 ,after dilating on the magnificent landscape viewed from the top of this promontory1 embracing the blue plain of ,lombardy and its cities ,mr4 ,ruskin said3-- ,i do not think that there is any other rock in all the world from which the places and monuments of so complex and deep a fragment of the history of its ages can be visible as from this piece of crag with its blue and prickly weeds4 ,for you have thus beneath you at once the birthplaces of ,virgil and of ,livy--the homes of ,dante and ,petrarch1 and the source of the most sweet and pathetic inspiration to your own ,shakespeare--the spot where the civilization of the ,gothic kingdoms was founded on the throne of ,theodoric2 and there whatever was strongest in the ,italian race redeemed itself into life by its league against ,barbarossa2 the beginning of the revival of natural science and medicine in the schools of ,padua2 the center of ,italian chivalry1 in the power of the ,scaligers2 of ,italian cruelty1 in that of ,ezzelin2 and1 lastly1 the birthplace of the highest art2 for among those hills1 or by this very ,adige bank1 were born ,mantegna1 ,titian1 ,correggio1 and ,veronese4 #bcd4 ,mr4 ,ruskin then referred to a series of drawings and photographs taken at ,verona by himself and his assistants1 ,mr4 ,burgess and ,mr4 ,bunney1 which he had divided into three series1 and of which he had furnished a number of printed catalogues illustrated with notes4#ac ,i4 ,lombard1 extending to the end of the twelfth century1 being the expression of the introduction of ,christianity into barbaric minds2 ,christianization4 ,,ii4 ,the ,gothic period4 ,dante's time1 from #abjj to #adjj 7,dante beginning his poem exactly in the midst of it1 in #acjj72 the period of vital ,christianity1 and of the development of the laws of chivalry and forms of imagination which are founded on ,christianity4 ,,iii4 ,the first period of the revival1 in which the arts of ,greece and some of its religion return and join themselves to ,christianity2 not taking away its sincerity or earnestness1 but making it poetical instead of practical4 ,in the following period even this poetical ,christianity expired2 the arts became devoted to the pursuit of pleasure1 and in that they persist except where they are saved by a healthy naturalism or domesticity4 #bce4 ,i4 ,the ,lombardic period is one of savage but noble life gradually subjected to law4 ,it is the forming of men1 not out of clay but wild beasts4 ,and art of this period in all countries1 including our own ,norman especially1 is1 in the inner heart of it1 the subjection of savage or terrible1 or foolish and erring life1 to a dominant law4 ,it is government and conquest of fearful dreams4 ,there is in it as yet no germ of true hope--only the conquest of evil1 and the waking from darkness and terror4 ,the literature of it is1 as in ,greece1 far in advance of art1 and is already full of the most tender and impassioned beauty1 while the art is still grotesque and dreadful2 but1 however wild1 it is supreme above all others by its expression of governing law1 and here at ,verona is the very center and utmost reach of that expression4 ,i know nothing in architecture at once so exquisite and so wild and so strange in the expression of self-conquest achieved almost in a dream4 ,for observe1 these barbaric races1 educated in violence--chiefly in war and in hunting--cannot feel or see clearly as they are gradually civilized whether this element in which they have been brought up is evil or not4 ,they must be good soldiers and hunters--that is their life2 yet they know that killing is evil1 and they do not expect to find wild beasts in heaven4 ,they have been trained by pain1 by violence1 by hunger and cold4 ,they know there is a good in these things as well as evil3 they are perpetually hesitating between the one and the other thought of them4 ,but one thing they see clearly1 that killing and hunting1 and every form of misery1 pleasure1 and of passion1 must somehow at last be subdued by law1 which shall bring good out of it all1 and which they feel more and more constraining them every hour4 ,now1 if with this sympathy you look at their dragon and wild beast decoration1 you will find that it now tells you about these ,lombards far more than they could know of themselves4444 ,all the actions1 and much more the arts1 of men tell to others1 not only what the worker does not know1 but what he can never know of himself1 which you can only recognize by being in an element more advanced and wider than his4444 ,in deliberate symbolism1 the question is always1 not what a symbol meant first or meant elsewhere1 but what it means now and means here4 ,now1 this dragon symbol of the ,lombard is used of course all over the world2 it means good here1 and evil there2 sometimes means nothing2 sometimes everything4 ,you have always to ask what the man who here uses it means by it4 ,whatever is in his mind1 that he is sure partly to express by it2 nothing else than that can he express by it4 #bcf4 ,,ii4 ,in the second period ,mr4 ,ruskin said was to be found the highest development of ,italian character and chivalry1 with an entirely believed ,christian religion2 you get1 therefore1 joy and courtesy1 and hope1 and a lovely peace in death4 ,and with these you have two fearful elements of evil4 ,you have first such confidence in the virtue of the creed that men hate and persecute all who do not accept it4 ,and worse still1 you find such confidence in the power of the creed that men not only can do anything that is wrong1 and be themselves for a word of faith pardoned1 but are even sure that after the wrong is done ,god is sure to put it all right again for them1 or even make things better than they were before4 ,now1 ,i need not point out to you how the spirit of persecution1 as well as of vain hope founded on creed only1 is mingled in every line with the lovely moral teaching of the ',divina ,conmedia1' nor need ,i point out to you how1 between the persecution of other people's creeds and the absolution of one's own crimes1 all ,christian error is concluded4 ,in relation to this ,mr4 ,ruskin referred to the history of the founder of the power of the ,scalas1 ,mastino1 a simple citizen1 chosen first to be podesta and then captain of ,verona1 for his justice and sagacity1 who1 although wise and peaceful in his policy1 employed the civil power in the persecution of heresy1 burning above two hundred persons2 and he also related how ,can ,signorio della ,scala on his death-bed1 after giving a pious charge to his children1 ordered the murder of his brother--examples of the boundless possibility of self-deception4 ,one of these children killed the other1 and was himself driven from the throne1 so ending the dynasty of the ,scalas4 ,referring to his illustrations1 ,mr4 ,ruskin pointed out the expressions of hope1 in the conquest of death1 and the rewards of faith1 apparent in the art of the time4 ,the ,lombard architecture expresses the triumph of law over passion1 the ,christian1 that of hope over sorrow4 ,mr4 ,ruskin concluded his remarks on this period by commenting on the history and the tomb of ,can ,grande della ,scala1 a good knight and true1 as busy and bright a life as is found in the annals of chivalry4 #bcg4 ,,iii4 ,the period when classical literature and art were again known in ,italy1 and the painters and sculptors1 who had been gaining steadily in power for two hundred years--power not of practice merely1 but of race also--with every circumstance in their favor around them1 received their finally perfect instruction1 both in geometrical science1 in that of materials1 and in the anatomy and action of the human body4 ,also the people about them--the models of their work--had been perfected in personal beauty by a chivalric war2 in imagination by a transcendental philosophy2 in practical intellect by stern struggle for civic law2 and in commerce1 not in falsely made or vile or unclean things1 but in lovely things1 beautifully and honestly made4 ,and now1 therefore1 you get out of all the world's long history since it was peopled by men till now--you get just fifty years of perfect work4 ,perfect4 ,it is a strong word2 it is also a true one4 ,the doing of these fifty years is unaccusably ,right1 as art2 what its sentiment may be--whether too great or too little1 whether superficial or sincere--is another question1 but as artists' work it admits no conception of anything better4 ,it is true that in the following age1 founded on the absolutely stern rectitude of this1 there came a phase of gigantic power and of exquisite ease and felicity which possess an awe and a charm of their own4 ,they are more inimitable than the work of the perfect school4 ,but they are not perfect4 444 #bch4 ,this period ,mr4 ,ruskin named the ',time of the ,masters1' ,fifty ,years1 including ,luini1 ,leonardo1 ,john ,bellini1 ,vitto ,carpaccio1 ,andrea ,mantegna1 ,andrea ,verrocchio1 ,cima da ,conegliano1 ,perugino1 and in date1 though only in his earlier life1 belonging to the school1 ,raphael4444 ,the great fifty years was the prime of life of three men3 ,john ,bellini1 born #adcj1 died at #ij1 in #aeaf2 ,mantegna1 born #adcj1 died at #gf1 in #aejf2 and ,vittor ,carpaccio1 who died in #aebb4 ,the object of these masters is wholly different from that of the former school4 ,the central ,gothic men always want chiefly to impress you with the facts of their subject2 but the masters of this finished time desire only to make everything dainty and delightful4 ,we have not many pictures of the class in ,england1 but several have been of late added to the ,national ,gallery1 and the ,perugino there1 especially the compartment with ,raphael and ,tobit1 and the little ,st4 ,jerome by ,john ,bellini1 will perfectly show you this main character--pictorial perfectness and deliciousness--sought before everything else4 ,you will find1 if you look into that ,st4 ,jerome1 that everything in it is exquisite1 complete1 and pure2 there is not a particle of dust in the cupboards1 nor a cloud in the air2 the wooden shutters are dainty1 the candlesticks are dainty1 the saint's scarlet hat is dainty1 and its violet tassel1 and its ribbon1 and his blue cloak and his spare pair of shoes1 and his little brown partridge--it is all a perfect quintessence of innocent luxury--absolute delight1 without one drawback in it1 nor taint of the ,devil anywhere4 444 #bci4 ,after dilating on several other pictures of this class1 giving evidence of the entire devotion of the artists of the period to their art and work1 ,mr4 ,ruskin adverted to the second part of his discourse1 the rivers of ,verona4 ,there is but one river at ,verona1 nevertheless ,dante connects its name with that of the ,po when he says of the whole of ,lombardy1-- ',in sul paese1 ch' ,adice e ,po riga1 ,solea valore e cortesia trovarsi ,prima che ,federigo avesse briga4' ,i want to speak for a minute or two about those great rivers1 because in the efforts that are now being made to restore some of its commerce to ,venice precisely the same questions are in course of debate which again and again1 ever since ,venice was a city1 have put her senate at pause--namely1 how to hold in check the continually advancing morass formed by the silt brought down by the ,alpine rivers4 ,is it not strange that for at least six hundred years the ,venetians have been contending with those rivers at their mouths--that is to say1 where their strength has become wholly irresistible--and never once thought of contending with them at their sources1 where their infinitely separated streamlets might be1 and are meant by ,heaven to be1 ruled as easily as children8 ,and observe how sternly1 how constantly the place where they are to be governed is marked by the mischief done by their liberty4 ,consider what the advance of the delta of the ,po in the ,adriatic signifies among the ,alps4 ,the evil of the delta itself1 however great1 is as nothing in comparison of that which is in its origin4 #bdj4 ,the gradual destruction of the harborage of ,venice1 the endless cost of delaying it1 the malaria of the whole coast down to ,ravenna1 nay1 the raising of the bed of the ,po1 to the imperiling of all ,lombardy1 are but secondary evils4 ,every acre of that increasing delta means the devastation of part of an ,alpine valley1 and the loss of so much fruitful soil and ministering rain4 ,some of you now present must have passed this year through the valleys of the ,toccia and ,ticino4 ,you know therefore the devastation that was caused there1 as well as in the valley of the ,rhone1 by the great floods of #ahfh1 and that ten years of labor1 even if the peasantry had still the heart for labor1 cannot redeem those districts into fertility4 ,what you have there seen on a vast scale takes place to a certain extent during every summer thunderstorm1 and from the ruin of some portion of fruitful land the dust descends to increase the marshes of the ,po4 ,but observe further--whether fed by sudden melting of snow or by storm--every destructive rise of the ,italian rivers signifies the loss of so much power of irrigation on the south side of the ,alps4 ,you must all well know the look of their chain--seen from ,milan or ,turin late in summer--how little snow is left1 except on ,monte ,rosa1 how vast a territory of brown mountain-side heated and barren1 without rocks1 yet without forest4 ,there is in that brown-purple zone1 and along the flanks of every valley that divides it1 another ,lombardy of cultivable land2 and every drift of rain that swells the mountain torrents if it were caught where it falls is literally rain of gold4 ,we seek gold beneath the rocks2 and we will not so much as make a trench along the hillside to catch it where it falls from heaven1 and where1 if not so caught1 it changes into a frantic monster1 first ravaging hamlet1 hill1 and plain1 then sinking along the shores of ,venice into poisoned sleep4 ,think what that belt of the ,alps might be--up to four thousand feet above the plain--if the system of terraced irrigation which even half-savage nations discovered and practiced long ago in ,china and in ,borneo1 and by which our own engineers have subdued vast districts of farthest ,india1 were but in part also practiced here--here1 in the oldest and proudest center of ,european arts1 where ,leonardo da ,vinci--master among masters--first discerned the laws of the coiling clouds and wandering streams1 so that to this day his engineering remains unbettered by modern science2 and yet in this center of all human achievements of genius no thought has been taken to receive with sacred art these great gifts of quiet snow and flying rain4 ,think1 ,i repeat1 what that south slope of the ,alps might be3 one paradise of lovely pasture and avenued forest of chestnut and blossomed trees1 with cascades docile and innocent as infants1 laughing all summer long from crag to crag and pool to pool1 and the ,adige and the ,po1 the ,dora and the ,ticino1 no more defiled1 no more alternating between fierce flood and venomous languor1 but in calm clear currents bearing ships to every city and health to every field of all that azure plain of ,lombard ,italy4444 #bda4 ,it has now become a most grave object with me to get some of the great pictures of the ,italian schools into ,england2 and that1 ,i think1 at this time--with good help--might be contrived4 ,further1 without in the least urging my plans impatiently on anyone else1 ,i know thoroughly that this1 which ,i have said should be done1 can be done1 for the ,italian rivers1 and that no method of employment of our idle able-bodied laborers would be in the end more remunerative1 or in the beginnings of it more healthful and every way beneficial than1 with the concurrence of the ,italian and ,swiss governments1 setting them to redeem the valleys of the ,ticino and the ,rhone4 ,and ,i pray you to think of this2 for ,i tell you truly--you who care for ,italy--that both her passions and her mountain streams are noble2 but that her happiness depends not on the liberty1 but the right government of both4#ad ,,footnotes3 ,footnote #ab3 ,report 7with extracts7 of a paper entitled ,a ,talk respecting ,verona and its ,rivers1 read by ,mr4 ,ruskin at the ,weekly ,evening ,meeting of the ,royal ,institution of ,great ,britain1 ,feb4 #dth1 #ahgj4 ,see ,proceedings of the ,royal ,institution1 vol4 vi41 p4 #ee4--;,,ed4 ,footnote #ac3 ,this catalogue 7,london3 ,queen ,street ,printing-,office1 #ahgj7 is printed below1 p4 #aji1 #bdb seqq4--,,ed4 ,footnote #ad3 ,see ,arrows of the ,chace4 ,,catalogue4 7,see ante1 p4 #aja4--;,,ed47 ,drawings and ,photographs1 illustrative of the ,architecture of ,verona1 shown at the ,royal ,institution1 ,feb4 #dth1 #ahgj4 ,,section ,i4 ,,nos4 #a ,,to #g4 ,,lombard4 #bdb4 7#a47 ,porch of the ,church of ,st4 ,zeno4 7,photograph47 ,of the #abth century4 7#b47 ,porch of the ,south ,entrance of the ,duomo4 ,probably of the #ajth or #aath century1 and highly remarkable for the wildness of its grotesque or monstrous sculpture1 which has been most carefully rendered by the draughts-man1 ,mr4 ,bunney4 ,it will save space to note that the sketches by my two most skillful and patient helpers1 ,mr4 ,a4 ,burgess and ,mr4 ,bunney1 will be respectively marked 7,a7 and 7,b71 and my own 7,r74 7#c47 ,porch of the ,western ,entrance of the ,duomo4 7,photograph47 ,later in date--but still of #abth or very early #acth century4 ,details of it are given in the next drawings4 #bdc4 7#d47 ,griffin 7,i keep the intelligible old ,english spelling71 sustaining the ,pillar on the ,north ,side of the ,porch seen in ,no4 #c4 7,r47 ,painted last summer4 ,i engraved his head and breast1 seen from the other side1 in the plate of ,true and ,false ,griffins1 in ,modern ,painters4 ,only the back of the head and neck of the small dragon he holds in his fore-claws can be seen from this side4 7#e47 ,capital of the ,pillar sustained by the ,griffin1 of which the base is seen in ,no4 #d4 7,a47 ,first-rate sculpture of the time1 and admirably drawn4 7#f47 ,portion of decorative ,lombardic molding from the ,south ,side of the ,duomo4 7,a47 ,showing the peculiar writhing of the branched tracery with a serpentine flexure--altogether different from the springing lines of ,gothic ornament4 ,it would be almost impossible to draw this better2 it is much more like the real thing than a cast would be4 7#g47 ,lion1 with ,dragon in its claws1 of ,lombardic sculpture 7now built into a wall at ,venice72 above it1 head of one of the ,dogs which support the ,tomb of ,can ,grande1 at ,verona4 7,r47 ,the lion--in its emaciated strength1 and the serpent with its vital writhe and deadly reverted bite1 are both characteristic of the finest ,lombard work4 ,the dog's head is #adth century ,gothic--a masterpiece of broad1 subtle1 easy sculpture1 getting expression with every touch1 and never losing the least undulation of surface1 while it utterly disdains the mere imitation of hair1 or attainment of effect by deep cutting4 ,,section ,,ii4 ,,nos4 #h ,,to #ch4 ,,gothic4 #bdd4 7#h47 ,north ,porch of the ,church of ,st4 ,fermo4 #acth century4 7,b47 ,mr4 ,bunney's drawing is so faithful and careful as almost to enable the spectator to imagine himself on the spot4 ,the details of this porch are among the most interesting in the ,gothic of ,italy1 but ,i was obliged1 last year1 to be content with this general view1 taken in terror of the whole being restored2 and with the two following drawings4 7#i47 ,base of the ,central ,pillar4 ,north ,porch1 ,st4 ,fermo4 7,b47 ,in facsimile1 as nearly as possible1 and of the real size1 to show the perpetual variety in the touch2 and in the disposition and size of the masses4 7#aj47 ,shaft-,capitals of the ,interior ,arch of the ,north ,porch1 ,st4 ,fermo4 7,b47 ,contrived so that1 while appearing symmetrical1 and even monotonous1 not one lobe of any of the leaves shall be like another4 ,quite superb in the original1 but grievously difficult to draw1 and losing1 in this sketch1 much of their grace4 #bde4 7#aa47 ,western ,door of the ,church of ,st4 ,anastasia1 with the ,tomb of the ,count of ,castelbarco on the left1 over the arch4 7,photograph47 ,in the door1 its central pillar1 carved lintels and encompassing large pointed arch1 with its deep moldings and flanking shafts1 are of the finest ,veronese #acth century work4 ,the two minor pointed arches are of the #adth century4 ,the flanking pilasters1 with double panels and garlands above1 are the beginning of a faade intended to have been erected in the #aeth century4 ,the ,count of ,castelbarco1 the ,chancellor of ,can ,grande della ,scala1 died about the year #accj1 and his tomb cannot be much later in date4 ,the details of this group of buildings are illustrated under the numbers next in series4 7#ab47 ,pillars and ,lintels of the ,western ,door of ,st4 ,anastasia4 7,photograph47 ,the sculpture of the lintel is first notable for its concise and intense story of the ,life of ,christ4 #a4 ,the ,annunciation4 7,both ,virgin and ,angel kneeling47 #b4 ,the ,nativity4 #c4 ,the ,epiphany4 7,chosen as a sign of life giver to the ,gentiles47 #d4 ,christ bearing ,his ,cross4 7,chosen as a sign of ,his personal life in its entirety47 #e4 ,the ,crucifixion4 #f4 ,the ,resurrection4 ,secondly4 ,as sculpture1 this lintel shows all the principal features of the characteristic #acth century design of ,verona4 ,diminutive and stunted figures2 the heads ugly in features1 stern in expression2 but the drapery exquisitely disposed in minute but not deep-cut folds4 7#ac47 ,the ,angels on the left hand of the subject of the ,resurrection in ,no4 #ab4 7,a47 ,drawn of its actual size1 excellently4 ,the appearance of fusion and softness in the contours is not caused by time1 but is intentional1 and reached by great skill in the sculptor1 faithfully rendered in the drawing4 7#ad47 ,sketch of the ,capital of the ,central ,pillar in ,no4 #ab4 7,r47 7,with slight notes of a #afth century bracket of a street balcony on each side47 ,drawn to show the fine curvatures and softness of treatment in ,veronese sculpture of widely separated periods4 #bdf4 7#ae47 ,unfinished ,sketch of the ,castelbarco ,tomb1 seen from one of the windows of the ,hotel of the ,two ,towers4 7,r47 ,that inn was itself one of the palaces of the ,scaligers2 and the traveler should endeavor always to imagine the effect of the little ,square of ,sta4 ,anastasia when the range of its buildings was complete2 the ,castelbarco ,tomb on one side1 this ,gothic palace on the other1 and the great door of the church between4 ,the masonry of the canopy of this tomb was so locked and dove-tailed that it stood balanced almost without cement2 but of late1 owing to the permission given to heavily loaded carts to pass continually under the archway1 the stones were so loosened by the vibration that the old roof became unsafe1 and was removed1 and a fine smooth one of trimly cut white stone substituted1 while ,i was painting the rest of the tomb1 against time4 ,hence the unfinished condition of my sketch the last that can ever be taken of the tomb as it was built4 7#af47 ,the ,castelbarco ,tomb1 seen laterally4 7,b47 ,a most careful drawing1 leaving little to be desired in realization of the subject4 ,it is taken so near the tomb as to make the perspective awkward1 but ,i liked this quaint view better than more distant ones4 ,the drawing of the archway1 and of the dark gray and red masonry of the tomb is very beautiful4 #bdg4 7#ag47 ,lion with ,hind in its ,claws4 7,a47 ,the support of the sarcophagus1 under the feet of the recumbent figure in the ,castelbarco ,tomb4 7#ah47 ,lion with ,dragon in its claws4 7,a47 ,the support of the sarcophagus at the head of the figure4 7#ai47 ,st4 ,luke4 7,a47 ,sculpture of one of the four small panels at the angles of the sarcophagus in the ,castelbarco ,tomb4 ,i engraved the ,st4 ,mark for the illustration of noble grotesque in the ,stones of ,venice4 ,but this drawing more perfectly renders the stern touch of the old sculptor4 7#bj47 ,two of the ,spurs of the bases of the ,nave ,pillars in the ,church of ,st4 ,anastasia4 7,a47 ,of the real size4 ,not generally seen in the darkness of the ,church1 and very fine in their rough way4 #bdh4 7#ba47 ,tomb of ,can ,grande1 general view4 7,r47 ,put together some time since1 from ,photograph and ,sketches taken in the year #aheb2 and inaccurate1 but useful in giving a general idea4 7#bb47 ,tomb of ,can ,grande4 7,r47 ,sketch made carefully on the spot last year4 ,the sarcophagus unfinished2 the details of it would not go into so small a space4 7#bc47 ,the ,sarcophagus and recumbent ,statue of ,can ,grande1 drawn separately4 7,r47 ,sketched on the spot last year4 ,almost a faultless type of powerful and solemn ,gothic sculpture4 7,can ,grande died in #acbi47 7#bd47 ,the ,two ,dogs4 7,r47 ,the kneeling ,madonna and sculpture of right hand upper panel of the ,sarcophagus of ,can ,grande4 ,the drawing of the panel is of real size1 representing the ,knight at the ,battle of ,vicenza4 7#be47 ,the ,cornice of the ,sarcophagus of ,can ,grande4 7,a47 ,of its real size1 admirably drawn1 and quite showing the softness and ,correggio-like touch of its leafage1 and its symmetrical formality of design1 while the flow of every leaf is changeful4 #bdi4 7#bf47 ,study of the ,sarcophagus of the ,tomb of ,mastino ,,ii41 ,verona4 7,r47 ,sketched in #aheb4 7#bg47 ,head of the recumbent ,statue of ,mastino ,,ii4 7,a47 ,beautifully drawn by ,mr4 ,burgess4 ,can ,mastino ,,ii4 had three daughters3--,madonna ,beatrice 7called afterwards the ,queen1 for having tutte le grazie che i cieli ponno concedere a femina1 and always simply called by historians ,lady ,reina della ,scala71 ,madonna ,alta-luna1 and ,madonna ,verde4 ,lady ,reina married ,bernab ,visconti1 ,duke of ,milan2 ,lady ,alta-luna1 ,louis of ,brandebourg2 and ,lady ,verde1 ,gonzaga1 ,duke of ,mantua4 ,their father died of ,sovereign melancholy in #acej1 being forty-three years old4 7#bh47 ,part of ,cornice of the ,sarcophagus of ,mastino ,,ii4 7,a47 ,one of the most beautiful ,gothic cornices in ,italy2 its effect being obtained with extreme simplicity of execution out of two ridges of marble1 each cut first into one united sharp edge all along1 and then drilled through1 and modeled into leaf and flower4 7#bi47 ,sketch1 real size1 of the pattern incised and painted on the drapery of the ,tomb of ,can ,mastino ,,ii4 7,r47 ,it is worth notice for the variety of its pattern2 observe1 the floral fillings of spaces resemble each other1 but are never the same4 ,there is no end1 when one begins drawing detail of this kind carefully4 ,slight as it is1 the sketch gives some idea of the easy flow of the stone drapery1 and of the care taken by the sculptor to paint his pattern as if it were bent at the apparent fold4 #bej4 7#cj47 ,tomb of ,can ,signorio della ,scala4 ,samuel ,prout's sketch on the spot2 7afterwards lithographed by him in his ,sketches in ,france and ,italy27 quite admirable in feeling1 composition1 and concise abstraction of essential character4 ,the family palace of the ,scaligers1 in which ,dante was received1 is seen behind it4 7#ca47 ,a single niche and part of the iron-work of the ,tomb of ,can ,signorio4 7,r47 ,as seen from the palace of the ,scaligers2 the remains of another house of the same family are seen in the little street beyond4 7#cb47 ,study of details of the top of the ,tomb of ,can ,signorio4 7,r47 ,needing more work than ,i had time for1 and quite spoiled by hurry2 but interesting in pieces here and there2 look1 for instance1 at the varied size and design of the crockets2 and beauty of the cornices4 7#cc47 ,bracket under ,sarcophagus of ,giovanni della ,scala4 7,a47 ,characteristic of the finest later treatment of flowing foliage4 #bea4 7#cd47 ,part of the front of the ,ducal ,palace1 ,venice4 7,r47 ,sketched1 in #aheb1 by measurement1 with extreme care2 and showing the sharp window traceries1 which are rarely seen in ,photographs4 7#ce47 ,angle of the ,ducal ,palace1 looking ,seaward from the ,piazzetta4 7,r47 ,sketched last year1 7restorations being threatened7 merely to show the way in which the light is let through the edges of the angle by penetration of the upper capital1 and of the foliage in the sculpture below2 so that the mass may not come unbroken against the sky4 7#cf47 ,photograph of the ,angle ,capital of ,upper ,arcade seen in ,no4 #cd4 ,showing the pierced portions1 and their treatment4 7#cg-ch47 ,capitals of the ,upper ,arcade4 ,showing the grandest treatment of architectural foliage attained by the #adth century masters2 massive for all purposes of support2 exquisitely soft and refined in contour1 and faultlessly composed4 ,,section ,,iii4 ,,time ,,of ,,the ,,masters4 #beb4 7#ci47 ,study of the top of the ,pilaster next the ,castelbarco ,tomb4 7,r47 ,the wild fig leaves are unfinished2 for my assistant having unfortunately shown his solicitude for their preservation too energetically to some street boys who were throwing stones at them1 they got a ladder1 and rooted them up the same night4 ,the purple and fine-grained white marbles of the pilaster are entirely uninjured in surface by three hundred years' exposure4 ,the coarse white marble above has moldered1 and is gray with lichens4 7#dj47 ,study of the base of the same ,pilaster1 and connected ,facade4 7,r47 ,showing the effect of differently colored marbles arranged in carefully inequal masses4 #bec4 7#da47 ,interior ,court of the ,ducal ,palace of ,venice1 with ,giant's ,stair4 7,r47 ,sketched in #ahda1 and perhaps giving some characters which more finished drawing would lose4 7#db47 ,the ,piazza d' ,erbe1 ,verona4 7,r47 ,sketched in #ahda1 showing general effect and pretty grouping of the later ,veronese buildings4 7#dc47 ,piazza de' ,signori1 ,verona4 ,sketched last year4 ,note the bill advertising ,victor ,hugo's ,homme qui rit1 pasted on the wall of the palace4 ,the great tower is of the ,gothic time4 ,note its noble sweep of delicately ascending curves sloped inwards4 7#dd47 ,gate of ,ruined ,school of ,st4 ,john1 ,venice4 7,photograph47 ,exquisite in floral sculpture1 and finish of style4 7#de47 ,hawthorn ,leaves1 from the base of ,pilaster1 in the ,church of ,st4 ,maria d ,miracoli1 ,venice4 7,r47 ,in the finest style of floral sculpture4 ,it cannot be surpassed for perfectness of treatment2 especially for the obtaining of life and softness1 by broad surfaces and fine grouping4 7#df47 ,basrelief from one of the ,inner ,doors of the ,ducal ,palace4 ,very noble1 and typical of the pure style4 7#dg47 ,st4 ,john ,baptist and other ,saints4 7,cima da ,conegliano47 ,consummate work2 but the photograph1 though well taken1 darkens it terribly4 7#dh47 ,meeting of ,joachim and ,anna4 7,vettor ,carpaccio47 7,photograph47 7#di47 ,madonna and ,saints4 7,john ,bellini47 ,portrait4 7,mantegna47 7,photographs47 7#ej47 ,madonna4 7,john ,bellini47 ,with ,raphael's ,della ,seggiola4 ,showing the first transition from the style of the ,masters to that of modern times4 ,the ,photographs in the above series are all from the ,pictures themselves4 ,,christian ,,art ,,and ,,symbolism4#ae ,a ,,preface4 #bed4 ,the writer of this book has long been my friend1 and in the early days of friendship was my disciple4 ,but1 of late1 ,i have been his2 for he has devoted himself earnestly to the study of forms of ,christian ,art which ,i had little opportunity of examining1 and has been animated in that study by a brightness of enthusiasm which has been long impossible to me4 ,knowing this1 and that he was able perfectly to fill what must otherwise have been a rudely bridged chasm in my teaching at ,oxford1 ,i begged him to give these lectures1 and to arrange them for press4 ,and this he has done to please me2 and now that he has done it1 ,i am1 in one sense1 anything but pleased3 for ,i like his writing better than my own1 and am more jealous of it than ,i thought it was in me to be of any good work--how much less of my friend's6 ,i console myself by reflecting1 or at least repeating to myself and endeavoring to think1 that he could not have found out all this if ,i had not shown him the way4 ,but most deeply and seriously ,i am thankful for such help1 in a work far too great for my present strength2 help all the more precious because my friend can bring to the investigation of early ,christian ,art1 and its influence1 the integrity and calmness of the faith in which it was wrought1 happier than ,i in having been a personal comforter and helper of men1 fulfilling his life in daily and unquestionable duty2 while ,i have been1 perhaps wrongly1 always hesitatingly1 persuading myself that it was my duty to do the things which pleased me4 #bee4 ,also1 it has been necessary to much of my analytical work that ,i should regard the art of every nation as much as possible from their own natural point of view2 and ,i have striven so earnestly to realize belief which ,i supposed to be false1 and sentiment which was foreign to my temper1 that at last ,i scarcely know how far ,i think with other people's minds1 and see with anyone's eyes but my own4 ,even the effort to recover my temporarily waived conviction occasionally fails2 and what was once secured to me becomes theoretical like the rest4 ,but my old scholar has been protected by his definitely directed life from the temptations of this speculative equity2 and ,i believe his writings to contain the truest expression yet given in ,england of the feelings with which a ,christian gentleman of sense and learning should regard the art produced in ancient days1 by the dawn of the faiths which still guide his conduct and secure his peace4 #bef4 ,on all the general principles of ,art1 ,mr4 ,tyrwhitt and ,i are absolutely at one2 but he has often the better of me in his acute personal knowledge of men and their ways4 ,when we differ in our thoughts of things1 it is because we know them on contrary sides2 and often his side is that most naturally seen1 and which it is most desirable to see4 ,there is one important matter1 for instance1 on which we are thus apparently at issue1 and yet are not so in reality4 ,these lectures show1 throughout1 the most beautiful and just reverence for ,michael ,angelo1 and are of especial value in their account of him2 while the last lecture on ,sculpture1#af which ,i gave at ,oxford1 is entirely devoted to examining the modes in which his genius failed1 and perverted that of other men4 ,but ,michael ,angelo is great enough to make praise and blame alike necessary1 and alike inadequate1 in any true record of him4 ,my friend sees him as a traveler sees from a distance some noble mountain range1 obscure in golden clouds and purple shade2 and ,i see him as a sullen miner would the same mountains1 wandering among their precipices through chill of storm and snow1 and discerning that their strength was perilous and their substance sterile4 ,both of us see truly1 both partially2 the complete truth is the witness of both4 #beg4 ,the notices of ,holbein1 and the ,english whom he painted 7see especially the sketch of ,sir ,thomas ,wyatt in the sixth lecture71 are to my mind of singular value1 and the tenor of the book throughout1 as far as ,i can judge--for1 as ,i said1 much of it treats of subjects with which ,i am unfamiliar--so sound1 and the feeling in it so warm and true1 and true in the warmth of it1 that it refreshes me like the sight of the things themselves it speaks of4 ,new and vivid sight of them it will give to many readers2 and to all who will regard my commendation ,i commend it2 asking those who have hitherto credited my teaching to read these lectures as they would my own2 and trusting that others1 who have doubted me1 will see reason to put faith in my friend4 ,,pisa1 #cjth ,april1 #ahgb4 ,,footnotes3 ,footnote #ae3 ,preface to the above-named book1 by the ,rev4 ,st4 ,john ,tyrwhitt4 ,london3 ,smith1 ,elder1 ,co41 #ahgb4--;,,ed4 ,footnote #af3 ,see ,mr4 ,ruskin's pamphlet on ,the ,relation of ,michael ,angelo to ,tintoret1 being 7although separately printed7 the seventh lecture of the course 7#ahgb7 published as ,aratra ,pentelici--,,ed4 ,,art ,,schools ,,of ,,medi,,val ,,christendom4#ag ,a ,,preface4 #beh4 ,the number of ,british and ,american travelers who take unaffected interest in the early art of ,europe is already large1 and is daily increasing2 daily also1 as ,i thankfully perceive1 feeling themselves more and more in need of a guidebook containing as much trustworthy indication as they can use of what they may most rationally spend their time in examining4 ,the books of reference published by ,mr4 ,murray1 though of extreme value to travelers1 who make it their object to see 7in his1 and their1 sense of the word7 whatever is to be seen1 are of none whatever1 or may perhaps be considered1 justly1 as even of quite the reverse of value1 to travelers who wish to see only what they may in simplicity understand1 and with pleasure remember2 while the histories of art1 and biographies of artists1 to which the more earnest student in his novitiate must have recourse1 are at once so voluminous1 so vague1 and so contradictory1 that ,i cannot myself conceive his deriving any other benefit from their study than a deep conviction of the difficulty of the subject1 and of the incertitude of human opinions4 #bei4 ,it seemed to me1 on reading the essays collected in this volume1 as they appeared in the periodical#ah for which they were written1 that the author not only possessed herself a very true discernment of the qualities in medival art which were justly deserving of praise1 but had unusually clear understanding of the degree in which she might expect to cultivate such discernment in the general mind of polite travelers2 nor have ,i less admired her aptitude in collation of essentially illustrative facts1 so as to bring the history of a very widely contemplative range of art into tenable compass and very graceful and serviceable form4 ,her reading1 indeed1 has been1 with respect to many very interesting periods of religious workmanship1 much more extensive than my own2 and when ,i consented to edit the volume of collected papers1 it was not without the assurance of considerable advantage to myself during the labor of revising them4 #bfj4 ,the revision1 however1 ,i am sorry to say1 has been interrupted and imperfect1 very necessarily the last from the ignorance ,i have just confessed of more than one segment of the great illuminated field of early religious art1 to which the writer most wisely has directed equal and symmetrical attention1 and interrupted partly under extreme pressure of other occupation1 and partly in very fear of being tempted to oppress the serenity of the general prospect1 which ,i think these essays are eminently calculated to open before an ingenious reader1 with the stormy chiaroscuro of my own preference and reprobation4 ,i leave the work1 therefore1 absolutely ,miss ,owen's1 with occasional note of remonstrance1 but without retouch1 though it must be distinctly understood that when ,i allow my name to stand as the editor of a book1 it is in no mere compliment 7if my editorship could indeed be held as such7 to the genius or merit of the author2 but it means that ,i hold myself entirely responsible1 in main points1 for the accuracy of the views advanced1 and that ,i wish the work to be received1 by those who have confidence in my former teaching1 as an extension and application of the parts of it which ,i have felt to be incomplete4 ,,oxford1 ,november #bg1 #ahge4 ,,note4--,the notes of remonstrance or approbation scattered through the volume are not numerous4 ,they are given below1 preceded in each case by the 7italicized7 statement or expression3 giving rise to them3-- 7#a7 ,p4 #gc4 ,the peculiar characteristic of the ,byzantine churches is the dome4 ,form derived first from the ,catacombs4 ,see ,lord ,lindsay4 7#b7 ,p4 #hi4 ,the octagon baptistry at ,florence1 ascribed to ,lombard kings4444 ,no2 it is ,etruscan work of pure descent4 7#c7 ,id4 ,s4 ,michele1 of ,pavia1 pure ,lombard of seventh century1 rebuilt in tenth4 ,churches were often rebuilt with their original sculptures4 ,i believe many in this church to be ,lombard4 ,see next page4 7#d7 ,p4 #ie4 ,the revolution begun by ,rafaelle has ended in the vulgar painting1 the sentimental prints1 and the colored statuettes1 which have made the religious art of the nineteenth century a by-word for its feebleness on the one side1 its superstition on the other4 ,excellent2 but my good scholar has not distinguished vulgar from non-vulgar naturalism4 ,perhaps she will as ,i read on4 ,compare the last note in the book1 pp4 #dhg-h1 where ,miss ,owen's statement that the cause of ,rafaelle's popularity 444 has been that predominance of exaggerated dramatic representation1 which in his pictures is visible above all moral and spiritual qualities1 is noted to be ,intensely and accurately true4 7#e7 ,p4 #ajh4 ,it may be 444 it is scarcely credible4 ,what does it matter what may be or what is scarcely credible8 ,i hope the reader will consider what a waste of time the thinking of things is when we can never rightly know them4 7#f7 ,p4 #aji4 ,on the statement that no vital school of art has ever existed save as the expression of the vital and unquestioned faith of a people1 followed by some remarks on external helps to devotion1 there is a note at the word people4 ,down to this line this page is unquestionably and entirely true4 ,i do not answer for the rest of the clause1 but do not dispute it4 7#g7 ,p4 #aac4 ,s4 ,michele at ,lucca4 ,the church is now only a modern architect's copy4 7#h7 ,p4 #abi4 ,there is a good model of this pulpit 7,niccola's in the ,pisan ,baptistry7 in the ,kensington ,museum1 through which we may learn much of the rise of ,gothic sculpture4 ,you cannot do anything of the kind4 ,pisan sculpture can only be studied in the original marble2 half its virtue is in the chiseling4 7#i7 ,p4 #acf4 ,s4 ,donato's shrine 7by ,giovanni ,picano7 in ,arezzo ,cathedral is one of the finest monuments of the ,pisan school4 ,no4 ,he tried to be too fine1 and overdid it4 ,the work is merely accumulated commonplace4 7#aj7 ,p4 #agj4 ,on ,giotto drawing without compasses a circle with a crayon1 not a brush1 with which1 as ,professor ,ruskin explained1 the feat would have been impossible4 ,see ',giotto and his ,works in ,padua4' ,don't2 but practice with a camel's-hair brush till you can do it4 ,i knew nothing of brush-work proper when ,i wrote that essay on ,padua4 7#aa7 ,p4 #agi4 ,in the first of the bas-reliefs of ,giotto's tower at ,florence1 ,noah lies asleep1 or1 as ,professor ,ruskin maintains1 drunk4 ,i don't 'maintain' anything of the sort2 ,i know it4 ,he is as drunk as a man can be1 and the expression of drunkenness given with deliberate and intense skill1 as on the angle of the ,ducal ,palace at ,venice4 7#ab7 ,p4 #agi4 ,on ,giotto's astronomy1 figured by an old man on the same tower4 ,above which are seen1 by the astronomy of his heart1 the heavenly host represented above the stars4 7#ac7 ,p4 #aij4 ,the ,loggia dei ,langi 7at ,florence7 444 the round arches1 new to those times 444 ,see ,vasari4 ,vasari is an ass with precious things in his panniers2 but you must not ask his opinion on any matter4 ,the round arches new to those times had been the universal structure form in all ,italy1 ,roman or ,lombard1 feebly and reluctantly pointed in the thirteenth century1 and occasionally1 as in the ,campo ,santo of ,pisa1 and ,orcagna's own ,or ,san ,michele1 standing within three hundred yards of the ,loggia arches 'new to those times1' filled with tracery1 itself composed of intersecting round arches4 ,now1 it does not matter two soldi to the history of art who built1 but who designed and carved the ,loggia4 ,it is out and out the grandest in ,italy1 and its archaic virtues themselves are impracticable and inconceivable4 ,i don't vouch for its being ,orcagna's1 nor do ,i vouch for the ,campo ,santo frescoes being his4 ,i have never specially studied him2 nor do ,i know what men of might there were to work with or after him4 ,but ,i know the ,loggia to be mighty architecture of ,orcagna's style and time1 and the ,last ,judgment and ,triumph of ,death in the ,campo ,santo to be the sternest lessons written on the walls of ,tuscany1 and worth more study alone than ,english travelers usually give to ,pisa1 ,lucca1 ,pistoja1 and ,florence altogether4 7#ad7 ,p4 #dfh4 ,the ,gothic style for churches never took root in ,venice4 ,not quite correct4 ,the ,ducal ,palace traceries are shown in the ',stones of ,venice' 7vol4 ii47 to have been founded on those of the ,frari4 7#ae7 ,p4 #dga4 ,mantegna4 ,no feeling had he for vital beauty of human face1 or the lower creatures of the earth4 ,to this ,miss ,owen adds in a note1 ,professor ,ruskin reminds me to notice here1 in qualification1 ,mantegna's power of painting inanimate forms1 as1 e4 g41 in the trees and leaves of his ,madonna of the ,national ,gallery4 ',he is1' says ,professor ,ruskin1 'the most wonderful leaf-painter of ,lombardy4' ,,footnotes3 ,footnote #ag3 ,preface to the above-named book by ,miss ,a4 ,c4 ,owen1 edited by ,mr4 ,ruskin4 ,london3 ,mozley ,smith1 #ahgf4--;,,ed4 ,footnote #ah3 ,the ,monthly ,packet4--,,ed4 ,,the ,,extension ,,of ,,railways ,,in ,,the ,,lake ,,district4#ai ,a ,,protest4 #bfa4 ,the evidence collected in the following pages1 in support of their pleading1 is so complete1 and the summary of his cause given with so temperate mastery by ,mr4 ,somervell1 that ,i find nothing to add in circumstance1 and little to re-enforce in argument4 ,and ,i have less heart to the writing even of what brief preface so good work might by its author's courtesy be permitted to receive from me1 occupied as ,i so long have been in efforts tending in the same direction1 because1 on that very account1 ,i am far less interested than my friend in this local and limited resistance to the elsewhere fatally victorious current of modern folly1 cruelty1 and ruin4 ,when the frenzy of avarice is daily drowning our sailors1 suffocating our miners1 poisoning our children1 and blasting the cultivable surface of ,england into a treeless waste of ashes1#bj what does it really matter whether a flock of sheep1 more or less1 be driven from the slopes of ,helvellyn1 or the little pool of ,thirlmere filled with shale1 or a few wild blossoms of ,st4 ,john's vale lost to the coronal of ,english spring8 ,little to anyone2 and--let me say this1 at least1 in the outset of all saying--nothing to me4 ,no one need charge me with selfishness in any word or action for defense of these mossy hills4 ,i do not move1 with such small activity as ,i have yet shown in the business1 because ,i live at ,coniston 7where no sound of the iron wheels by ,dunmail ,raise can reach me71 nor because ,i can find no other place to remember ,wordsworth by1 than the daffodil margin of his little ,rydal marsh4 ,what thoughts and work are yet before me1 such as he taught1 must be independent of any narrow associations4 ,all my own dear mountain grounds and treasure-cities1 ,chamouni1 ,interlachen1 ,lucerne1 ,geneva1 ,venice1 are long ago destroyed by the ,european populace2 and now1 for my own part1 ,i don't care what more they do2 they may drain ,loch ,katrine1 drink ,loch ,lomond1 and blow all ,wales and ,cumberland into a heap of slate shingle2 the world is wide enough yet to find me some refuge during the days appointed for me to stay in it4 ,but it is no less my duty1 in the cause of those to whom the sweet landscapes of ,england are yet precious1 and to whom they may yet teach what they taught me1 in early boyhood1 and would still if ,i had it now to learn1--it is my duty to plead with what earnestness ,i may1 that these sacred sibylline books may be redeemed from perishing4 #bfb4 ,but again1 ,i am checked1 because ,i don't know how to speak to the persons who need to be spoken to in this matter4 ,suppose ,i were sitting1 where still1 in much-changed ,oxford1 ,i am happy to find myself1 in one of the little latticed cells of the ,bodleian ,library1 and my kind and much-loved friend1 ,mr4 ,coxe1 were to come to me with news that it was proposed to send nine hundred excursionists through the library every day1 in three parties of three hundred each2 that it was intended they should elevate their minds by reading all the books they could lay hold of while they stayed2--and that practically scientific persons accompanying them were to look out for and burn all the manuscripts that had any gold in their illuminations1 that the said gold might be made of practical service2 but that he1 ,mr4 ,coxe1 could not1 for his part1 sympathize with the movement1 and hoped ,i would write something in deprecation of it6 ,as ,i should then feel1 ,i feel now1 at ,mr4 ,somervell's request that ,i would write him a preface in defense of ,helvellyn4 ,what could ,i say for ,mr4 ,coxe8 ,of course1 that nine hundred people should see the library daily1 instead of one1 is only fair to the nine hundred1 and if there is gold in the books1 is it not public property8 ,if there is copper or slate in ,helvellyn1 shall not the public burn or hammer it out--and they say they will1 of course--in spite of us8 ,what does it signify to them how we poor old quiet readers in this mountain library feel8 ,true1 we know well enough1--what the nine hundred excursionist scholars don't--that the library can't be read quite through in a quarter of an hour2 also1 that there is a pleasure in real reading1 quite different from that of turning pages2 and that gold in a missal1 or slate in a crag1 may be more precious than in a bank or a chimney-pot4 ,but how are these practical people to credit us1--these1 who cannot read1 nor ever will2 and who have been taught that nothing is virtuous but care for their bellies1 and nothing useful but what goes into them8 #bfc4 ,whether to be credited or not1 the real facts of the matter1 made clear as they are in the following pages1 can be briefly stated for the consideration of any candid person4 ,the arguments in favor of the new railway are in the main four1 and may be thus answered4 #a4 ,there are mineral treasures in the district capable of development4 ,answer4 ,it is a wicked fiction1 got up by whosoever has got it up1 simply to cheat shareholders4 ,every lead and copper vein in ,cumberland has been known for centuries2 the copper of ,coniston does not pay2 and there is none so rich in ,helvellyn4 ,and the main central volcanic rocks1 through which the track lies1 produce neither slate nor hematite1 while there is enough of them at ,llanberis and ,dalton to roof and iron-grate all ,england into one vast ,bedlam1 if it honestly perceives itself in need of that accommodation4 #b4 ,the scenery must be made accessible to the public4 ,answer4 ,it is more than accessible already2 the public are pitched into it head-foremost1 and necessarily miss two-thirds of it4 ,the ,lake scenery really begins1 on the south1 at ,lancaster1 where the ,cumberland hills are seen over ,morecambe ,bay2 on the north1 at ,carlisle1 where the moors of ,skiddaw are seen over the rich plains between them and the ,solway4 ,no one who loves mountains would lose a step of the approach1 from these distances1 on either side4 ,but the stupid herds of modern tourists let themselves be emptied1 like coals from a sack1 at ,windermere and ,keswick4 ,having got there1 what the new railway has to do is to shovel those who have come to ,keswick to ,windermere1 and to shovel those who have come to ,windermere to ,keswick4 ,and what then8 #c4 ,but cheap and swift transit is necessary for the working population1 who otherwise could not see the scenery at all4 ,answer4 ,after all your shrieking about what the operatives spend in drink1 can't you teach them to save enough out of their year's wages to pay for a chaise and pony for a day1 to drive ,missis and the ,baby that pleasant twenty miles1 stopping when they like1 to unpack the basket on a mossy bank8 ,if they can't enjoy the scenery that way1 they can't any way2 and all that your railroad company can do for them is only to open taverns and skittle grounds round ,grasmere1 which will soon1 then1 be nothing but a pool of drainage1 with a beach of broken gingerbeer bottles2 and their minds will be no more improved by contemplating the scenery of such a lake than of ,blackpool4 #d4 ,what else is to be said8 ,i protest ,i can find nothing1 unless that engineers and contractors must live4 ,let them live1 but in a more useful and honorable way than by keeping ,old ,bartholomew ,fair under ,helvellyn1 and making a steam merry-go-round of the lake country4 ,there are roads to be mended1 where the parish will not mend them1 harbors of refuge needed1 where our deck-loaded ships are in helpless danger2 get your commissions and dividends where you know that work is needed1 not where the best you can do is to persuade pleasure-seekers into giddier idleness4 #bfd4 ,the arguments brought forward by the promoters of the railway may thus be summarily answered4 ,of those urged in the following pamphlet in defense of the country as it is1 ,i care only myself to direct the reader's attention to one 7see pp4 #bg1 #bh71 the certainty1 namely1 of the deterioration of moral character in the inhabitants of every district penetrated by a railway4 ,where there is little moral character to be lost1 this argument has small weight4 ,but the ,border peasantry of ,scotland and ,england1 painted with absolute fidelity by ,scott and ,wordsworth 7for leading types out of this exhaustless portraiture1 ,i may name ,dandie ,dinmont and ,michael71 are hitherto a scarcely injured race1 whose strength and virtue yet survive to represent the body and soul of ,england before her days of mechanical decrepitude and commercial dishonor4 ,there are men working in my own fields who might have fought with ,henry the ,fifth at ,agincourt without being discerned from among his knights2 ,i can take my tradesmen's word for a thousand pounds2 my garden gate opens on the latch to the public road1 by day and night1 without fear of any foot entering but my own1 and my girl-guests may wander by road1 or moorland1 or through every bosky dell of this wild wood1 free as the heather bees or squirrels4 ,what effect1 on the character of such a population1 will be produced by the influx of that of the suburbs of our manufacturing towns1 there is evidence enough1 if the reader cares to ascertain the facts1 in every newspaper on his morning table4 #bfe4 ,and now one final word concerning the proposed beneficial effect on the minds of those whom you send to corrupt us4 ,i have said ,i take no selfish interest in this resistance to the railroad4 ,but ,i do take an unselfish one4 ,it is precisely because ,i passionately wish to improve the minds of the populace1 and because ,i am spending my own mind1 strength1 and fortune1 wholly on that object1 that ,i don't want to let them see ,helvellyn while they are drunk4 ,i suppose few men now living have so earnestly felt--none certainly have so earnestly declared--that the beauty of nature is the blessedest and most necessary of lessons for men2 and that all other efforts in education are futile till you have taught your people to love fields1 birds1 and flowers4 ,come then1 my benevolent friends1 join with me in that teaching4 ,i have been at it all my life1 and without pride1 do solemnly assure you that ,i know how it is to be managed4 ,i cannot indeed tell you1 in this short preface1 how1 completely1 to fulfill so glorious a task4 ,but ,i can tell you clearly1 instantly1 and emphatically1 in what temper you must set about it4 ,here are you1 a ,christian1 a gentleman1 and a trained scholar2 there is your subject of education--a ,godless clown1 in helpless ignorance4 ,you can present no more blessed offering to ,god than that human creature1 raised into faith1 gentleness1 and the knowledge of the works of his ,lord4 ,but observe this--you must not hope to make so noble an offering to ,god of that which doth cost you nothing6 ,you must be resolved to labor1 and to lose1 yourself1 before you can rescue this overlabored lost sheep1 and offer it alive to its ,master4 ,if then1 my benevolent friend1 you are prepared to take out your two pence1 and to give them to the hosts here in ,cumberland1 saying--,take care of him1 and whatsoever thou spendest more1 ,i will repay thee when ,i come to ,cumberland myself1 on these terms--oh my benevolent friends1 ,i am with you1 hand and glove1 in every effort you wish to make for the enlightenment of poor men's eyes4 ,but if your motive is1 on the contrary1 to put two pence into your own purse1 stolen between the ,jerusalem and ,jericho of ,keswick and ,ambleside1 out of the poor drunken traveler's pocket2--if your real object1 in your charitable offering1 is1 not even to lend unto the ,lord by giving to the poor1 but to lend unto the ,lord by making a dividend out of the poor2--then1 my pious friends1 enthusiastic ,ananias1 pitiful ,judas1 and sanctified ,korah1 ,i will do my best in ,god's name1 to stay your hands1 and stop your tongues4 ,,brantwood1 #bbnd ,june1 #ahgf4 ,,footnotes3 ,footnote #ai3 ,preface to a pamphlet 7#ahgf7 entitled ,a ,protest against the ,extension of ,railways in the ,lake ,district1 compiled by ,robert ,somervell 7,windermere1 ,j4 ,garnett2 ,london1 ,simpkin1 ,marshall ,co474 ,the pamphlet also contained a printed announcement as follows3--,the author of ',modern ,painters' earnestly requests all persons who may have taken interest in his writings1 or who have any personal regard for him1 to assist him now in the circulation of the inclosed paper1 drawn up by his friend ,mr4 ,somervell1 for the defense of the ,lake ,district of ,england1 and to press the appeal1 so justly and temperately made in it1 on the attention of their personal friends4--,,ed4 ,footnote #bj3 ,see--the illustration being coincidently given as ,i correct this page for press--the description of the horrible service1 and history of the fatal explosion of dynamite1 on the once lovely estates of the ,duke of ,hamilton1 in the ,hamilton ,advertiser of #ajth and #agth ,june4 ,,the ,,study ,,of ,,beauty ,,and ,,art ,,in ,,large ,,towns4#ba #bff4 ,i have been asked by ,mr4 ,horsfall to write a few words of introduction to the following papers4 ,the trust is a frank one1 for our friendship has been long and intimate enough to assure their author that my feelings and even practical convictions in many respects differ from his1 and in some1 relating especially to the subjects here treated of1 are even opposed to his2 so that my private letters 7which1 to speak truth1 he never attends to a word of7 are little more than a series of exhortations to him to sing--once for all--the beautiful ,cavalier ditty of ,farewell1 ,manchester1 and pour the dew of his artistic benevolence on less recusant ground4 ,nevertheless1 as assuredly he knows much more of his own town than ,i do1 and as his mind is evidently made up to do the best he can for it1 the only thing left for me to do is to help him all ,i can in the hard task he has set himself1 or1 if ,i can't help1 at least to bear witness to the goodness of the seed he has set himself to sow among thorns4 ,for1 indeed1 the principles on which he is working are altogether true and sound2 and the definitions and defense of them1 in this pamphlet1 are among the most important pieces of ,art teaching which ,i have ever met with in recent ,english literature2 in past ,art-literature there cannot of course be anything parallel to them1 since the difficulties to be met and mischiefs to be dealt with are wholly of to-day4 ,and in all the practical suggestions and recommendations given in the following pages ,i not only concur1 but am myself much aided as ,i read them in the giving form to my own plans for the museum at ,sheffield2 nor do ,i doubt that they will at once commend themselves to every intelligent and candid reader4 ,but1 to my own mind1 the statements of principle on which these recommendations are based are far the more valuable part of the writings1 for these are true and serviceable for all time1 and in all places2 while in simplicity and lucidity they are far beyond any usually to be found in essays on ,art1 and the political significance of the laws thus defined is really1 ,i believe1 here for the first time rightly grasped and illustrated4 #bfg4 ,of these1 however1 the one whose root is deepest and range widest will be denied by many readers1 and doubted by others1 so that it may be well to say a word or two farther in its interpretation and defense--the saying1 namely1 that faith cannot dwell in hideous towns1 and that familiarity with beauty is a most powerful aid to belief4 ,this is a curious saying1 in front of the fact that the primary force of infidelity in the ,renaissance times was its pursuit of carnal beauty1 and that nowadays 7at least1 so far as my own experience reaches7 more faith may be found in the back streets of most cities than in the fine ones4 ,nevertheless the saying is wholly true1 first1 because carnal beauty is not true beauty2 secondly1 because1 rightly judged1 the fine streets of most modern towns are more hideous than the back ones2 lastly--and this is the point on which ,i must enlarge--because universally the first condition to the believing there is ,order in ,heaven is the ,sight of ,order upon ,earth2 ,order1 that is to say1 not the result of physical law1 but of some spiritual power prevailing over it1 as1 to take instances from my own old and favorite subject1 the ordering of the clouds in a beautiful sunset1 which corresponds to a painter's invention of them1 or the ordering of the colors on a bird's wing1 or of the radiations of a crystal of hoarfrost or of sapphire1 concerning any of which matters men1 so called of science1 are necessarily and forever silent1 because the distribution of colors in spectra and the relation of planes in crystals are final and causeless facts1 orders1 that is to say1 not laws4 ,and more than this1 the infidel temper which is incapable of perceiving this spiritual beauty has an instant and constant tendency to delight in the reverse of it1 so that practically its investigation is always1 by preference1 of forms of death or disease and every state of disorder and dissolution1 the affectionate analysis of vice in modern novels being a part of the same science4 ,and1 to keep to my own special field of study--the order of clouds1--there is a grotesquely notable example of the connection between infidelity and the sense of ugliness in a paper in the last ,contemporary ,review1 in which an able writer1 who signs ,vernon ,lee1 but whose personal view or purpose remains to the close of the essay inscrutable1 has rendered with considerable acuteness and animation the course of a dialogue between one of the common modern men about town who are the parasites of their own cigars and two more or less weak and foolish friends of hesitatingly adverse instincts3 the three of them1 however1 practically assuming their own wisdom to be the highest yet attained by the human race2 and their own diversion on the mountainous heights of it being by the aspect of a so-called preposterous sunset1 described in the following terms3-- 99 99 99 99 99 ,a brilliant light1 which seemed to sink out of the landscape all its reds and yellows1 and with them all life2 bleaching the yellowing cornfields and brown heath2 but burnishing into demoniac#bb energy of color the pastures and oak woods1 brilliant against the dark sky1 as if filled with green fire4 ,along the roadside the poppies1 which an ordinary sunset makes flame1 were quite extinguished1 like burnt-out embers2 the yellow hearts of the daisies were quite lost1 merged into their shining white petals4 ,and1 striking against the windows of the old black and white checkered farm 7a ghastly skeleton in this light71 it made them not flare1 nay1 not redden in the faintest degree1 but reflect a brilliant speck of white light4 ,everything was unsubstantial1 yet not as in a mist1 nay1 rather substantial1 but flat1 as if cut out of paper and pasted on the black branches and green leaves1 the livid1 glaring houses1 with roofs of dead1 scarce perceptible rod 7as when an iron turning white-hot from red-hot in the stithy grows also dull and dim74 ,it looks like the eve of the coming of ,antichrist1 as described in medival hymns1 remarked ,vere3 the sun1 before setting nevermore to rise1 sucking all life out of the earth1 leaving it but a mound of livid cinders1 barren and crumbling1 through which the buried nations will easily break their way when they rise4 99 99 99 99 99 ,as ,i have above said1 ,i do not discern the purpose of the writer of this paper2 but it would be impossible to illustrate more clearly this chronic insanity of infidel thought which makes all nature spectral2 while1 with exactly correspondent and reflective power1 whatever is dreadful or disordered in external things reproduces itself in disease of the human mind affected by them4 99 99 99 99 99 #bfh4 ,the correspondent relations of beauty to morality are illustrated in the following pages in a way which leaves little to be desired1 and scarcely any room for dissent2 but ,i have marked for my own future reference the following passages1 of which ,i think it will further the usefulness of the book that the reader should initially observe the contents and connection4#bc #a 7p4 #ae1 line #f--aj74 ,our idea of beauty in all things depends on what we believe they ought to be and do4 #b 7p4 #ag1 line #h--ag74 ,pleasure is most to be found in safe and pure ways1 and the greatest happiness of life is to have a great many little happinesses4 #c 7p4 #bd1 line #aj--cj74 ,the wonder and sorrow that in a country possessing an ,established ,church1 no book exists which can be put into the hands of youth to show them the best things that can be done in life1 and prevent their wasting it4 #d 7p4 #bh1 line #ba--cf74 ,there is every reason to believe that susceptibility to beauty can be gained through proper training in childhood by almost everyone4 #e 7p4 #bi1 line #cc--ce74 ,but if we are to attain to either a higher morality or a strong love of beauty1 such attainment must be the result of a strenuous effort and a strong will4 #f 7p4 #da1 line #af--bb74 ,rightness of form and aspect must first be shown to the people in things which interest them1 and about the rightness of appearance in which it is possible for them to care a great deal4 #g 7p4 #db1 line #a--aj74 ,and1 therefore1 rightness of appearance of the bodies1 and the houses1 and the actions of the people of these large towns1 is of more importance than rightness of appearance in what is usually called art1 and pictures of noble action and passion and of beautiful scenery are of far greater value than art in things which cannot deeply affect human thought and feeling4 ,the practical suggestions which1 deduced from these principles1 occupy the greater part of ,mr4 ,horsfall's second paper1 exhibit an untried group of resources in education2 and it will be to myself the best encouragement in whatever it has been my hope to institute of ,art ,school at ,oxford if the central influence of the ,university may be found capable of extension by such means1 in methods promoting the general happiness of the people of ,england4 ,,brantwood1 #bhth ,june1 #ahhc4 ,,footnotes3 ,footnote #ba3 ,introduction by ,mr4 ,ruskin to a pamphlet entitled ,the ,study of ,beauty and ,art in ,large ,towns1 two papers by ,t4 ,c4 ,horsfall 7,london1 ,macmillan ,co41 #ahhc74 ,the first of the two papers was originally read at the ,congress at ,nottingham of the ,social ,science ,association1 and the second at the ,manchester ,field ,naturalists' ,society4--,,ed4 ,footnote #bb3 ,see ,art of ,england4 ,footnote #bc3 ,the passages referred to are as follows3-- #a4 ,our idea of what beauty is in human being's1 in pictures1 in houses1 in chairs1 in animals1 in cities1 in everything1 in short1 which we know to have a use1 in the main depends on what we believe that human beings1 pictures1 and the rest ought to be and do4 #b4 ,every bank in every country lane1 every bush1 every tree1 the sky by day and by night1 every aspect of nature1 is full of beautiful form or color1 or of both1 for those whose eyes and hearts and brains have been opened to perceive beauty4 ,richter has somewhere said that man's greatest defect is that he has such a lot of small ones4 ,with equal truth it may be said that the greatest happiness man can have is to have a great many little happinesses1 and therefore a strong love of beauty1 which enables almost every square inch of unspoiled country to give us pleasant sensations1 is one of the best possessions we can have4 #c4 ,it must be evident to everyone who watches life carefully that hardly anyone reaches the objects which all should live for who does not strive to reach them1 and that at present not one person in a hundred so much as knows what are the objects which should be sought in life4 ,it is astounding1 therefore1 that in a country which possesses an ,established ,church1 richly endowed universities1 and even several professors of education1 no book exists which can be put into the hands of every intelligent youth1 and of every intelligent father and mother1 showing what our wisest and best men believe are the best things which can be done in life1 and what is the kind of training which makes the doing of these things most easy4 ,it is often said that each of us can profit only by his own experience1 but no one believes that4 ,no one can see how many well-meaning persons mistake means for ends and drift into error and sin1 simply because neither they nor their parents have known what course should be steered1 and what equipment is needed1 in the voyage of life1--no one can see this and doubt that a 'guidebook to life1' containing the results of the comparison of the experiences of even half-a-dozen able and sincere men1 would save countless people from wasting their lives as most lives are now wasted4 #d4 ,that which is true with regard to music is true with regard to beauty of form and color4 ,because a great many grown-up people1 in spite of great efforts1 find it impossible to sing correctly or even to perceive any pleasantness in music1 it used to be commonly supposed that a great many people are born without the power of gaining love of1 and skill in1 music4 ,now it is known that it is a question of early training1 that in every thousand children there are very few1--not1 ,i believe1 on an average1 more than two or three1--who cannot gain the power of singing correctly and of enjoying music1 if they are taught well in childhood while their nervous system can still easily form habits and has not yet formed the habit of being insensible to differences of sound4 ,there is every reason to believe that susceptibility to beauty of form and color can also be gained through proper training in childhood by almost everyone4 #e4 ,in such circumstances as ours there is no such thing as 'a wise passiveness4' ,if we are to attain to a high morality or to strong love of beauty1 attainment must be the result of strenuous effort1 of strong will4 #f4 ,the principle ,i refer to is1 that1 as art is the giving of right or beautiful form1 or of beautiful or right appearance1 if we desire to make people take keen interest in art1 if we desire to make them love good art1 we must show it them when applied to things which themselves are very interesting to them1 and about the rightness of appearance of which it is therefore possible for them to care a great deal4 #g4 ,success in bringing the influence of art to bear on the masses of the population in large towns1 or on any set of people who have to earn their bread and have not time to acquire an unhealthy appetite for nonsense verses or nonsense pictures1 will certainly only be attained by persons who know that art is important just in proportion to the importance of that which it clothes1 and who themselves feel that rightness of appearance of the bodies1 and the houses1 and the actions1 in short of the whole life1 of the population of those large towns which are now1 or threaten soon to be1 ',england1' is of far greater importance than rightness of appearance in all that which is usually called 'art1' and who feel1 to speak of only the fine arts1 that rightness of appearance in pictures of noble action and passion1 and of beautiful scenery1 love of which is almost a necessary of mental health1 is of far greater importance than art can be in things which cannot deeply affect human thought and feeling4--,,ed4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,notes ,,on ,,natural ,,science4 ,,the ,,color ,,of ,,the ,,rhine4 #ahcd4 ,,the ,,strata ,,of ,,mont ,,blanc4 #ahcd4 ,,the ,,induration ,,of ,,sandstone4 #ahcf4 ,,the ,,temperature ,,of ,,spring ,,and ,,river ,,water4 #ahcf4 ,,meteorology4 #ahci4 99 99 99 ,,tree ,,twigs4 #ahfa4 ,,stratified ,,alps ,,of ,,savoy4 #ahfc4 ,,intellectual ,,conception ,,and ,,animated ,,life4 #ahga4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,inquiries ,,on ,,the ,,causes ,,of ,,the ,,color ,,of ,,the ,,water ,,of ,,the ,,rhine4#bd #bfi4 ,i do not think the causes of the color of transparent water have been sufficiently ascertained4 ,i do not mean that effect of color which is simply optical1 as the color of the sea1 which is regulated by the sky above or the state of the atmosphere1 but ,i mean the settled color of transparent water1 which has1 when analyzed1 been found pure4 ,now1 copper will tinge water green1 and that very strongly2 but water thus impregnated will not be transparent1 and will deposit the copper it holds in solution upon any piece of iron which may be thrown into it4 ,there is a lake in a defile on the northwest flank of ,snowdon1 which is supplied by a stream which previously passes over several veins of copper2 this lake is1 of course1 of a bright verdigris green1 but it is not transparent4 ,now the coloring effect1 of which ,i speak1 is well seen in the water of the ,rhone and ,rhine4 ,the former of these rivers1 when it enters the ,lake of ,geneva1 after having received the torrents descending from the mountains of the ,valais1 is fouled with mud1 or white with the calcareous matter which it holds in solution4 ,having deposited this in the ,lake ,leman#be 7thereby gradually forming an immense delta71 it issues from the lake perfectly pure1 and flows through the streets of ,geneva so transparent1 that the bottom can be seen twenty feet below the surface1 jet so blue1 that you might imagine it to be a solution of indigo4 ,in like manner1 the ,rhine1 after purifying itself in the ,lake of ,constance1 flows forth1 colored of a clear green1 and this under all circumstances and in all weathers4 ,it is sometimes said that this arises from the torrents which supply these rivers generally flowing from the glaciers1 the green and blue color of which may have given rise to this opinion2 but the color of the ice is purely optical1 as the fragments detached from the mass appear white4 ,perhaps some correspondent can afford me information on the subject4 ,j4 ,r4#bf ,march1 #ahcd4 ,,footnotes3 ,footnote #bd3 ,from ,london's ,magazine of ,natural ,history 7,london1 ,longmans ,co41 #ahcd71 vol4 vii41 ,no4 #da1 pp4 #dch-i1 being its author's earliest contribution to literature4--,,ed4 ,footnote #be3 ,this lake1 however1 if the poet have spoken truly1 is not very feculent3-- ,lake ,leman woos me with its crystal face1 ,the mirror where the stars and mountains view ,the stillness of their aspect in each trace ,its clear depth yields of their far height and hue4 ,,byron4 ,footnote #bf3 ,in the number of the magazine in which this note appeared was an article by ,e4 ,l4 on the perforation of a leaden pipe by rats1 upon which1 in a subsequent number 7,vol4 vii41 p4 #eib71 ,j4 ,r4 notes as follows3 ,e4 ,s4 has been1 surely1 too inattentive to proportions3 there is an inconsistency in the dimensions of a leaden pipe about #a-a_/d in4 in external diameter1 with a bore of about #c_/d in4 in diameter2 thus leaving a solid circumference of metal varying from #a_/b in4 to #c_/d in4 in thickness4--,j4 ,r41 ,sept4 #ahcd4--;,,ed4 ,,facts ,,and ,,considerations ,,on ,,the ,,strata ,,of ,,mont ,,blanc1 ,,and ,,on ,,some ,,instances ,,of ,,twisted ,,strata ,,observable ,,in ,,switzerland4#bg #bgj4 ,the granite ranges of ,mont ,blanc are as interesting to the geologist as they are to the painter4 ,the granite is dark red1 often inclosing veins of quartz1 crystallized and compact1 and likewise well-formed crystals of schorl4 ,the average elevation of its range of peaks1 which extends from ,mont ,blanc to the ,tte ,noire1 is about #ab1jjj ,english feet above the level of the sea4 ,the highest culminating point is #ae1gdd feet4 ,the ,aiguille de ,servoz1 and that of ,dru1 are excellent examples of the pyramidal and spiratory formation which these granite ranges in general assume4 ,they rise out of immense fields of snow1 but1 being themselves too steep for snow to rest upon1 form red1 bare1 and inaccessible peaks1 which even the chamois scarcely dares to climb4 ,their bases appear sometimes abutted 7if ,i may so speak7 by mica slate1 which forms the southeast side of the ,valley of ,chamonix1 whose flanks1 if intersected1 might appear as 7in fig4 #gb71 a1 granite1 forming on the one side 7,b7 the ,mont ,blanc1 on the other 7,c7 the ,mont ,breven2 b1 mica slate resting on the base of ,mont ,blanc1 and which contains amianthus and quartz1 in which capillary crystals of titanium occur2 c1 calcareous rock2 d1 alluvium1 forming the ,valley of ,chamonix4 ,i should have mentioned that the granite appears to contain a small quantity of gold1 as that metal is found among the granite dbris and siliceous sand of the river ,arve ,bakewell1 i4 #cge2 and ,i have two or three specimens in which chlorite 7both compact and in minute crystals7 occupies the place of mica4 ,j4 ,r4 ,march1 #ahcd4 99 99 99 99 99 ,with this paper were printed some observations on it by the ,rev4 ,w4 ,b4 ,clarke1 after which 7p4 #fdh7 appears the following note by ,j4 ,r4 99 99 99 99 99 #bga4 ,,twisted ,,strata4--,the contortions of the limestone at the fall of the ,nant d',arpenaz1 on the road from ,geneva to ,chamonix1 are somewhat remarkable4 ,the rock is a hard dark brown limestone1 forming part of a range of secondary cliffs1 which rise from #ejj feet to #ajjj feet above the defile which they border4 ,the base itself is about #hjj feet high4 ,the strata bend very regularly except at e and f1#bh where they appear to have been fractured4 99 99 99 99 99 ,to what ,properties in ,nature is it owing that the ,stones in ,buildings1 formed originally of the frailest ,materials1 gradually become indurated by ,exposure to the ,atmosphere and by ,age1 and stand the ,wear and ,tear of ,time and ,weather every bit as well1 in some instances much better1 than the hardest and most compact ,limestones and ,granite8#bi #bgb4 ,in addition to the fact mentioned by ,mr4 ,hunter#cj relative to the induration of soft sandstone1 ,i would adduce an excellent example of the same effect in the cathedral of ,basle1 in ,switzerland4 ,the cathedral is wholly built of a soft coarse-grained sandstone1 of so deep a red as to resemble long-burned brick4 ,the numerous and delicate ornaments and fine tracery on the exterior are in a state of excellent preservation1 and present none of the moldering appearance so common in old cathedrals that are built of stone which1 when quarried1 was much harder than this sandstone4 ,the pavement in the interior is composed of the same material2 and1 as almost every slab is a tomb1 it is charged with the arms1 names1 and often statues in low relief1 of those who lie below1 delicately sculptured in the soft material4 ,yet1 though these sculptures have been worn for ages by the feet of multitudes1 they are very little injured2 they still stand out in bold and distinct relief3 not an illegible letter1 not an untraceable ornament is to be found2 and it is said1 and ,i believe with truth1 that they have now grown so hard as not to be in the least degree farther worn by the continual tread of thousands2 and that the longer the stone is exposed to the air1 the harder it becomes4 ,the cathedral was built in #ajai4 #bgc4 ,the causes of the different effects of air on stone must be numerous1 and the investigation of them excessively difficult4 ,with regard1 first1 to rocks en masse1 if their structure be crystalline1 or their composition argillaceous1 the effect of the air will1 ,i think1 ordinarily1 be found injurious4 ,thus1 in granite1 which has a kind of parallelogrammatic cleavage1 water introduces itself into the fissures1 and the result1 in a sharp frost1 will be a disintegration of the rocks en masse2 and1 if the felspar be predominant in the composition of the granite1 it will be subject to a rapid decomposition4 ,the morvine of some of the ,chamouni and ,alle ,blanche glaciers is composed of a white granite1 being chiefly composed of quartz and felspar1 with a little chlorite4 ,the sand and gravel at the edge of these glaciers appears far more the result of decomposition than attrition4 ,all finely foliated rocks1 slates1 etc41 are liable to injury from frost or wet weather4 ,the road of the ,simplon1 on the ,italian side1 is in some parts dangerous in1 or after1 wet weather1 on account of the rocks of slate continually falling from the overhanging mountains above2 this1 however1 is mere disintegration1 not decomposition4 ,not so with the breccias of ,central ,switzerland4 ,the rock of ,righi is composed of pebbles of different kinds1 joined by a red argillaceous gluten4 ,when this rock has not been exposed to the air1 it is very hard3 you may almost as easily break the pebbles as detach them from their matrix2 but1 when exposed for a few years to wind and weather1 the matrix becomes soft1 and the pebbles may be easily detached4 ,i was struck with the difference between this rock and a breccia at ,epinal1 in ,france1 where the matrix was a red sandstone1 like that of the cathedral at ,basle4 ,here1 though the rock had every appearance of having been long exposed to the air1 it was as hard as iron2 and it was utterly impossible to detach any of the pebbles from the bed3 it was difficult even to break the rock at all4 ,i cannot positively state that the gluten in these sandstones is calcareous1 but ,i suppose it to have been so4 ,compact calcareous rock1 as far as ,i remember1 appears to be subject to no injury from the weather4 ,many churches in ,italy1 and almost the whole cities of ,venice and ,genoa1 are built of very fine marble2 and the perfection of the delicate carvings1 however aged1 is most remarkable4 ,i remember a church1 near ,pavia1 coated with the finest and most expensive marbles2 a range of beautifully sculptured medallions running round its base1 though old1 were as distinct and fine in their execution as if they had just come out of the sculptor's studio4 ,if1 therefore1 the gluten of the sandstone be either calcareous or siliceous1 it will naturally produce the effect above alluded to1 though it is certainly singular that the stone should be soft when first quarried4 ,sandstone is a rock in which you seldom see many cracks or fissures in the strata3 they are generally continuous and solid4 ,now1 there may be a certain degree of density in the mass1 which could not be increased without producing1 as in granite1 fissures running through it3 the particles may be supposed to be held in a certain degree of tension1 and there may be a tendency to what the ,french call assaissement 7,i do not know the ,english term71 which is1 nevertheless1 resisted by the stone en masse2 and a quantity of water may likewise be held1 not in a state of chemical combination1 but in one of close mixture with the rock4 ,on being broken or quarried1 the assaissement may take place1 the particles of stone may draw closer together1 the attraction become stronger2 and1 on the exposure to the air1 the water1 however intimately combined1 will1 in a process of years1 be driven off1 occasioning the consolidation of the calcareous1 and the near approach of the siliceous1 particles1 and a consequent gradual induration of the whole body of the stone4 ,i offer this supposition with all diffidence2 there may be many other causes1 which cannot be developed until proper experiments have been made4 ,it would be interesting to ascertain the relative hardness of different specimens of sandstone1 taken from different depths in a bed1 the surface of which was exposed to the air1 as of specimens exposed to the air for different lengths of time4 ,j4 ,r4 ,,herne ,,hill1 ,july #be1 #ahcf4 ,,footnotes3 ,footnote #bg3 ,london's ,magazine of ,natural ,history1 ,vol4 vii41 pp4 #fdd-e4 ,the note was illustrated by engravings from two sketches by the author of the ,aiguille de ,servoz and of the ,aiguille ,dru1 and by a diagram explanatory of its last sentence but one4--,,ed4 ,footnote #bh3 ,a small neat copy of a sketch carefully taken on the spot1 which1 according to the editor of the magazine1 accompanied this communication1 was not1 however1 published4 ,see the magazine4--,,ed4 ,footnote #bi3 ,loudon's ,magazine of ,natural ,history1 ,vol4 ix41 ,no4 #fe1 pp4 #dhh-ij4--;,,ed4 ,footnote #cj3 ,the question here discussed was originally asked in the magazine 7,vol4 ix41 pp4 #cgi-hj7 by ,mr4 ,w4 ,perceval ,hunter with reference to the condition of ,bodiam ,castle1 in ,sussex4--,,ed4 ,,observations ,,on ,,the ,,causes ,,which ,,occasion ,,the ,,variation ,,of ,,temperature ,,between ,,spring ,,and ,,river ,,water4--,,by ,j4 ,r4#ca #bgd4 ,the difference in temperature between river and spring water1 which gives rise to the query of your correspondent ,indigena 7p4 #dia71cb may be the result of many causes1 the principal of which is1 however1 without doubt1 the interior heat of the earth4 ,it is a well known fact1 that this heat increases in a considerable ratio as we descend1 making a difference of several degrees between the temperature of the earth at its surface and at depths of #ejj or #fjj feet2 raising1 of course1 the temperature of all springs which have their source at even moderate depths1 and entirely securing them from the effects of frost1 which1 it is well known1 cannot penetrate the earth to a greater depth than #c or #d ft4 #bge4 ,many instances might be given of the strong effect of this interior heat4 ,the glaciers of the ,alps1 for instance1 frequently cover an extent of three or four square leagues1 with a mass of ice #djj1 #ejj1 or even #fjj feet deep1 thus entirely preventing the access of exterior heat to the soil2 yet the radiation of heat from the ground itself is so powerful as to dissolve the ice very rapidly1 and to occasion streams of no inconsiderable size beneath the ice1 whose temperature1 in summer1 is1 ,i believe1 as far as can be ascertained1 not many degrees below that of streams exposed to the air2 and the radiation of heat from the water of these streams forms vaults under the ice1 which are frequently #dj ft4 or #ej ft4 above the water2 and which are formed1 as a glance will show1 not by the force of the stream1 which would only tear itself a broken cave sufficient for its passage1 but by the heat which radiates from it1 and gives the arch its immense height1 and beautifully regular form4 ,these streams continue to flow in winter as well as in summer1 although in less quantity2 and it is this process which chiefly prevents the glacier from increasing in size2 for the melting at the surface is1 in comparison1 very inconsiderable1 even in summer1 the wind being cold1 the sun having little power1 and slight frosts being frequent during the night4 ,it is also this melting beneath the ice 7subglacial1 suppose we call it7 which loosens the ice from the ground1 and occasions1 or rather permits1 the perpetual downward movement1 with which ,the glacier's cold and restless mass ,moves onward day by day4 #bgf4 ,but more forcible and striking evidence is afforded by experiments made in mines of great depth4 ,between #fj ft4 and #hj ft4 down1 the temperature of the earth is1 ,i believe1 the same at all times and in all places2 and below this depth it gradually increases4 ,near ,bex1 in the ,valais1 there is a perpendicular shaft #fgg ft4 deep1 or about #gcb ft4 ,english1 with water at the bottom1 the temperature of which was ascertained by ,saussure4 ,he does not tell us whether he used ,raumur's or the centesimal thermometer2 but the result of his experiment was this3--,in a lateral gallery1 connected with the main shaft1 but deserted1 and1 therefore1 unaffected by breath or the heat of lamps1 at #cba ft4 #aj in4 below the surface1 the temperature of the water and the air was exactly the same1 #aa-a_/b2 or1 if the centesimal thermometer was used1 #eb-d_/e ,fahr42 if ,raumur's1 #eg-g_/h ,fahr4 #bgg4 ,in another gallery1 #efd feet below the surface1 the water and air had likewise the same temperature1 #ab-a_/b1 either #ed-d_/e or #f,o-#a_/d ,fahr4 ,the water at the bottom1 #fgg feet1 was #ad1 #eg-a_/b or #fc-a_/d ,fahr4 ,the ratio in which the heat increases1 therefore1 increased as we descend1 since a difference of #aac feet between the depth of the bottom of the shaft and the lowest gallery makes a greater difference in temperature than the difference of #bdc feet between the lowest and upper gallery4 ,this heat is the more striking when it is considered that the water is impregnated with salt2 indeed1 ,saussure appears inclined to consider it accidental1 perhaps occasioned by the combustion of pyrites1 or other causes in the interior of the mountain 7,voyages dans les ,alpes1 tom4 iv41 c4 #ej74 ,all experiments of this kind1 indeed1 are liable to error1 from the frequent occurrence of warm springs1 and other accidental causes of increase in temperature4 ,the water at the bottom of deep lakes is always found several degrees colder than the atmosphere1 even when the water at the surface is warmer3 but that may be accounted for by the difference in the specific gravity of water at different temperatures2 and1 as the heat of the sun and atmosphere in summer is greater than the mean heat of the earth at moderate depths1 the water at the bottom1 even if it becomes of the same heat with the earth1 must be colder than that at the surface1 which1 from its exposure to the sun1 becomes frequently warmer than the air4 ,the same causes affect the temperature of the sea2 and the greater saturation of the water below with salt renders it yet more susceptible of cold4 ,under-currents from the poles1 and the sinking of the water of low temperature1 which results from the melting of the icebergs which float into warmer latitudes1 contribute still farther to lower the temperature of the deep sea4 ,if1 then1 the temperature of the sea at great depths is found not many degrees lower than that at the surface1 it would be a striking proof of the effect produced by the heat of the earth2 but ,i am not aware of the results of the experiments which have been made on this subject4 #bgh4 ,we must1 then1 rest satisfied with the well-ascertained fact1 that the temperature of the earth1 even at depths of a few feet1 never descends1 in temperate latitudes1 to the freezing point2 and that at the depth of #fj feet it is always the same1 in winter much higher1 in summer considerably lower1 than that of the atmosphere4 ,spring water1 then1 which has its source at a considerable depth1 will1 when it first rises1 be of this mean temperature2 while1 after it has flowed for some distance1 it becomes of the temperature of the atmosphere1 or1 in summer1 even warmer1 owing to the action of the sun1 both directly and reflected or radiated from its bottom4 ,besides this equable temperature in the water itself1 spring or well water is usually covered2 and1 even if exposed1 if the well is very deep1 the water will not freeze1 or at least very slightly2 for frost does not act with its full power1 except where there is a free circulation of air4 ,in open ponds1 wherever bushes hang over the water1 the ice is weak4 ,indigena's supposition1 that there are earthy particles in river water1 which render it more susceptible of cold than spring water1 cannot be true2 for then the relative temperatures would be the same in winter and in summer1 which is not the case2 and1 besides1 there are frequently more earthy particles in mineral springs1 or even common land springs1 than in clear river water1 provided it has not been fouled by extraneous matter2 for it has a tendency to deposit the earthy particles which it holds in suspension4 #bgi4 ,it is evident1 also1 that the supposition of ,mr4 ,carr 7,vol4 v41 p4 #cie7 relative to anchor frosts1 that the stones at the bottom acquire a greater degree of cold1 or1 to speak more correctly1 lose more heat1 than the water1 is erroneous4 ,j4 ,g4 has given the reasons at p4 #ggj2 and the glaciers of ,switzerland afford us an example4 ,when a stone is deposited on a glacier of any considerable size1 but not larger than #a foot or #ah inches in diameter1 it becomes penetrated with the heat of the sun1 melts the ice below it1 and sinks into the glacier4 ,but this effect does not cease1 as might be supposed1 when the stone sinks beneath the water which it has formed2 on the contrary1 it continues to absorb heat from the rays of the sun1 to keep the water above it liquid by its radiation1 and to sink deeper into the body of the glacier1 until it gets down beyond the reach of the sun's rays1 when the water of the well which it has formed is no longer kept liquid1 and the stone is buried in the ice4 ,in summer1 however1 the water is kept liquid2 and circular wells1 formed in this manner1 are of frequent occurrence on the glaciers1 sometimes1 in the morning1 covered by a thin crust of ice4 ,thus1 the stones at the bottom of streams must tend to raise1 rather than lower1 this temperature4 ,is it possible that1 in the agitation of a stream at its bottom1 if violent1 momentary and minute vacua may be formed1 tending to increase the intensity of the cold8 ,,herne ,,hill1 ,sept4 #b1 #ahcf4 ,,footnotes3 ,footnote #ca3 ,london's ,magazine of ,natural ,history1 vol4 ix41 pp4 #ecc-ecf4--;,,ed4 ,footnote #cb3 ,the query was as follows3-- ,an ,inquiry for the ,cause of the ,difference in ,temperature of ,river ,water and ,spring ,water1 both in ,summer and ,winter4--,in the summer time the river water is much warmer than that from a spring2 during the severe frosts of winter it is colder2 and when the stream is covered over with ice1 the spring1 that is1 well or pump water is unaffected by frost4 ,does this difference proceed from the exposure of the surface of the river water1 in summer1 to the sun's direct influence1 and1 in winter1 to that of frost2 while the well water1 being covered1 is protected from their power8 ,or is there in river water1 from the earthy particles it contains1 a greater susceptibility of heat and cold8--,indigena4 ,april #ai1 #ahcf4--;,,ed4 ,,meteorology4#cc #bhj4 ,the comparison and estimation of the relative advantages of separate departments of science is a task which is always partially executed1 because it is never entered upon with an unbiased mind2 for1 since it is only the accurate knowledge of a science which can enable us to present its beauty1 or estimate its utility1 the branches of knowledge with which we are most familiar will always appear the most important4 ,the endeavor1 therefore1 to judge of the relative beauty or interest of the sciences is utterly hopeless4 ,let the astronomer boast of the magnificence of his speculations1 the mathematician of the immutability of his facts1 the chemist of the infinity of his combinations1 and we will admit that they all have equal ground for their enthusiasm4 ,but the highest standard of estimation is that of utility4 ,the far greater proportion of mankind1 the uninformed1 who are unable to perceive the beauty of the sciences whose benefits they experience1 are the true1 the just1 the only judges of their relative importance4 ,it is they who feel what impartial men of learning know1 that the mass of general knowledge is a perfect and beautiful body1 among whose members there should be no schism1 and whose prosperity must always be greatest when none are partially pursued1 and none unduly rejected4 ,we do not1 therefore1 advance any proud and unjustifiable claims to the superiority of that branch of science for the furtherance of which this society has been formed over all others2 but we zealously come forward to deprecate the apathy with which it has long been regarded1 to dissipate the prejudices which that apathy alone could have engendered1 and to vindicate its claims to an honorable and equal position among the proud thrones of its sister sciences4 ,we do not bring meteorology forward as a pursuit adapted for the occupation of tedious leisure1 or the amusement of a careless hour4 ,such qualifications are no inducements to its pursuit by men of science and learning1 and to these alone do we now address ourselves4 ,neither do we advance it on the ground of its interest or beauty1 though it is a science possessing both in no ordinary degree4 ,as to its beauty1 it may be remarked that it is not calculated to harden the mind it strengthens1 and bind it down to the measurement of magnitudes and estimation of quantities1 destroying all higher feelings1 all finer sensibilities3 it is not to be learned among the gaseous exhalations of the deathful laboratory2 it has no dwelling in the cold caves of the dark earth2 it is not to be followed up among the charnel houses of creation4 ,but it is a science of the pure air1 and of the bright heaven2 its thoughts are amidst the loveliness of creation2 it leads the mind1 as well as the eye1 to the morning mist1 and the noonday glory1 and the twilight-cloud1 to the purple peace of the mountain heaven1 to the cloudy repose of the green valley2 now expatiating in the silence of stormless ether1 now on the rushing of the wings of the wind4 ,it is indeed a knowledge which must be felt to be1 in its very essence1 full of the soul of the beautiful4 ,for its interest1 it is universal1 unabated in every place1 and in all time4 ,he1 whose kingdom is the heaven1 can never meet with an uninteresting space1 can never exhaust the phenomena of an hour2 he is in a realm of perpetual change1 of eternal motion1 of infinite mystery4 ,light and darkness1 and cold and heat1 are to him as friends of familiar countenance1 but of infinite variety of conversation2 and while the geologist yearns for the mountain1 the botanist for the field1 and the mathematician for the study1 the meteorologist1 like a spirit of a higher order than any1 rejoices in the kingdoms of the air4 #bha4 ,but1 as we before said1 it is neither for its interest1 nor for its beauty1 that we recommend the study of meteorology4 ,it involves questions of the highest practical importance1 and the solution of which will be productive of most substantial benefit to those classes who can least comprehend the speculations from which these advantages are derived4 ,times and seasons and climates1 calms and tempests1 clouds and winds1 whose alternations appear to the inexperienced mind the confused consequences of irregular1 indefinite1 and accidental causes1 arrange themselves before the meteorologist in beautiful succession of undisturbed order1 in direct derivation from definite causes2 it is for him to trace the path of the tempest round the globe1 to point out the place whence it arose1 to foretell the time of its decline1 to follow the hours around the earth1 as she spins beneath her pyramid of night1 to feel the pulses of ocean1 to pursue the course of its currents and its changes1 to measure the power1 direction1 and duration of mysterious and invisible influences1 and to assign constant and regular periods to the seedtime and harvest1 cold and heat1 summer and winter1 day and night1 which we know shall not cease1 till the universe be no more4 ,it may be thought we are exaggerating the effects of a science which is yet in its infancy4 ,but it must be remembered that we are not speaking of its attained1 but of its attainable power3 it is the young ,hercules for the fostering of whose strength the ,meteorological ,society has been formed4 #bhb4 ,there is one point1 it must now be observed1 in which the science of meteorology differs from all others4 ,a ,galileo1 or a ,newton1 by the unassisted workings of his solitary mind1 may discover the secrets of the heavens1 and form a new system of astronomy4 ,a ,davy in his lonely meditations on the crags of ,cornwall1 or in his solitary laboratory1 might discover the most sublime mysteries of nature1 and trace out the most intricate combinations of her elements4 ,but the meteorologist is impotent if alone2 his observations are useless2 for they are made upon a point1 while the speculations to be derived from them must be on space4 ,it is of no avail that he changes his position1 ignorant of what is passing behind him and before2 he desires to estimate the movements of space1 and can only observe the dancing of atoms2 he would calculate the currents of the atmosphere of the world1 while he only knows the direction of a breeze4 ,it is perhaps for this reason that the cause of meteorology has hitherto been so slightly supported2 no progress can be made by the most gigantic efforts of a solitary intellect1 and the co-operation demanded was difficult to obtain1 because it was necessary that the individuals should think1 observe1 and act simultaneously1 though separated from each other by distances on the greatness of which depended the utility of the observations4 #bhc4 ,the ,meteorological ,society1 therefore1 has been formed1 not for a city1 nor for a kingdom1 but for the world4 ,it wishes to be the central point1 the moving power of a vast machine1 and it feels that unless it can be this1 it must be powerless2 if it cannot do all1 it can do nothing4 ,it desires to have at its command1 at stated periods1 perfect systems of methodical and simultaneous observations1--it wishes its influence and its power to be omnipotent over the globe1 so that it may be able to know1 at any given instant1 the state of the atmosphere at every point on its surface4 ,let it not be supposed that this is a chimerical imagination1 the vain dream of a few philosophical enthusiasts4 ,it is co-operation which we now come forward to request1 in full confidence1 that if our efforts are met with a zeal worthy of the cause1 our associates will be astonished1 individually1 by the result of their labors in a body4 ,let none be discouraged because they are alone1 or far distant from their associates4 ,what was formerly weakness will now have become strength4 ,let the pastor of the ,alps observe the variations of his mountain winds2 let the voyagers send us notes of the changes on the surface of the sea2 let the solitary dweller in the ,american prairie observe the passages of the storms1 and the variations of the climate2 and each1 who alone would have been powerless1 will find himself a part of one mighty mind1 a ray of light entering into one vast eye1 a member of a multitudinous power1 contributing to the knowledge1 and aiding the efforts1 which will be capable of solving the most deeply hidden problems of nature1 penetrating into the most occult causes1 and reducing to principle and order the vast multitude of beautiful and wonderful phenomena by which the wisdom and benevolence of the ,supreme ,deity regulates the course of the times and the seasons1 robes the globe with verdure and fruitfulness1 and adapts it to minister to the wants1 and contribute to the felicity1 of the innumerable tribes of animated existence4 ,,oxford ,,university4 ,,footnotes3 ,footnote #cc3 ,from the ,transactions of the ,meteorological ,society1 ,vol4 i41 pp4 #ef-i 7,london1 #ahci74 ,the full title of the paper was ,remarks on the ,present ,state of ,meteorological ,science4 ,the ,society was instituted in #ahbc1 but appears to have published no previous transactions4--,,ed4 ,,on ,,tree ,,twigs4#cd #bhd4 ,the speaker's purpose was to exhibit the development of the common forms of branch1 in dicotyledonous trees1 from the fixed type of the annual shoot4 ,three principal modes of increase and growth might be distinguished in all accumulative change1 namely3-- #a4 ,simple aggregation1 having no periodical or otherwise defined limit1 and subject only to laws of cohesion and crystallization1 as in inorganic matter4 #b4 ,addition of similar parts to each other1 under some law fixing their limits and securing their unity4 #c4 ,enlargement1 or systematic change in arrangement1 of a typical form1 as in the growth of the members of an animal4 #bhe4 ,the growth of trees came under the second of these heads4 ,a tree did not increase in stem or boughs as the wrist and hand of a child increased to the wrist and hand of a man2 but it was built up by additions of similar parts1 as a city is increased by the building of new rows of houses4 ,any annual shoot was most conveniently to be considered as a single rod1 which would always grow vertically if possible4 ,every such rod or pillar was1 in common timber trees1 typically either polygonal in section1 or rectangular4 ,if polygonal1 the leaves were arranged on it in a spiral order1 as in the elm or oak4 ,if rectangular1 the leaves were arranged on it in pairs1 set alternately at right angles to each other4 ,intermediate forms connected each of these types with those of monocotyledonous trees4 ,the structure of the arbor vit might be considered as typically representing the link between the rectangular structure and that of monocotyledons2 and that of the pine between the polygonal structure and that of monocotyledons4 ,every leaf during its vitality secreting carbon from the atmosphere1 with the elements of water1 formed a certain quantity of woody tissue1 which extended down the outside of the tree to the ground1 and farther to the extremities of the roots4 ,the mode in which this descending masonry was added appeared to depend on the peculiar functions of cambium1 and 7the speaker believed7 was as yet unexplained by botanists4 #bhf4 ,every leaf1 besides forming this masonry all down the tree1 protected a bud at the base of its own stalk4 ,from this bud1 unless rendered abortive1 a new shoot would spring next year4 ,now1 supposing that out of the leaf-buds on each shoot of a pentagonal tree1 only five at its extremity or on its side were permitted to develop themselves1 even under this limitation the number of shoots developed from a single one in the seventh year would be #gh1abe4 ,the external form of a healthily grown tree at any period of its development was therefore composed of a mass of sprays1 whose vitality was approximately distributed over the surface of the tree to an equal depth4 ,the branches beneath at once supported1 and were fed by1 this orbicular field1 or animated external garment of vegetation1 from every several leaf of which1 as from an innumerable multitude of small green fountains1 the streams of woody fiber descended1 met1 and united as rivers do1 and gathered their full flood into the strength of the stem4 #bhg4 ,the principal errors which had been committed by artists in drawing trees had arisen from their regarding the bough as ramifying irregularly1 and somewhat losing in energy towards the extremity2 whereas the real boughs threw their whole energy1 and multiplied their substance1 towards the extremities1 ranking themselves in more or less cup-shaped tiers round the trunk1 and forming a compact united surface at the exterior of the tree4 #bhh4 ,in the course of arrival at this form1 the bough1 throughout its whole length1 showed itself to be influenced by a force like that of an animal's instinct4 ,its minor curves and angles were all subjected to one strong ruling tendency and law of advance1 dependent partly on the aim of every shoot to raise itself upright1 partly on the necessity which each was under to yield due place to the neighboring leaves1 and obtain for itself as much light and air as possible4 ,it had indeed been ascertained that vegetable tissue was liable to contractions and expansion 7under fixed mechanical conditions7 by light1 heat1 moisture1 etc4 ,but vegetable tissue in the living branch did not contract nor expand under external influence alone4 ,the principle of life manifested itself either by contention with1 or felicitous recognition of1 external force4 ,it accepted with a visible1 active1 and apparently joyful concurrence1 the influences which led the bough towards its due place in the economy of the tree2 and it obeyed reluctantly1 partially1 and with distorted curvatures1 those which forced it to violate the typical organic form4 ,the attention of painters of foliage had seldom been drawn with sufficient accuracy to the lines either of branch curvature1 or leaf contour1 as expressing these subtle laws of incipient volition2 but the relative merit of the great schools of figure design might1 in absence of all other evidence1 be determined1 almost without error1 by observing the precision of their treatment of leaf curvature4 ,the leaf-painting round the head of ,ariosto by ,titian1 in the ,national ,gallery1 might be instanced4 #bhi4 ,the leaf thus differed from the flower in forming and protecting behind it1 not only the bud in which was the form of a new shoot like itself1 but a piece of permanent work1 and produced substance1 by which every following shoot could be placed under different circumstances from its predecessor4 ,every leaf labored to solidify this substance during its own life2 but the seed left by the flower matured only as the flower perished4 ,this difference in the action and endurance of the flower and leaf had been applied by nearly all great nations as a type of the variously active and productive states of life among individuals or commonwealths4 ,chaucer's poem of the ,flower and ,leaf is the most definite expression of the medival feeling in this respect1 while the fables of the rape of ,proserpine and of ,apollo and ,daphne embody that of the ,greeks4 ,there is no ,greek goddess corresponding to the ,flora of the ,romans4 ,their ,flora is ,persephone1 the bringer of death4 ,she plays for a little while in the ,sicilian fields1 gathering flowers1 then snatched away by ,pluto1 receives her chief power as she vanishes from our sight1 and is crowned in the grave4 ,daphne1 on the other hand1 is the daughter of one of the great ,arcadian river gods1 and of the earth2 she is the type of the river mist filling the rocky vales of ,arcadia2 the sun1 pursuing this mist from dell to dell1 is ,apollo pursuing ,daphne2 where the mist is protected from his rays by the rock shadows1 the laurel and other richest vegetation spring by the river-sides1 so that the laurel-leaf becomes the type1 in the ,greek mind1 of the beneficent ministry and vitality of the rivers and the earth1 under the beams of sunshine2 and therefore it is chosen to form the signet-crown of highest honor for gods or men1 honor for work born of the strength and dew of the earth and informed by the central light of heaven2 work living1 perennial1 and beneficent4 ,j4 ,r4 ,,footnotes3 ,footnote #cd3 ,read by ,mr4 ,ruskin at the weekly evening meeting of the ,royal ,institution 7see ,proceedings1 vol4 iii41 pp4 #ceh-fj71 ,april #ai1 #ahfa4--;,,ed4 ,,on ,,the ,,forms ,,of ,,the ,,stratified ,,alps ,,of ,,savoy4#ce #bij4 ,the purpose of the discourse was to trace some of the influences which have produced the present external forms of the stratified mountains of ,savoy1 and the probable extent and results of the future operation of such influences4 ,the subject was arranged under three heads3-- ,i4 ,the ,materials of the ,savoy ,alps4 ,,ii4 ,the ,mode of their ,formation4 ,,iii4 ,the ,mode of their subsequent ,sculpture4 #bia4 ,i4 ,their ,materials4--,the investigation was limited to those ,alps which consist1 in whole or in part1 either of ,jura limestone1 of ,neocomian beds1 or of the ,hippurite limestone1 and include no important masses of other formations4 ,all these rocks are marine deposits2 and the first question to be considered with respect to the development of mountains out of them is the kind of change they must undergo in being dried4 ,whether prolonged through vast periods of time1 or hastened by heat and pressure1 the drying and solidification of such rocks involved their contraction1 and usually1 in consequence1 their being traversed throughout by minute fissures4 ,under certain conditions of pressure1 these fissures take the aspect of slaty cleavage2 under others1 they become irregular cracks1 dividing all the substance of the stone4 ,if these are not filled1 the rock would become a mere heap of dbris1 and be incapable of establishing itself in any bold form4 ,this is provided against by a metamorphic action1 which either arranges the particles of the rock1 throughout1 in new and more crystalline conditions1 or else causes some of them to separate from the rest1 to traverse the body of the rock1 and arrange themselves in its fissures2 thus forming a cement1 usually of finer and purer substance than the rest of the stone4 ,in either case the action tends continually to the purification and segregation of the elements of the stone4 ,the energy of such action depends on accidental circumstances3 first1 on the attractions of the component elements among themselves2 secondly1 on every change of external temperature and relation4 ,so that mountains are at different periods in different stages of health 7so to call it7 or disease4 ,we have mountains of a languid temperament1 mountains with checked circulations1 mountains in nervous fevers1 mountains in atrophy and decline4 #bib4 ,this change in the structure of existing rocks is traceable through continuous gradations1 so that a black mud or calcareous slime is imperceptibly modified into a magnificently hard and crystalline substance1 inclosing nests of beryl1 topaz1 and sapphire1 and veined with gold4 ,but it cannot be determined how far1 or in what localities1 these changes are yet arrested2 in the plurality of instances they are evidently yet in progress4 ,it appears rational to suppose that as each rock approaches to its perfect type the change becomes slower2 its perfection being continually neared1 but never reached2 its change being liable also to interruption or reversal by new geological phenomena4 ,in the process of this change1 rocks expand or contract2 and1 in portions1 their multitudinous fissures give them a ductility or viscosity like that of glacier-ice on a larger scale4 ,so that many formations are best to be conceived as glaciers1 or frozen fields of crag1 whose depth is to be measured in miles instead of fathoms1 whose crevasses are filled with solvent flame1 with vapor1 with gelatinous flint1 or with crystallizing elements of mingled natures2 the whole mass changing its dimensions and flowing into new channels1 though by gradations which cannot be measured1 and in periods of time of which human life forms no appreciable unit4 #bic4 ,,ii4 ,formation4--,mountains are to be arranged1 with respect to their structure1 under two great classes--those which are cut out of the beds of which they are composed1 and those which are formed by the convolution or contortion of the beds themselves4 ,the ,savoy mountains are chiefly of this latter class4 ,when stratified formations are contorted1 it is usually either by pressure from below1 which raises one part of the formation above the rest1 or by lateral pressure1 which reduces the whole formation into a series of waves4 ,the ascending pressure may be limited in its sphere of operation2 the lateral one necessarily affects extensive tracts of country1 and the eminences it produces vanish only by degrees1 like the waves left in the wake of a ship4 ,the ,savoy mountains have undergone both these kinds of violence in very complex modes and at different periods1 so that it becomes almost impossible to trace separately and completely the operation of any given force at a given point4 #bid4 ,the speaker's intention was to have analyzed1 as far as possible1 the action of the forming forces in one wave of simple elevation1 the ,mont ,salve1 and in another of lateral compression1 the ,mont ,brezon3 but the investigation of the ,mont ,salve had presented unexpected difficulty4 ,its faade had been always considered to be formed by vertical beds1 raised into that position during the tertiary periods2 the speaker's investigations had1 on the contrary1 led him to conclude that the appearance of vertical beds was owing to a peculiarly sharp and distinct cleavage1 at right angles with the beds1 but nearly parallel to their strike1 elsewhere similarly manifested in the ,jurassic series of ,savoy1 and showing itself on the fronts of most of the precipices formed of that rock4 ,the attention of geologists was invited to the determination of this question4 ,the compressed wave of the ,brezon1 more complex in arrangement1 was more clearly defined4 ,a section of it was given1 showing the reversed position of the ,hippurite limestone in the summit and lower precipices4 ,this limestone wave was shown to be one of a great series1 running parallel with the ,alps1 and constituting an undulatory district1 chiefly composed of chalk beds1 separated from the higher limestone district of the ,jura and ,lias by a long trench or moat1 filled with members of the tertiary series--chiefly nummulite limestones and flysch4 ,this trench might be followed from ,faverges1 at the head of the lake of ,annecy1 across ,savoy4 ,it separated ,mont ,vergi from the ,mont ,dorons1 and the ,dent d',oche from the ,dent du ,midi2 then entered ,switzerland1 separating the ,moleson from the ,diablerets2 passed on through the districts of ,thun and ,brientz1 and1 dividing itself into two1 caused the zigzagged form of the lake of ,lucerne4 ,the principal branch then passed between the high ,sentis and the ,glarnisch1 and broke into confusion in the ,tyrol4 ,on the north side of this trench the chalk beds were often vertical1 or cast into repeated folds1 of which the escarpments were mostly turned away from the ,alps2 but on the south side of the trench1 the ,jurassic1 ,triassic1 and ,carboniferous beds1 though much distorted1 showed a prevailing tendency to lean towards the ,alps1 and turn their escarpments to the central chain4 #bie4 ,both these systems of mountains are intersected by transverse valleys1 owing their origin1 in the first instance1 to a series of transverse curvilinear fractures1 which affect the forms even of every minor ridge1 and produce its principal ravines and boldest rocks1 even where no distinctly excavated valleys exist4 ,thus1 the ,mont ,vergi and the ,aiguilles of ,salouvre are only fragmentary remains of a range of horizontal beds1 once continuous1 but broken by this transverse system of curvilinear cleavage1 and worn or weathered into separate summits4 ,the means of this ultimate sculpture or weathering were lastly to be considered4 99 99 99 99 99 #bif4 ,,iii4 ,sculpture4--,the final reductions of mountainform are owing either to disintegration1 or to the action of water1 in the condition of rain1 rivers1 or ice1 aided by frost and other circumstances of temperature and atmosphere4 ,all important existing forms are owing to disintegration1 or the action of water4 ,that of ice had been curiously over-rated4 ,as an instrument of sculpture1 ice is much less powerful than water2 the apparently energetic effects of it being merely the exponents of disintegration4 ,a glacier did not produce its moraine1 but sustained and exposed the fragments which fell on its surface1 pulverizing these by keeping them in motion1 but producing very unimportant effects on the rock below2 the roundings and striation produced by ice were superficial2 while a torrent penetrated into every angle and cranny1 undermining and wearing continually1 and carrying stones1 at the lowest estimate1 six hundred thousand times as fast as the glacier4 ,had the quantity of rain which has fallen on ,mont ,blanc in the form of snow 7and descended in the ravines as ice7 fallen as rain1 and descended in torrents1 the ravines would have been much deeper than they are now1 and the glacier may so far be considered as exercising a protective influence4 ,but its power of carriage is unlimited1 and when masses of earth or rock are once loosened1 the glacier carries them away1 and exposes fresh surfaces4 ,generally1 the work of water and ice is in mountain surgery like that of lancet and sponge--one for incision1 the other for ablution4 ,no excavation by ice was possible on a large scale1 any more than by a stream of honey2 and its various actions1 with their limitations1 were only to be understood by keeping always clearly in view the great law of its motion as a viscous substance1 determined by ,professor ,james ,forbes4 #big4 ,the existing forms of the ,alps are1 therefore1 traceable chiefly to denudation as they rose from the sea1 followed by more or less violent aqueous action1 partly arrested during the glacial periods1 while the produced diluvium was carried away into the valley of the ,rhine or into the ,north ,sea4 ,one very important result of denudation had not yet been sufficiently regarded2 namely1 that when portions of a thick bed 7as the ,rudisten-kalk7 had been entirely removed1 the weight of the remaining masses1 pressing unequally on the inferior beds1 would1 when these were soft 7as the ,neocomian marls71 press them up into arched conditions1 like those of the floors of coal-mines in what the miners called creeps4 ,many anomalous positions of the beds of ,spatangenkalk in the district of the ,lake of ,annecy were in all probability owing to this cause3 they might be studied advantageously in the sloping base of the great ,rochers de ,lanfon1 which1 disintegrating in curved1 nearly vertical flakes1 each a thousand feet in height1 were nevertheless a mere outlying remnant of the great horizontal formation of the ,parmelan1 and formed1 like it1 of very thin horizontal beds of ,rudisten-kalk1 imposed on shaly masses of ,neocomian1 modified by their pressure4 ,more complex forms of harder rock were wrought by the streams and rains into fantastic outlines2 and the transverse gorges were cut deep where they had been first traced by fault or distortion4 ,the analysis of this aqueous action would alone require a series of discourses2 but the sum of the facts was that the best and most interesting portions of the mountains were just those which were finally left1 the centers and joints1 as it were1 of the ,alpine anatomy4 ,immeasurable periods of time would be required to wear these away2 and to all appearances1 during the process of their destruction1 others were rising to take their place1 and forms of perhaps far more nobly organized mountain would witness the collateral progress of humanity4 ,j4 ,r4 ,,footnotes3 ,footnote #ce3 ,read by ,mr4 ,ruskin at the weekly evening meeting of the ,royal ,institution 7see ,proceedings1 vol4 iv41 pp4 #adb-df71 ,june #e1 #ahfc4--;,,ed4 ,,the ,,range ,,of ,,intellectual ,,conception ,,proportioned ,,to ,,the ,,rank ,,in ,,animated ,,life4#cf ,a ,,theorem4 #bih4 ,i suppose this theorem to be a truism2 but ,i venture to state it1 because it is surely desirable that it should be recognized as an axiom by metaphysicians1 and practically does not seem to me yet to have been so4 ,i say animated life because the word life by itself might have been taken to include that of vegetables2 and ,i say animated instead of spiritual life because the ,latin anima1 and pretty ,italian corruption of it1 alma1 involving the new idea of nourishment of the body as by the ,aliment or ,alms of ,god1 seems to me to convey a better idea of the existence of conscious creatures than any derivative of spiritus1 pneuma1 or psyche4 ,i attach1 however1 a somewhat lower sense to the word conception than is1 ,i believe1 usual with metaphysicians1 for1 as a painter1 ,i belong to a lower rank of animated being than theirs1 and can only mean by conception what ,i know of it4 ,a painter never conceives anything absolutely1 and is indeed incapable of conceiving anything at all1 except as a phenomenon or sensation1 or as the mode or locus of a phenomenon or sensation4 ,that which is not an appearance1 or a feeling1 or a mode of one or the other1 is to him nothing4 #bii4 ,for instance1 he would deny the definition of the phenomenon which he is himself first concerned in producing--a line--as length without breadth4 ,he would say1 ,that which has no breadth is nothing1 and nothing cannot be long4 ,he would define a line as a narrow and long phenomenon1 and a mathematician's idea of it as an idea of the direction of such a phenomenon4 ,the act of conception or imagination with him1 therefore1 is merely the memory1 simple or combined1 of things that he has seen or felt4 ,he has no ray1 no incipience of faculty beyond this4 ,no quantity of the sternest training in the school of ,hegel1 would ever enable him to think the ,absolute4 ,he would persist in an obstinate refusal to use the word think at all in a transitive sense4 ,he would never1 for instance1 say1 ,i think the table1 but ,i think the table is turning1 or is not1 as the case might be4 ,and if he were to be taught in any school whatever to conceive a table1 his first demand would be that he should be shown one1 or referred to other things that had the qualities of one in illustrative degree4 #cjj4 ,and even respecting the constant methods or laws of phenomena1 he cannot raise the statement of them into an act of conception4 ,the statement that two right lines can never inclose a space merely appears to him another form of verbal definition1 or1 at the grandest1 a definition in prophetic extent1 saying in other words that a line which incloses1 or ever may inclose1 a space1 is not1 and never will be1 a right one4 ,he would admit that what he now conceives as two things1 doubled1 would always be what he now conceives as four things4 ,but assuming the existence of a world in which1 whenever two things were actually set in juxtaposition with other two things1 they became actually three times1 or actually five1 he supposes that the practice of arithmetic1 and laws of it1 would change in relation to this new condition in matter2 and he accepts1 therefore1 the statement that twice two are four only as an accident of the existing phenomena of matter4 #cja4 ,a painter therefore may1 ,i think1 be looked upon as only representing a high order of sensational creatures1 incapable of any but physical ideas and impressions2 and ,i continue my paper1 therefore1 only in the name of the docile1 and therefore improvable1 part of the ,brute ,creation4 ,and in their name ,i would suggest that we should be much more docile than we are if we were never occupied in efforts to conceive things above our natures4 ,to take an instance1 in a creature somewhat lower than myself4 ,i came by surprise the other day on a cuttle-fish in a pool at low tide4 ,on being touched with the point of my umbrella1 he first filled the pool with ink1 and then finding himself still touched in the darkness1 lost his temper1 and attacked the umbrella with much psyche or anima1 hugging it tightly with all his eight arms1 and making efforts1 like an impetuous baby with a coral1 to get it into his mouth4 ,on my offering him a finger instead1 he sucked that with two or three of his arms with an apparently malignant satisfaction1 and on being shaken off1 retired with an air of frantic misanthropy into the cloud of his ink4 #cjb4 ,now1 it seems to me not a little instructive to reflect how entirely useless such a manifestation of a superior being was to his cuttle-fish mind1 and how fortunate it was for his fellow-octopods that he had no command of pens as well as ink1 nor any disposition to write on the nature of umbrellas or of men4 ,it may be observed1 further1 that whatever ideas he was able to form respecting either were positively false--so contrary to truth as to be worse than none1 and simply dangerous to himself1 so far as he might be induced to act upon them--that1 namely1 an umbrella was an eatable thing1 or a man a conquerable one1 that the individual man who looked at him was hostile to him or that his purposes could be interfered with by ejection of ink4 ,every effort made by the fish under these convictions was harmful to himself2 his only wisdom would have been to lie quietly and unreflectively in his pool4 ,and with us painters also1 the only result of any efforts we make to acquaint ourselves with the subjects of metaphysical inquiry has been an increased sense of the prudence of lying placidly and unreflectively in our pools1 or at least limiting ourselves to such gentle efforts of imagination as may be consistent with the as yet imperfectly developed powers1 ,i do not say even of cephalopodic1 but of ,ascidian nervous centers4 #cjc4 ,but it may be easily imagined how pleasantly1 to persons thus subdued in self-estimation1 the hope presents itself which is involved in the ,darwinian theory1 that their pools themselves may be capable of indefinite extension1 and their natures of indefinite development--the hope that our descendants may one day be ashamed of us1 and debate the question of their parentage with astonishment and disgust4 ,and it seems to me that the aim of elementary metaphysical study might henceforth become more practical than that of any other science4 ,for in hitherto taking little cognizance of the limitation of thought by the structure of the body1 we have surely also lost sight of the power of certain modes of thought over the processes of that structure4 ,taking1 for instance1 the emotion of anger1 of which the cephalopoda are indeed as capable as we are1 but inferior to us in being unable to decide whether they do well to be angry or not1 ,i do not think the chemical effect of that emotion on the particles of the blood1 in decomposing and otherwise paralyzing or debilitating them1 has been sufficiently examined1 nor the actual quantity of nervous energy which a fit of anger of given violence withdraws from the body and restores to space1 neither the correlative power of volition in restraining the passion1 or in directing the choice of salutary thought1 as of salutary herbs on streams4 ,and even we painters1 who dare not call ourselves capable of thought1 are capable of choice in more or less salutary vision4 ,in the degree in which we lose such power of choice in vision1 so that the spectral phenomena which are the materials of our industry present themselves under forms beyond our control1 we become insane2 and although for all our best work a certain degree of this insanity is necessary1 and the first occurring conceptions are uncommanded1 as in dreams1 we have1 when in health1 always instantaneous power of accepting some1 refusing others1 perfecting the outlines and colors of those we wish to keep1 and arranging them in such relations as we choose4 #cjd4 ,and unquestionably the forms of the body which painters instinctively recognize as best1 and call beautiful1 are so far under the command of the plastic force of voluntary thought1 that the original and future authority of such a plastic force over the whole of creation cannot but seem to painters a direct1 though not a certain influence2 and they would at once give their adherence to the statement made many years since in his opening lectures in ,oxford by the present ,regius ,professor of ,medicine 7as far as ,i can recollect approximately1 in these terms7--that it is quite as logical1 and far more easy1 to conceive of original anima as adapting itself to forms of substance1 than of original substance as adapting to itself modes of mind4 #cje4 ,it is surely1 therefore1 not too much to expect of future schools of metaphysicians that they will direct mankind into methods of thought which will be at once happy1 unerring1 and medicinal1 and therefore entirely wise2 that they will mark the limits beyond which uniformity must be dangerous1 and speculation vain2 and that they will at no distant period terminate the acrimony of theologians1 and the insolences1 as well as the sorrows1 of groundless faith1 by showing that it is appointed for us1 in common with the rest of the animal creation1 to live in the midst of an universe the nature of which is as much better than we can believe1 as it is greater than we can understand4 ,,footnotes3 ,footnote #cf3 ,contemporary ,review1 ,june1 #ahga4--;,,ed4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,literature4 ,,fiction--,,fair ,,and ,,foul4 7,nineteenth ,century1 ,june1 ,august1 ,sept41 ,nov4 #ahhj1 and ,oct4 #ahha47 ,,fairy ,,stories4 7,preface to ,german ,popular ,stories1 #ahfh47 99 99 99 99 99 ,,fiction1 ,,fair ,,and ,,foul4 #a4cg #a4 ,on the first mild--or1 at least1 the first bright--day of ,march1 in this year1 ,i walked through what was once a country lane1 between the hostelry of the ,half-moon at the bottom of ,herne ,hill1 and the secluded ,college of ,dulwich4 ,in my young days1 ,croxsted ,lane was a green byroad traversable for some distance by carts2 but rarely so traversed1 and1 for the most part1 little else than a narrow strip of untilled field1 separated by blackberry hedges from the better-cared-for meadows on each side of it3 growing more weeds1 therefore1 than they1 and perhaps in spring a primrose or two--white archangel--daisies plenty1 and purple thistles in autumn4 ,a slender rivulet1 boasting little of its brightness1 for there are no springs at ,dulwich1 yet fed purely enough by the rain and morning dew1 here trickled--there loitered--through the long grass beneath the hedges1 and expanded itself1 where it might1 into moderately clear and deep pools1 in which1 under their veils of duckweed1 a fresh-water shell or two1 sundry curious little skipping shrimps1 any quantity of tadpoles in their time1 and even sometimes a tittlebat1 offered themselves to my boyhood's pleased1 and not inaccurate1 observation4 ,there1 my mother and ,i used to gather the first buds of the hawthorn2 and there1 in after years1 ,i used to walk in the summer shadows1 as in a place wilder and sweeter than our garden1 to think over any passage ,i wanted to make better than usual in ,modern ,painters4 ,so1 as aforesaid1 on the first kindly day of this year1 being thoughtful more than usual of those old times1 ,i went to look again at the place4 #b4 ,often1 both in those days1 and since1 ,i have put myself hard to it1 vainly1 to find words wherewith to tell of beautiful things2 but beauty has been in the world since the world was made1 and human language can make a shift1 somehow1 to give account of it1 whereas the peculiar forces of devastation induced by modern city life have only entered the world lately2 and no existing terms of language known to me are enough to describe the forms of filth1 and modes of ruin1 that varied themselves along the course of ,croxsted ,lane4 ,the fields on each side of it are now mostly dug up for building1 or cut through into gaunt corners and nooks of blind ground by the wild crossings and concurrencies of three railroads4 ,half a dozen handfuls of new cottages1 with ,doric doors1 are dropped about here and there among the gashed ground3 the lane itself1 now entirely grassless1 is a deep-rutted1 heavy-hillocked cart-road1 diverging gatelessly into various brickfields or pieces of waste2 and bordered on each side by heaps of--,hades only knows what6--mixed dust of every unclean thing that can crumble in drought1 and mildew of every unclean thing that can rot or rust in damp3 ashes and rags1 beer-bottles and old shoes1 battered pans1 smashed crockery1 shreds of nameless clothes1 door-sweepings1 floor-sweepings1 kitchen garbage1 back-garden sewage1 old iron1 rotten timber jagged with out-torn nails1 cigar-ends1 pipe-bowls1 cinders1 bones1 and ordure1 indescribable2 and1 variously kneaded into1 sticking to1 or fluttering foully here and there over all these1--remnants broadcast1 of every manner of newspaper1 advertisement or big-lettered bill1 festering and flaunting out their last publicity in the pits of stinking dust and mortal slime4 #c4 ,the lane ends now where its prettiest windings once began2 being cut off by a cross-road leading out of ,dulwich to a minor railway station3 and on the other side of this road1 what was of old the daintiest intricacy of its solitude is changed into a straight1 and evenly macadamized carriage drive between new houses of extreme respectability1 with good attached gardens and offices--most of these tenements being larger--all more pretentious1 and many1 ,i imagine1 held at greatly higher rent than my father's1 tenanted for twenty years at ,herne ,hill4 ,and it became matter of curious meditation to me what must here become of children resembling my poor little dreamy quondam self in temper1 and thus brought up at the same distance from ,london1 and in the same or better circumstances of worldly fortune2 but with only ,croxsted ,lane in its present condition for their country walk4 ,the trimly kept road before their doors1 such as one used to see in the fashionable suburbs of ,cheltenham or ,leamington1 presents nothing to their study but gravel1 and gas-lamp posts2 the modern addition of a vermilion letter-pillar contributing indeed to the splendor1 but scarcely to the interest of the scene2 and a child of any sense or fancy would hastily contrive escape from such a barren desert of politeness1 and betake itself to investigation1 such as might be feasible1 of the natural history of ,croxsted ,lane4 #d4 ,but1 for its sense or fancy1 what food1 or stimulus1 can it find1 in that foul causeway of its youthful pilgrimage8 ,what would have happened to myself1 so directed1 ,i cannot clearly imagine4 ,possibly1 ,i might have got interested in the old iron and wood-shavings2 and become an engineer or a carpenter3 but for the children of to-day1 accustomed1 from the instant they are out of their cradles1 to the sight of this infinite nastiness1 prevailing as a fixed condition of the universe1 over the face of nature1 and accompanying all the operations of industrious man1 what is to be the scholastic issue8 unless1 indeed1 the thrill of scientific vanity in the primary analysis of some unheard-of process of corruption--or the reward of microscopic research in the sight of worms with more legs1 and acari of more curious generation than ever vivified the more simply smelling plasma of antiquity4 ,one result of such elementary education is1 however1 already certain2 namely1 that the pleasure which we may conceive taken by the children of the coming time1 in the analysis of physical corruption1 guides1 into fields more dangerous and desolate1 the expatiation of an imaginative literature3 and that the reactions of moral disease upon itself1 and the conditions of languidly monstrous character developed in an atmosphere of low vitality1 have become the most valued material of modern fiction1 and the most eagerly discussed texts of modern philosophy4 #e4 ,the many concurrent reasons for this mischief may1 ,i believe1 be massed under a few general heads4#ch ,i4 ,there is first the hot fermentation and unwholesome secrecy of the population crowded into large cities1 each mote in the misery lighter1 as an individual soul1 than a dead leaf1 but becoming oppressive and infectious each to his neighbor1 in the smoking mass of decay4 ,the resulting modes of mental ruin and distress are continually new2 and in a certain sense1 worth study in their monstrosity3 they have accordingly developed a corresponding science of fiction1 concerned mainly with the description of such forms of disease1 like the botany of leaf-lichens4 ,in ,de ,balzac's story of ,father ,goriot1 a grocer makes a large fortune1 of which he spends on himself as much as may keep him alive2 and on his two daughters1 all that can promote their pleasures or their pride4 ,he marries them to men of rank1 supplies their secret expenses1 and provides for his favorite a separate and clandestine establishment with her lover4 ,on his death-bed1 he sends for this favorite daughter1 who wishes to come1 and hesitates for a quarter of an hour between doing so1 and going to a ball at which it has been for the last month her chief ambition to be seen4 ,she finally goes to the ball4 ,the story is1 of course1 one of which the violent contrasts and spectral catastrophe could only take place1 or be conceived1 in a large city4 ,a village grocer cannot make a large fortune1 cannot marry his daughters to titled squires1 and cannot die without having his children brought to him1 if in the neighborhood1 by fear of village gossip1 if for no better cause4 #f4 ,,ii4 ,but a much more profound feeling than this mere curiosity of science in morbid phenomena is concerned in the production of the carefulest forms of modern fiction4 ,the disgrace and grief resulting from the mere trampling pressure and electric friction of town life1 become to the sufferers peculiarly mysterious in their undeservedness1 and frightful in their inevitableness4 ,the power of all surroundings over them for evil2 the incapacity of their own minds to refuse the pollution1 and of their own wills to oppose the weight1 of the staggering mass that chokes and crushes them into perdition1 brings every law of healthy existence into question with them1 and every alleged method of help and hope into doubt4 ,indignation1 without any calming faith in justice1 and self-contempt1 without any curative self-reproach1 dull the intelligence1 and degrade the conscience1 into sullen incredulity of all sunshine outside the dunghill1 or breeze beyond the wafting of its impurity2 and at last a philosophy develops itself1 partly satiric1 partly consolatory1 concerned only with the regenerative vigor of manure1 and the necessary obscurities of fimetic ,providence2 showing how everybody's fault is somebody else's1 how infection has no law1 digestion no will1 and profitable dirt no dishonor4 ,and thus an elaborate and ingenious scholasticism1 in what may be called the ,divinity of ,decomposition1 has established itself in connection with the more recent forms of romance1 giving them at once a complacent tone of clerical dignity1 and an agreeable dash of heretical impudence2 while the inculcated doctrine has the double advantage of needing no laborious scholarship for its foundation1 and no painful self-denial for its practice4 #g4 ,,iii4 ,the monotony of life in the central streets of any great modern city1 but especially in those of ,london1 where every emotion intended to be derived by men from the sight of nature1 or the sense of art1 is forbidden forever1 leaves the craving of the heart for a sincere1 yet changeful1 interest1 to be fed from one source only4 ,under natural conditions the degree of mental excitement necessary to bodily health is provided by the course of the seasons1 and the various skill and fortune of agriculture4 ,in the country every morning of the year brings with it a new aspect of springing or fading nature2 a new duty to be fulfilled upon earth1 and a new promise or warning in heaven4 ,no day is without its innocent hope1 its special prudence1 its kindly gift1 and its sublime danger2 and in every process of wise husbandry1 and every effort of contending or remedial courage1 the wholesome passions1 pride1 and bodily power of the laborer are excited and exerted in happiest unison4 ,the companionship of domestic1 the care of serviceable1 animals1 soften and enlarge his life with lowly charities1 and discipline him in familiar wisdoms and unboastful fortitudes2 while the divine laws of seedtime which cannot be recalled1 harvest which cannot be hastened1 and winter in which no man can work1 compel the impatiences and coveting of his heart into labor too submissive to be anxious1 and rest too sweet to be wanton4 ,what thought can enough comprehend the contrast between such life1 and that in streets where summer and winter are only alternations of heat and cold2 where snow never fell white1 nor sunshine clear2 where the ground is only a pavement1 and the sky no more than the glass roof of an arcade2 where the utmost power of a storm is to choke the gutters1 and the finest magic of spring1 to change mud into dust3 where--chief and most fatal difference in state--there is no interest of occupation for any of the inhabitants but the routine of counter or desk within doors1 and the effort to pass each other without collision outside2 so that from morning to evening the only possible variation of the monotony of the hours1 and lightening of the penalty of existence1 must be some kind of mischief1 limited1 unless by more than ordinary godsend of fatality1 to the fall of a horse1 or the slitting of a pocket8 #h4 ,i said that under these laws of inanition1 the craving of the human heart for some kind of excitement could be supplied from one source only4 ,it might have been thought by any other than a sternly tentative philosopher1 that the denial of their natural food to human feelings would have provoked a reactionary desire for it2 and that the dreariness of the street would have been gilded by dreams of pastoral felicity4 ,experience has shown the fact to be otherwise2 the thoroughly trained ,londoner can enjoy no other excitement than that to which he has been accustomed1 but asks for that in continually more ardent or more virulent concentration2 and the ultimate power of fiction to entertain him is by varying to his fancy the modes1 and defining for his dullness the horrors1 of ,death4 ,in the single novel of ,bleak ,house there are nine deaths 7or left for death's1 in the drop scene7 carefully wrought out or led up to1 either by way of pleasing surprise1 as the baby's at the brick-maker's1 or finished in their threatenings and sufferings1 with as much enjoyment as can be contrived in the anticipation1 and as much pathology as can be concentrated in the description4 ,under the following varieties of method3-- ,one by assassination ,mr4 ,tulkinghorn4 ,one by starvation1 with phthisis ,joe4 ,one by chagrin ,richard4 ,one by spontaneous combustion ,mr4 ,krook4 ,one by sorrow ,lady ,dedlock's lover4 ,one by remorse ,lady ,dedlock4 ,one by insanity ,miss ,flite4 ,one by paralysis ,sir ,leicester4 ,besides the baby1 by fever1 and a lively young ,frenchwoman left to be hanged4 ,and all this1 observe1 not in a tragic1 adventurous1 or military story1 but merely as the further enlivenment of a narrative intended to be amusing2 and as a properly representative average of the statistics of civilian mortality in the center of ,london4 #i4 ,observe further1 and chiefly4 ,it is not the mere number of deaths 7which1 if we count the odd troopers in the last scene1 is exceeded in ,old ,mortality1 and reached1 within one or two1 both in ,waverley and ,guy ,mannering7 that marks the peculiar tone of the modern novel4 ,it is the fact that all these deaths1 but one1 are of inoffensive1 or at least in the world's estimate1 respectable persons2 and that they are all grotesquely either violent or miserable1 purporting thus to illustrate the modern theology that the appointed destiny of a large average of our population is to die like rats in a drain1 either by trap or poison4 ,not1 indeed1 that a lawyer in full practice can be usually supposed as faultless in the eye of ,heaven as a dove or a woodcock2 but it is not1 in former divinities1 thought the will of ,providence that he should be dropped by a shot from a client behind his fire-screen1 and retrieved in the morning by his housemaid under the chandelier4 ,neither is ,lady ,dedlock less reprehensible in her conduct than many women of fashion have been and will be3 but it would not therefore have been thought poetically just1 in old-fashioned morality1 that she should be found by her daughter lying dead1 with her face in the mud of a ,st4 ,giles's churchyard4 #aj4 ,in the work of the great masters death is always either heroic1 deserved1 or quiet and natural 7unless their purpose be totally and deeply tragic1 when collateral meaner death is permitted1 like that of ,polonius or ,roderigo74 ,in ,old ,mortality1 four of the deaths1 ,bothwell's1 ,ensign ,grahame's1 ,macbriar's1 and ,evandale's1 are magnificently heroic2 ,burley's and ,oliphant's long deserved1 and swift2 the troopers'1 met in the discharge of their military duty1 and the old miser's as gentle as the passing of a cloud1 and almost beautiful in its last words of--now unselfish--care4 99 99 99 99 99 ,ailie 7he aye ca'd me ,ailie1 we were auld acquaintance71 ,ailie1 take ye care and hand the gear weel thegither2 for the name of ,morton of ,milnwood's gane out like the last sough of an auld sang4 ,and sae he fell out o' ae dwam into another1 and ne'er spak a word mair1 unless it something we you'dna mak out1 about a dipped candle being gude eneugh to see to dee wi'4 ,he cou'd ne'er bide to see a molded ane1 and there was ane1 by ill luck1 on the table4 99 99 99 99 99 ,in ,guy ,mannering1 the murder1 though unpremeditated1 of a single person1 7himself not entirely innocent1 but at least by heartlessness in a cruel function earning his fate17 is avenged to the uttermost on all the men conscious of the crime2 ,mr4 ,bertram's death1 like that of his wife1 brief in pain1 and each told in the space of half a dozen lines2 and that of the heroine of the tale1 self-devoted1 heroic in the highest1 and happy4 ,nor is it ever to be forgotten1 in the comparison of ,scott's with inferior work1 that his own splendid powers were1 even in early life1 tainted1 and in his latter years destroyed1 by modern conditions of commercial excitement1 then first1 but rapidly1 developing themselves4 ,there are parts even in his best novels colored to meet tastes which he despised2 and many pages written in his later ones to lengthen his article for the indiscriminate market4 #aa4 ,but there was one weakness of which his healthy mind remained incapable to the last4 ,in modern stories prepared for more refined or fastidious audiences than those of ,dickens1 the funereal excitement is obtained1 for the most part1 not by the infliction of violent or disgusting death2 but in the suspense1 the pathos1 and the more or less by all felt1 and recognized1 mortal phenomena of the sick-room4 ,the temptation1 to weak writers1 of this order of subject is especially great1 because the study of it from the living--or dying--model is so easy1 and to many has been the most impressive part of their own personal experience2 while1 if the description be given even with mediocre accuracy1 a very large section of readers will admire its truth1 and cherish its melancholy4 ,few authors of second or third rate genius can either record or invent a probable conversation in ordinary life2 but few1 on the other hand1 are so destitute of observant faculty as to be unable to chronicle the broken syllables and languid movements of an invalid4 ,the easily rendered1 and too surely recognized1 image of familiar suffering is felt at once to be real where all else had been false2 and the historian of the gestures of fever and words of delirium can count on the applause of a gratified audience as surely as the dramatist who introduces on the stage of his flagging action a carriage that can be driven or a fountain that will flow4 ,but the masters of strong imagination disdain such work1 and those of deep sensibility shrink from it4#ci ,only under conditions of personal weakness1 presently to be noted1 would ,scott comply with the cravings of his lower audience in scenes of terror like the death of ,front-de-,boeuf4 ,but he never once withdrew the sacred curtain of the sick-chamber1 nor permitted the disgrace of wanton tears round the humiliation of strength1 or the wreck of beauty4 #ab4 ,,iv4 ,no exception to this law of reverence will be found in the scenes in ,coeur de ,lion's illness introductory to the principal incident in the ,talisman4 ,an inferior writer would have made the king charge in imagination at the head of his chivalry1 or wander in dreams by the brooks of ,aquitaine2 but ,scott allows us to learn no more startling symptoms of the king's malady than that he was restless and impatient1 and could not wear his armor4 ,nor is any bodily weakness1 or crisis of danger1 permitted to disturb for an instant the royalty of intelligence and heart in which he examines1 trusts and obeys the physician whom his attendants fear4 ,yet the choice of the main subject in this story and its companion--the trial1 to a point of utter torture1 of knightly faith1 and several passages in the conduct of both1 more especially the exaggerated scenes in the ,house of ,baldringham1 and hermitage of ,engedi1 are signs of the gradual decline in force of intellect and soul which those who love ,scott best have done him the worst injustice in their endeavors to disguise or deny4 ,the mean anxieties1 moral humiliations1 and mercilessly demanded brain-toil1 which killed him1 show their sepulchral grasp for many and many a year before their final victory2 and the states of more or less dulled1 distorted1 and polluted imagination which culminate in ,castle ,dangerous cast a ,stygian hue over ,st4 ,ronan's ,well1 ,the ,fair ,maid of ,perth1 and ,anne of ,geierstein1 which lowers them1 the first altogether1 the other two at frequent intervals1 into fellowship with the normal disease which festers throughout the whole body of our lower fictitious literature4 #ac4 ,fictitious6 ,i use the ambiguous word deliberately2 for it is impossible to distinguish in these tales of the prison-house how far their vice and gloom are thrown into their manufacture only to meet a vile demand1 and how far they are an integral condition of thought in the minds of men trained from their youth up in the knowledge of ,londinian and ,parisian misery4 ,the speciality of the plague is a delight in the exposition of the relations between guilt and decrepitude2 and ,i call the results of it literature of the prison-house1 because the thwarted habits of body and mind1 which are the punishment of reckless crowding in cities1 become1 in the issue of that punishment1 frightful subjects of exclusive interest to themselves2 and the art of fiction in which they finally delight is only the more studied arrangement and illustration1 by colored fire-lights1 of the daily bulletins of their own wretchedness1 in the prison calendar1 the police news1 and the hospital report4 #ad4 ,the reader will perhaps be surprised at my separating the greatest work of ,dickens1 ,oliver ,twist1 with honor1 from the loathsome mass to which it typically belongs4 ,that book is an earnest and uncaricatured record of states of criminal life1 written with didactic purpose1 full of the gravest instruction1 nor destitute of pathetic studies of noble passion4 ,even the ,mysteries of ,paris and ,gaboriau's ,crime d',orcival are raised1 by their definiteness of historical intention and forewarning anxiety1 far above the level of their order1 and may be accepted as photographic evidence of an otherwise incredible civilization1 corrupted in the infernal fact of it1 down to the genesis of such figures as the ,vicomte d',orcival1 the ,stabber1#dj the ,skeleton1 and the ,she-wolf4 ,but the effectual head of the whole cretinous school is the renowned novel in which the hunchbacked lover watches the execution of his mistress from the tower of ,notre-,dame2 and its strength passes gradually away into the anatomical preparations1 for the general market1 of novels like ,poor ,miss ,finch1 in which the heroine is blind1 the hero epileptic1 and the obnoxious brother is found dead with his hands dropped off1 in the ,arctic regions4#da #ae4 ,this literature of the ,prison-house1 understanding by the word not only the cell of ,newgate1 but also and even more definitely the cell of the ,htel-,dieu1 the ,hpital des ,fous1 and the grated corridor with the dripping slabs of the ,morgue1 having its central root thus in the ,ile de ,paris--or historically and pre-eminently the ,cit de ,paris--is1 when understood deeply1 the precise counter-corruption of the religion of the ,sainte ,chapelle1 just as the worst forms of bodily and mental ruin are the corruption of love4 ,i have therefore called it ,fiction mcroyante1 with literal accuracy and precision3 according to the explanation of the word1 which the reader may find in any good ,french dictionary1#db and round its ,arctic pole in the ,morgue1 he may gather into one ,caina of gelid putrescence the entire product of modern infidel imagination1 amusing itself with destruction of the body1 and busying itself with aberration of the mind4 #af4 ,aberration1 palsy1 or plague1 observe1 as distinguished from normal evil1 just as the venom of rabies or cholera differs from that of a wasp or a viper4 ,the life of the insect and serpent deserves1 or at least permits1 our thoughts2 not so the stages of agony in the fury-driven hound4 ,there is some excuse1 indeed1 for the pathologic labor of the modern novelist in the fact that he cannot easily1 in a city population1 find a healthy mind to vivisect3 but the greater part of such amateur surgery is the struggle1 in an epoch of wild literary competition1 to obtain novelty of material4 ,the varieties of aspect and color in healthy fruit1 be it sweet or sour1 may be within certain limits described exhaustively4 ,not so the blotches of its conceivable blight3 and while the symmetries of integral human character can only be traced by harmonious and tender skill1 like the branches of a living tree1 the faults and gaps of one gnawed away by corroding accident can be shuffled into senseless change like the wards of a ,chubb lock4 #ag4 ,v4 ,it is needless to insist on the vast field for this dice-cast or card-dealt calamity which opens itself in the ignorance1 money-interest1 and mean passion1 of city marriage4 ,peasants know each other as children--meet1 as they grow up in testing labor2 and if a stout farmer's son marries a handless girl1 it is his own fault4 ,also in the patrician families of the field1 the young people know what they are doing1 and marry a neighboring estate1 or a covetable title1 with some conception of the responsibilities they undertake4 ,but even among these1 their season in the confused metropolis creates licentious and fortuitous temptation before unknown2 and in the lower middle orders1 an entirely new kingdom of discomfort and disgrace has been preached to them in the doctrines of unbridled pleasure which are merely an apology for their peculiar forms of ill-breeding4 ,it is quite curious how often the catastrophe1 or the leading interest1 of a modern novel1 turns upon the want1 both in maid and bachelor1 of the common self-command which was taught to their grandmothers and grandfathers as the first element of ordinarily decent behavior4 ,rashly inquiring the other day the plot of a modern story#dc from a female friend1 ,i elicited1 after some hesitation1 that it hinged mainly on the young people's forgetting themselves in a boat2 and ,i perceive it to be accepted as nearly an axiom in the code of modern civic chivalry that the strength of amiable sentiment is proved by our incapacity on proper occasions to express1 and on improper ones to control it4 ,the pride of a gentleman of the old school used to be in his power of saying what he meant1 and being silent when he ought 7not to speak of the higher nobleness which bestowed love where it was honorable1 and reverence where it was due72 but the automatic amours and involuntary proposals of recent romance acknowledge little further law of morality than the instinct of an insect1 or the effervescence of a chemical mixture4 #ah4 ,there is a pretty little story of ,alfred de ,musset's--,la ,mouche1 which1 if the reader cares to glance at it1 will save me further trouble in explaining the disciplinarian authority of mere old-fashioned politeness1 as in some sort protective of higher things4 ,it describes1 with much grace and precision1 a state of society by no means pre-eminently virtuous1 or enthusiastically heroic2 in which many people do extremely wrong1 and none sublimely right4 ,but as there are heights of which the achievement is unattempted1 there are abysses to which fall is barred2 neither accident nor temptation will make any of the principal personages swerve from an adopted resolution1 or violate an accepted principle of honor2 people are expected as a matter of course to speak with propriety on occasion1 and to wait with patience when they are bid3 those who do wrong1 admit it2 those who do right don't boast of it2 everybody knows his own mind1 and everybody has good manners4 #ai4 ,nor must it be forgotten that in the worst days of the self-indulgence which destroyed the aristocracies of ,europe1 their vices1 however licentious1 were never1 in the fatal modern sense1 unprincipled4 ,the vainest believed in virtue2 the vilest respected it4 ,chaque chose avait son nom1#dd and the severest of ,english moralists recognizes the accurate wit1 the lofty intellect1 and the unfretted benevolence1 which redeemed from vitiated surroundings the circle of d',alembert and ,marmontel4#de ,i have said1 with too slight praise1 that the vainest1 in those days1 believed in virtue4 ,beautiful and heroic examples of it were always before them2 nor was it without the secret significance attaching to what may seem the least accidents in the work of a master1 that ,scott gave to both his heroines of the age of revolution in ,england the name of the queen of the highest order of ,english chivalry4#df #bj4 ,it is to say little for the types of youth and maid which alone ,scott felt it a joy to imagine1 or thought it honorable to portray1 that they act and feel in a sphere where they are never for an instant liable to any of the weaknesses which disturb the calm1 or shake the resolution1 of chastity and courage in a modern novel4 ,scott lived in a country and time1 when1 from highest to lowest1 but chiefly in that dignified and nobly severe#dg middle class to which he himself belonged1 a habit of serene and stainless thought was as natural to the people as their mountain air4 ,women like ,rose ,bradwardine and ,ailie ,dinmont were the grace and guard of almost every household 7,god be praised that the race of them is not yet extinct1 for all that ,mall or ,boulevard can do71 and it has perhaps escaped the notice of even attentive readers that the comparatively uninteresting character of ,sir ,walter's heroes had always been studied among a class of youths who were simply incapable of doing anything seriously wrong2 and could only be embarrassed by the consequences of their levity or imprudence4 #ba4 ,but there is another difference in the woof of a ,waverley novel from the cobweb of a modern one1 which depends on ,scott's larger view of human life4 ,marriage is by no means1 in his conception of man and woman1 the most important business of their existence2#dh nor love the only reward to be proposed to their virtue or exertion4 ,it is not in his reading of the laws of ,providence a necessity that virtue should1 either by love or any other external blessing1 be rewarded at all2#di and marriage is in all cases thought of as a constituent of the happiness of life1 but not as its only interest1 still less its only aim4 ,and upon analyzing with some care the motives of his principal stories1 we shall often find that the love in them is merely a light by which the sterner features of character are to be irradiated1 and that the marriage of the hero is as subordinate to the main bent of the story as ,henry the ,fifth's courtship of ,katherine is to the battle of ,agincourt4 ,nay1 the fortunes of the person who is nominally the subject of the tale are often little more than a background on which grander figures are to be drawn1 and deeper fates forthshadowed4 ,the judgments between the faith and chivalry of ,scotland at ,drumclog and ,bothwell ,bridge owe little of their interest in the mind of a sensible reader to the fact that the captain of the ,popinjay is carried a prisoner to one battle1 and returns a prisoner from the other3 and ,scott himself1 while he watches the white sail that bears ,queen ,mary for the last time from her native land1 very nearly forgets to finish his novel1 or to tell us--and with small sense of any consolation to be had out of that minor circumstance1--that ,roland and ,catherine were united1 spite of their differing faiths4 #bb4 ,neither let it be thought for an instant that the slight1 and sometimes scornful1 glance with which ,scott passes over scenes which a novelist of our own day would have analyzed with the airs of a philosopher1 and painted with the curiosity of a gossip1 indicates any absence in his heart of sympathy with the great and sacred elements of personal happiness4 ,an era like ours1 which has with diligence and ostentation swept its heart clear of all the passions once known as loyalty1 patriotism1 and piety1 necessarily magnifies the apparent force of the one remaining sentiment which sighs through the barren chambers1 or clings inextricably round the chasms of ruin2 nor can it but regard with awe the unconquerable spirit which still tempts or betrays the sagacities of selfishness into error or frenzy which is believed to be love4 ,that ,scott was never himself1 in the sense of the phrase as employed by lovers of the ,parisian school1 ivre d'amour1 may be admitted without prejudice to his sensibility1#ej and that he never knew l'amor che move 'l sol e l'altre stelle1 was the chief1 though unrecognized1 calamity of his deeply checkered life4 ,but the reader of honor and feeling will not therefore suppose that the love which ,miss ,vernon sacrifices1 stooping for an instant from her horse1 is of less noble stamp1 or less enduring faith1 than that which troubles and degrades the whole existence of ,consuelo2 or that the affection of ,jeanie ,deans for the companion of her childhood1 drawn like a field of soft blue heaven beyond the cloudy wrack of her sorrow1 is less fully in possession of her soul than the hesitating and self-reproachful impulses under which a modern heroine forgets herself in a boat1 or compromises herself in the cool of the evening4 #bc4 ,i do not wish to return over the waste ground we have traversed1 comparing1 point by point1 ,scott's manner with those of ,bermondsey and the ,faubourgs2 but it may be1 perhaps1 interesting at this moment to examine1 with illustration from those ,waverley novels which have so lately retracted the attention of a fair and gentle public1#ea the universal conditions of style1 rightly so called1 which are in all ages1 and above all local currents or wavering tides of temporary manners1 pillars of what is forever strong1 and models of what is forever fair4 ,but ,i must first define1 and that within strict horizon1 the works of ,scott1 in which his perfect mind may be known1 and his chosen ways understood4 ,his great works of prose fiction1 excepting only the first half-volume of ,waverley1 were all written in twelve years1 #ahad-bf 7of his own age forty-three to fifty-five71 the actual time employed in their composition being not more than a couple of months out of each year2 and during that time only the morning hours and spare minutes during the professional day4 ,though the first volume of ',waverley' was begun long ago1 and actually lost for a time1 yet the other two were begun and finished between the #dth of ,june and the #ast of ,july1 during all which ,i attended my duty in court1 and proceeded without loss of time or hindrance of business4#eb ,few of the maxims for the enforcement of which1 in ,modern ,painters1 long ago1 ,i got the general character of a lover of paradox1 are more singular1 or more sure1 than the statement1 apparently so encouraging to the idle1 that if a great thing can be done at all1 it can be done easily4 ,but it is that kind of ease with which a tree blossoms after long years of gathered strength1 and all ,scott's great writings were the recreations of a mind confirmed in dutiful labor1 and rich with organic gathering of boundless resource4 ,omitting from our count the two minor and ill-finished sketches of the ,black ,dwarf and ,legend of ,montrose1 and1 for a reason presently to be noticed1 the unhappy ,st4 ,ronan's1 the memorable romances of ,scott are eighteen1 falling into three distinct groups1 containing six each4 #bd4 ,the first group is distinguished from the other two by characters of strength and felicity which never more appeared after ,scott was struck down by his terrific illness in #ahai4 ,it includes ,waverley1 ,guy ,mannering1 ,the ,antiquary1 ,rob ,roy1 ,old ,mortality1 and ,the ,heart of ,midlothian4 ,the composition of these occupied the mornings of his happiest days1 between the ages of forty-three and forty-eight4 ,on the #hth of ,april1 #ahai 7he was forty-eight on the preceding #aeth of ,august71 he began for the first time to dictate--being unable for the exertion of writing--,the ,bride of ,lammermuir1 the affectionate ,laidlaw beseeching him to stop dictating when his audible suffering filled every pause4 ',nay1 ,willie1' he answered1 'only see that the doors are fast4 ,i would fain keep all the cry as well as all the wool to ourselves2 but as for giving over work1 that can only be when ,i am in woolen4'#ec ,from this time forward the brightness of joy and sincerity of inevitable humor1 which perfected the imagery of the earlier novels1 are wholly absent1 except in the two short intervals of health unaccountably restored1 in which he wrote ,redgauntlet and ,nigel4 ,it is strange1 but only a part of the general simplicity of ,scott's genius1 that these revivals of earlier power were unconscious1 and that the time of extreme weakness in which he wrote ,st4 ,ronan's ,well1 was that in which he first asserted his own restoration4 #be4 ,it is also a deeply interesting characteristic of his noble nature that he never gains anything by sickness2 the whole man breathes or faints as one creature3 the ache that stiffens a limb chills his heart1 and every pang of his stomach paralyzes the brain4 ,it is not so with inferior minds1 in the workings of which it is often impossible to distinguish native from narcotic fancy1 and the throbs of conscience from those of indigestion4 ,whether in exaltation or languor1 the colors of mind are always morbid which gleam on the sea for the ,ancient ,mariner1 and through the casements on ,st4 ,agnes' ,eve2 but ,scott is at once blinded and stultified by sickness2 never has a fit of the cramp without spoiling a chapter1 and is perhaps the only author of vivid imagination who never wrote a foolish word but when he was ill4 ,it remains only to be noticed on this point that any strong natural excitement1 affecting the deeper springs of his heart1 would at once restore his intellectual powers to their fullness1 and that1 far towards their sunset3 but that the strong will on which he prided himself1 though it could trample upon pain1 silence grief1 and compel industry1 never could warm his imagination1 or clear the judgment in his darker hours4 ,i believe that this power of the heart over the intellect is common to all great men3 but what the special character of emotion was1 that alone could lift ,scott above the power of death1 ,i am about to ask the reader1 in a little while1 to observe with joyful care4 #bf4 ,the first series of romances then1 above-named1 are all that exhibit the emphasis of his unharmed faculties4 ,the second group1 composed in the three years subsequent to illness all but mortal1 bear every one of them more or less the seal of it4 ,they consist of the ,bride of ,lammermuir1 ,ivanhoe1 the ,monastery1 the ,abbot1 ,kenilworth1 and the ,pirate4#ed ,the marks of broken health on all these are essentially twofold--prevailing melancholy1 and fantastic improbability4 ,three of the tales are agonizingly tragic1 the ,abbot scarcely less so in its main event1 and ,ivanhoe deeply wounded through all its bright panoply2 while even in that most powerful of the series the impossible archeries and ax-strokes1 the incredibly opportune appearances of ,locksley1 the death of ,ulrica1 and the resuscitation of ,athelstane1 are partly boyish1 partly feverish4 ,caleb in the ,bride1 ,triptolemus and ,halcro in the ,pirate1 are all laborious1 and the first incongruous2 half a volume of the ,abbot is spent in extremely dull detail of ,roland's relations with his fellow-servants and his mistress1 which have nothing whatever to do with the future story2 and the lady of ,avenel herself disappears after the first volume1 like a snaw-wreath when it's thaw1 ,jeanie4 ,the public has for itself pronounced on the ,monastery1 though as much too harshly as it has foolishly praised the horrors of ,ravenswood and the nonsense of ,ivanhoe2 because the modern public finds in the torture and adventure of these1 the kind of excitement which it seeks at an opera1 while it has no sympathy whatever with the pastoral happiness of ,glendearg1 or with the lingering simplicities of superstition which give historical likelihood to the legend of the ,white ,lady4 ,but both this despised tale and its sequel have ,scott's heart in them4 ,the first was begun to refresh himself in the intervals of artificial labor on ,ivanhoe4 ,it was a relief1 he said1 to interlay the scenery most familiar to me#ee with the strange world for which ,i had to draw so much on imagination4 ,through all the closing scenes of the second he is raised to his own true level by his love for the queen4 ,and within the code of ,scott's work to which ,i am about to appeal for illustration of his essential powers1 ,i accept the ,monastery and ,abbot1 and reject from it the remaining four of this group4 #bg4 ,the last series contains two quite noble ones1 ,redgauntlet and ,nigel2 two of very high value1 ,durward and ,woodstock2 the slovenly and diffuse ,peveril1 written for the trade2#ef the sickly ,tales of the ,crusaders1 and the entirely broken and diseased ,st4 ,ronan's ,well4 ,this last ,i throw out of count altogether1 and of the rest1 accept only the four first named as sound work2 so that the list of the novels in which ,i propose to examine his methods and ideal standards1 reduces itself to these following twelve 7named in order of production73 ,waverley1 ,guy ,mannering1 the ,antiquary1 ,rob ,roy1 ,old ,mortality1 the ,heart of ,midlothian1 the ,monastery1 the ,abbot1 ,redgauntlet1 the ,fortunes of ,nigel1 ,quentin ,durward1 and ,woodstock4#eg #bh4 ,it is1 however1 too late to enter on my subject in this article1 which ,i may fitly close by pointing out some of the merely verbal characteristics of his style1 illustrative in little ways of the questions we have been examining1 and chiefly of the one which may be most embarrassing to many readers1 the difference1 namely1 between character and disease4 ,one quite distinctive charm in the ,waverleys is their modified use of the ,scottish dialect2 but it has not generally been observed1 either by their imitators1 or the authors of different taste who have written for a later public1 that there is a difference between the dialect of a language1 and its corruption4 ,a dialect is formed in any district where there are persons of intelligence enough to use the language itself in all its fineness and force1 but under the particular conditions of life1 climate1 and temper1 which introduce words peculiar to the scenery1 forms of word and idioms of sentence peculiar to the race1 and pronunciations indicative of their character and disposition4 ,thus burn 7of a streamlet7 is a word possible only in a country where there are brightly running waters1 lassie1 a word possible only where girls are as free as the rivulets1 and auld1 a form of the southern old1 adopted by a race of finer musical ear than the ,english4 ,on the contrary1 mere deteriorations1 or coarse1 stridulent1 and1 in the ordinary sense of the phrase1 broad forms of utterance1 are not dialects at all1 having nothing dialectic in them2 and all phrases developed in states of rude employment1 and restricted intercourse1 are injurious to the tone and narrowing to the power of the language they affect4 ,mere breadth of accent does not spoil a dialect as long as the speakers are men of varied idea and good intelligence2 but the moment the life is contracted by mining1 millwork1 or any oppressive and monotonous labor1 the accents and phrases become debased4 ,it is part of the popular folly of the day to find pleasure in trying to write and spell these abortive1 crippled1 and more or less brutal forms of human speech4 #bi4 ,abortive1 crippled1 or brutal1 are however not necessarily corrupted dialects4 ,corrupt language is that gathered by ignorance1 invented by vice1 misused by insensibility1 or minced and mouthed by affectation1 especially in the attempt to deal with words of which only half the meaning is understood or half the sound heard4 ,mrs4 ,gamp's aperiently so--and the underminded with primal sense of undermine1 of--,i forget which gossip1 in the ,mill on the ,floss1 are master-and mistress-pieces in this latter kind4 ,mrs4 ,malaprop's allegories on the banks of the ,nile are in somewhat higher order of mistake3 ,mrs4 ,tabitha ,bramble's ignorance is vulgarized by her selfishness1 and ,winifred ,jenkins' by her conceit4 ,the wot of ,noah ,claypole1 and the other degradations of cockneyism 7,sam ,weller and his father are in nothing more admirable than in the power of heart and sense that can purify even these72 the trewth of ,mr4 ,chadband1 and natur of ,mr4 ,squeers1 are examples of the corruption of words by insensibility3 the use of the word bloody in modern low ,english is a deeper corruption1 not altering the form of the word1 but defiling the thought in it4 ,thus much being understood1 ,i shall proceed to examine thoroughly a fragment of ,scott's ,lowland ,scottish dialect2 not choosing it of the most beautiful kind2 on the contrary1 it shall be a piece reaching as low down as he ever allows ,scotch to go--it is perhaps the only unfair patriotism in him1 that if ever he wants a word or two of really villainous slang1 he gives it in ,english or ,dutch--not ,scotch4 ,i had intended in the close of this paper to analyze and compare the characters of ,andrew ,fairservice and ,richie ,moniplies1 for examples1 the former of innate evil1 unaffected by external influences1 and undiseased1 but distinct from natural goodness as a nettle is distinct from balm or lavender2 and the latter of innate goodness1 contracted and pinched by circumstance1 but still undiseased1 as an oak-leaf crisped by frost1 not by the worm4 ,this1 with much else in my mind1 ,i must put off2 but the careful study of one sentence of ,andrew's will give us a good deal to think of4 #cj4 ,i take his account of the rescue of ,glasgow ,cathedral at the time of the ,reformation4 ,ah6 it's a brave kirk--nane o' yere whigmaleeries an curliewurlies and opensteek hems about it--a' solid1 weel-jointed mason-wark1 that will stand as lang as the warld1 keep hands and gunpowther aff it4 ,it had amaist a douncome lang syne at the ,reformation1 when they pu'd doun the kirks of ,st4 ,andrews and ,perth1 and thereawa'1 to cleanse them o' ,papery1 and idolatry1 and image-worship1 and surplices1 and sic-like rags o' the muckle hure that sitteth on seven hills1 as if ane wasna braid eneugh for her auld hinder end4 ,sae the commons o' ,renfrew1 and o' the ,barony1 and the ,gorbals1 and a' about1 they behoved to come into ,glasgow ae fair morning1 to try their hand on purging the ,high ,kirk o' ,popish nicknackets4 ,but the townsmen o' ,glasgow1 they were feared their auld edifice might slip the girths in gaun through siccan rough physic1 sae they rang the common bell1 and assembled the train-bands wi' took o' drum4 ,by good luck1 the worthy ,james ,rabat was ,dean o' ,guild that year--7and a gude mason he was himsell1 made him the keener to keep up the auld bigging71 and the trades assembled1 and offered downright battle to the commons1 rather than their kirk should coup the crans1 as others had done elsewhere4 ,it wasna for luve o' ,paperie--na1 na6--nane could ever say that o' the trades o' ,glasgow--,sae they sune came to an agreement to take a' the idolatrous statues of sants 7sorrow be on them67 out o' their neuks--,and sae the bits o' stane idols were broken in pieces by ,scripture warrant1 and flung into the ,molendinar burn1 and the auld kirk stood as crouse as a cat when the flaes are kaimed aff her1 and a'body was alike pleased4 ,and ,i hae heard wise folk say1 that if the same had been done in ilka kirk in ,scotland1 the ,reform wad just hae been as pure as it is e'en now1 and we wad hae mair ,christianlike kirks2 for ,i hae been sae lang in ,england1 that naething will drived out o' my head1 that the dog-kennel at ,osbaldistone-,hall is better than mony a house o' ,god in ,scotland4 #ca4 ,now this sentence is in the first place a piece of ,scottish history of quite inestimable and concentrated value4 ,andrew's temperament is the type of a vast class of ,scottish--shall we call it sow-thistlian--mind1 which necessarily takes the view of either ,pope or saint that the thistle in ,lebanon took of the cedar or lilies in ,lebanon2 and the entire force of the passions which1 in the ,scottish revolution1 foretold and forearmed the ,french one1 is told in this one paragraph2 the coarseness of it1 observe1 being admitted1 not for the sake of the laugh1 any more than an onion in broth merely for its flavor1 but for the meat of it2 the inherent constancy of that coarseness being a fact in this order of mind1 and an essential part of the history to be told4 ,secondly1 observe that this speech1 in the religious passion of it1 such as there may be1 is entirely sincere4 ,andrew is a thief1 a liar1 a coward1 and1 in the ,fair service from which he takes his name1 a hypocrite2 but in the form of prejudice1 which is all that his mind is capable of in the place of religion1 he is entirely sincere4 ,he does not in the least pretend detestation of image worship to please his master1 or anyone else2 he honestly scorns the carnal morality#eh as dowd and fusionless as rue-leaves at ,yule of the sermon in the upper cathedral2 and when wrapt in critical attention to the real savor o' doctrine in the crypt1 so completely forgets the hypocrisy of his fair service as to return his master's attempt to disturb him with hard punches of the elbow4 ,thirdly4 ,he is a man of no mean sagacity1 quite up to the average standard of ,scottish common sense1 not a low one2 and1 though incapable of understanding any manner of lofty thought or passion1 is a shrewd measurer of weaknesses1 and not without a spark or two of kindly feeling4 ,see first his sketch of his master's character to ,mr4 ,hammorgaw1 beginning3 ,he's no a'thegither sae void o' sense1 neither2 and then the close of the dialogue3 ,but the lad's no a bad lad after a'1 and he needs some careful body to look after him4 ,fourthly4 ,he is a good workman2 knows his own business well1 and can judge of other craft1 if sound1 or otherwise4 ,all these four qualities of him must be known before we can understand this single speech4 ,keeping them in mind1 ,i take it up1 word by word4 #cb4 ,you observe1 in the outset1 ,scott makes no attempt whatever to indicate accents or modes of pronunciation by changed spelling1 unless the word becomes a quite definitely new1 and securely writable one4 ,the ,scottish way of pronouncing ,james1 for instance1 is entirely peculiar1 and extremely pleasant to the ear4 ,but it is so1 just because it does not change the word into ,jeems1 nor into ,jims1 nor into ,jawms4 ,a modern writer of dialects would think it amusing to use one or other of these ugly spellings4 ,but ,scott writes the name in pure ,english1 knowing that a ,scots reader will speak it rightly1 and an ,english one be wise in letting it alone4 ,on the other hand he writes weel for well1 because that word is complete in its change1 and may be very closely expressed by the double e4 ,the ambiguous u's in gude and sune are admitted1 because far liker the sound than the double o would be1 and that in hure1 for grace' sake1 to soften the word2 so also flaes for fleas4 ,mony for many is again positively right in sound1 and neuk differs from our nook in sense1 and is not the same word at all1 as we shall presently see4 ,secondly1 observe1 not a word is corrupted in any indecent haste1 slowness1 slovenliness1 or incapacity of pronunciation4 ,there is no lisping1 drawling1 slobbering1 or snuffling3 the speech is as clear as a bell and as keen as an arrow3 and its elisions and contractions are either melodious1 7na1 for not1--pu'd1 for pulled17 or as normal as in a ,latin verse4 ,the long words are delivered without the slightest bungling2 and bigging finished to its last g4 #cc4 ,i take the important words now in their places4 ,brave4 ,the old ,english sense of the word in to go brave1 retained1 expressing ,andrew's sincere and respectful admiration4 ,had he meant to insinuate a hint of the church's being too fine1 he would have said braw4 ,kirk4 ,this is of course just as pure and unprovincial a word as ,kirche1 or glise4 ,whigmaleerie4 ,i cannot get at the root of this word1 but it is one showing that the speaker is not bound by classic rules1 but will use any syllables that will enrich his meaning4 ,nipperty-tipperty 7of his master's poetry-nonsense7 is another word of the same class4 ,curliewurlie is of course just as pure as ,shakespeare's ,hurlyburly4 ,but see first suggestion of the idea to ,scott at ,blair-,adam 7,l4 vi4 #bfd74 ,opensteek hems4 ,more description1 or better1 of the later ,gothic cannot be put into four syllables4 ,steek1 melodious for stitch1 has a combined sense of closing or fastening4 ,and note that the later ,gothic being precisely what ,scott knew best 7in ,melrose7 and liked best1 it is1 here as elsewhere1 quite as much himself#ei as ,frank1 that he is laughing at1 when he laughs with ,andrew1 whose opensteek hems are only a ruder metaphor for his own willow-wreaths changed to stone4 ,gunpowther4 -,ther is a lingering vestige of the ,french -dre4 ,syne4 ,one of the melodious and mysterious ,scottish words which have partly the sound of wind and stream in them1 and partly the range of softened idea which is like a distance of blue hills over border land 7far in the distant ,cheviot's blue74 ,perhaps even the least sympathetic ,englisher might recognize this1 if he heard ,old ,long ,since vocally substituted for the ,scottish words to the air4 ,i do not know the root2 but the word's proper meaning is not since1 but before or after an interval of some duration1 as weel sune as syne4 ,but first on ,sawnie gies a ca'1 ,syne1 bauldly in she enters4 ,behoved 7to come74 ,a rich word1 with peculiar idiom1 always used more or less ironically of anything done under a partly mistaken and partly pretended notion of duty4 ,siccan4 ,far prettier1 and fuller in meaning than such4 ,it contains an added sense of wonder2 and means properly so great or so unusual4 ,took 7o' drum74 ,classical tuck from ,italian toccata1 the preluding touch or flourish1 on any instrument 7but see ,johnson under word tucket1 quoting ,othello74 ,the deeper ,scottish vowels are used here to mark the deeper sound of the bass drum1 as in more solemn warning4 ,bigging4 ,the only word in all the sentence of which the ,scottish form is less melodious than the ,english1 and what for no1 seeing that ,scottish architecture is mostly little beyond ,bessie ,bell's and ,mary ,gray's8 ,they biggit a bow're by yon burnside1 and theekit it ow're wi' rashes4 ,but it is pure ,anglo-,saxon in roots2 see glossary to ,fairbairn's edition of the ,douglas ,virgil1 #agaj4 ,coup4 ,another of the much-embracing words2 short for upset1 but with a sense of awkwardness as the inherent cause of fall2 compare ,richie ,moniplies 7also for sense of behoved73 ,ae auld hirplin deevil of a potter behoved just to step in my way1 and offer me a pig 7earthen pot--etym4 dub471 as he said 'just to put my ,scotch ointment in'2 and ,i gave him a push1 as but natural1 and the tottering deevil coupit owre amang his own pigs1 and damaged a score of them4 ,so also ,dandie ,dinmont in the postchaise3 ',od6 ,i hope they'll no coup us4 ,the ,crans4 ,idiomatic2 root unknown to me1 but it means in this use1 fall total1 and without recovery4#fj ,molendinar4 ,from molendinum1 the grinding-place4 ,i do not know if actually the local name1#fa or ,scott's invention4 ,compare ,sir ,piercie's ,molinaras4 ,but at all events used here with by-sense of degradation of the formerly idle saints to grind at the mill4 ,crouse4 ,courageous1 softened with a sense of comfort4 ,ilka4 ,again a word with azure distance1 including the whole sense of each and every4 ,the reader must carefully and reverently distinguish these comprehensive words1 which gather two or more perfectly understood meanings into one chord of meaning1 and are harmonies more than words1 from the above-noted blunders between two half-hit meanings1 struck as a bad piano-player strikes the edge of another note4 ,in ,english we have fewer of these combined thoughts2 so that ,shakespeare rather plays with the distinct lights of his words1 than melts them into one4 ,so again ,bishop ,douglas spells1 and doubtless spoke1 the word rose1 differently1 according to his purpose2 if as the chief or governing ruler of flowers1 rois1 but if only in her own beauty1 rose4 ,christianlike4 ,the sense of the decency and order proper to ,christianity is stronger in ,scotland than in any other country1 and the word ,christian more distinctly opposed to beast4 ,hence the back-handed cut at the ,english for their over-pious care of dogs4 #cd4 ,i am a little surprised myself at the length to which this examination of one small piece of ,sir ,walter's first-rate work has carried us1 but here ,i must end for this time1 trusting1 if the ,editor of the ,nineteenth ,century permit me1 yet to trespass1 perhaps more than once1 on his readers' patience2 but1 at all events1 to examine in a following paper the technical characteristics of ,scott's own style1 both in prose and verse1 together with ,byron's1 as opposed to our fashionably recent dialects and rhythms2 the essential virtues of language1 in both the masters of the old school1 hinging ultimately1 little as it might be thought1 on certain unalterable views of theirs concerning the code called of the ,ten ,commandments1 wholly at variance with the dogmas of automatic morality which1 summed again by the witches' line1 ,fair is foul1 and foul is fair1 hover through the fog and filthy air of our prosperous ,england4 ,,footnotes3 ,footnote #cg3 ,nineteenth ,century1 ,june1 #ahhj4 ,footnote #ch3 ,see ,time and ,tide1 #gb4--;,,ed4 ,footnote #ci3 ,nell1 in the ,old ,curiosity ,shop1 was simply killed for the market1 as a butcher kills a lamb 7see ,forster's ,life17 and ,paul was written under the same conditions of illness which affected ,scott--a part of the ominous palsies1 grasping alike author and subject both in ,dombey and ,little ,dorrit4 ,footnote #dj3 ,chourineur not striking with dagger-point1 but ripping with knife-edge4 ,yet ,i do him1 and ,la ,louve1 injustice in classing them with the two others2 they are put together only as parts in the same phantasm4 ,compare with ,la ,louve1 the strength of wild virtue in the ,louvcienne 7,lucienne7 of ,gaboriau--she1 province-born and bred2 and opposed to ,parisian civilization in the character of her seamstress friend4 ,de ce ,paris1 o elle tait ne1 elle savait tout--elle connaissait tout4 ,rien ne l'tonnait1 nul ne l'intimidait4 ,sa science des dtails matriels de l'existence tait inconcevable4 ,impossible de la duper6--,eh bien6 cette fille si laborieuse et si conome n'avait mme pas la plus vague notion des sentiments qui sont l'honneur de la femme4 ,je n'avais pas ide d'une si complte absence de sens moral2 d'une si inconscience dpravation1 d'une impudence si effrontment nave4--,l',argent des autres1 vol4 i4 p4 #ceh4 ,footnote #da3 ,the reader who cares to seek it may easily find medical evidence of the physical effects of certain states of brain disease in producing especially images of truncated and ,hermes-like deformity1 complicated with grossness4 ,horace1 in the ,epodes1 scoffs at it1 but not without horror4 ,luca ,signorelli and ,raphael in their arabesques are deeply struck by it3 ,drer1 defying and playing with it alternately1 is almost beaten down again and again in the distorted faces1 hewing halberts1 and suspended satyrs of his arabesques round the polyglot ,lord's ,prayer2 it takes entire possession of ,balzac in the ,contes ,drolatiques2 it struck ,scott in the earliest days of his childish visions intensified by the ax-stroke murder of his grand aunt 7,l4 i4 #adb1 and see close of this note74 ,it chose for him the subject of the ,heart of ,midlothian1 and produced afterwards all the recurrent ideas of executions1 tainting ,nigel1 almost spoiling ,quentin ,durward--utterly the ,fair ,maid of ,perth3 and culminating in ,bizarro 7,l4 x4 #adi74 ,it suggested all the deaths by falling1 or sinking1 as in delirious sleep--,kennedy1 ,eveline ,neville 7nearly repeated in ,clara ,mowbray71 ,amy ,robsart1 the ,master of ,ravenswood in the quicksand1 ,morris1 and ,corporal ,grace-be-here--compare the dream of ,gride1 in ,nicholas ,nickleby1 and ,dickens's own last words1 on the ground 7so also1 in my own inflammation of the brain1 two years ago1 ,i dreamed that ,i fell through the earth and came out on the other side74 ,in its grotesque and distorting power1 it produced all the figures of the ,lay ,goblin1 ,pacolet1 ,flibbertigibbet1 ,cockledemoy1 ,geoffrey ,hudson1 ,fenella1 and ,nectabanus2 in ,dickens it in like manner gives ,quilp1 ,krook1 ,smike1 ,smallweed1 ,miss ,mowcher1 and the dwarfs and wax-work of ,nell's caravan2 and runs entirely wild in ,barnaby ,budge1 where1 with a corps de drame composed of one idiot1 two madmen1 a gentleman-fool who is also a villain1 a shop-boy fool who is also a blackguard1 a hangman1 a shriveled virago1 and a doll in ribbons--carrying this company through riot and fire1 till he hangs the hangman1 one of the madmen1 his mother1 and the idiot1 runs the gentleman-fool through in a bloody duel1 and burns and crushes the shop-boy fool into shapelessness1 he cannot yet be content without shooting the spare lover's leg off1 and marrying him to the doll in a wooden one2 the shapeless shop-boy being finally also married in two wooden ones4 ,it is this mutilation1 observe1 which is the very sign manual of the plague2 joined1 in the artistic forms of it1 with a love of thorniness--7in their mystic root1 the truncation of the limbless serpent and the spines of the dragon's wing4 ,compare ,modern ,painters1 vol4 iv41 ,chapter on the ,mountain ,gloom1 s4 #ai72 and in all forms of it1 with petrifaction or loss of power by cold in the blood1 whence the last ,darwinian process of the witches' charm--cool it with a baboon's blood1 then the charm is firm and good4 ,the two frescoes in the colossal handbills which have lately decorated the streets of ,london 7the baboon with the mirror1 and the ,maskelyne and ,cooke decapitation7 are the final ,english forms of ,raphael's arabesque under this influence2 and it is well worth while to get the number for the week ending ,april #c1 #ahhj1 of ,young ,folks--a magazine of instructive and entertaining literature for boys and girls of all ages1 containing ,a ,sequel to ,desdichado 7the modern development of ,ivanhoe71 in which a quite monumental example of the kind of art in question will be found as a leading illustration of this characteristic sentence1 ,see1 good ,cerberus1 said ,sir ,rupert1 my hand has been struck off4 ,you must make me a hand of iron1 one with springs in it1 so that ,i can make it grasp a dagger4 ,the text is also1 as it professes to be1 instructive2 being the ultimate degeneration of what ,i have above called the folly of ,ivanhoe2 for the folly begets folly down1 and down2 and whatever ,scott and ,turner did wrong has thousands of imitators--their wisdom none will so much as hear1 how much less follow6 ,in both of the ,masters1 it is always to be remembered that the evil and good are alike conditions of literal vision3 and therefore also1 inseparably connected with the state of the health4 ,i believe the first elements of all ,scott's errors were in the milk of his consumptive nurse1 which all but killed him as an infant 7,l4 i4 #ai7--;and was without doubt the cause of the teething fever that ended in his lameness 7,l4 i4 #bj74 ,then came 7if the reader cares to know what ,i mean by ,fors1 let him read the page carefully7 the fearful accidents to his only sister1 and her death 7,l4 i4 #ag72 then the madness of his nurse1 who planned his own murder 7#ba71 then the stories continually told him of the executions at ,carlisle 7#bd71 his aunt's husband having seen them2 issuing1 he himself scarcely knows how1 in the unaccountable terror that came upon him at the sight of statuary 7#ca7--;especially ,jacob's ladder2 then the murder of ,mrs4 ,swinton1 and finally the nearly fatal bursting of the blood vessel at ,kelso1 with the succeeding nervous illness 7#fe-fg7--solaced1 while he was being bled and blistered till he had scarcely a pulse left1 by that history of the ,knights of ,malta--fondly dwelt on and realized by actual modeling of their fortress1 which returned to his mind for the theme of its last effort in passing away4 ,footnote #db3 ,se dit par dnigrement1 d'un chrtien qui ne croit pas les dogmes de sa religion4--,fleming1 vol4 ii4 p4 #fei4 ,footnote #dc3 ,the novel alluded to is ,the ,mill on the ,floss4 ,see below1 p4 #bgb1 #ajh4--;,,ed4 ,footnote #dd3 ,a son nom1 properly4 ,the sentence is one of ,victor ,cherbuliez's1 in ,prosper ,randoce1 which is full of other valuable ones4 ,see the old nurse's ici bas les choses vont de travers1 comme un chien qui va vpres1 p4 #ic2 and compare ,prosper's treasures1 la petite ,vnus1 et le petit ,christ d'ivoire1 p4 #aba2 also ,madame ,brehanne's request for the divertissement of quelque belle batterie coups de couteau with ,didier's answer4 ,hlas6 madame1 vous jouez de malheur1 ici dans la ,drme1 l'on se massacre aussi peu que possible1 p4 #cc4 ,footnote #de3 ,edgeworth's ,tales1 7,hunter1 #ahbg71 ,harrington and ,ormond1 vol4 iii4 p4 #bfj4 ,footnote #df3 ,alice of ,salisbury1 ,alice ,lee1 ,alice ,bridgnorth4 ,footnote #dg3 ,scott's father was habitually ascetic4 ,i have heard his son tell that it was common with him1 if any one observed that the soup was good1 to taste it again1 and say1 ',yes--it is too good1 bairns1' and dash a tumbler of cold water into his plate4--,lockhart's ,life 7,black1 ,edinburgh1 #ahfi71 vol4 i4 p4 #cab4 ,in other places ,i refer to this book in the simple form of ,l4 ,footnote #dh3 ,a young lady sang to me1 just before ,i copied out this page for press1 a ,miss ,somebody's great song1 ,live1 and ,love1 and ,die4 ,had it been written for nothing better than silkworms1 it should at least have added--,spin4 ,footnote #di3 ,see passage of introduction to ,ivanhoe1 wisely quoted in ,l4 vi4 #ajf4 ,footnote #ej3 ,see below1 note1 p4 #aii1 on the conclusion of ,woodstock4 ,footnote #ea3 ,the reference is to a series of ,waverley ,tableaux given in ,london shortly before the publication of this paper4--,,ed4 ,footnote #eb3 ,l4 iv4 #agg4 ,footnote #ec3 ,l4 vi4 #fg4 ,footnote #ed3 ,one other such novel1 and there's an end2 but who can last forever8 who ever lasted so long8--,sydney ,smith 7of the ,pirate7 to ,jeffrey1 ,december #cj1 #ahba4 7,letters1 vol4 ii4 p4 #bbc47 ,footnote #ee3 ,l4 vi4 p4 #ahh4 ,compare the description of ,fairy ,dean1 vii4 #aib4 ,footnote #ef3 ,all1 alas6 were now in a great measure so written4 ,ivanhoe1 ,the ,monastery1 ,the ,abbot1 and ,kenilworth were all published between ,december #ahai and ,january #ahba1 ,constable ,co4 giving five thousand guineas for the remaining copyright of them1 ,scott clearing ten thousand before the bargain was completed2 and before the ,fortunes of ,nigel issued from the press ,scott had exchanged instruments and received his bookseller's bills for no less than four works of fiction1 not one of them otherwise described in the deeds of agreement1 to be produced in unbroken succession1 each of them to fill up at least three volumes1 but with proper saving clauses as to increase of copy money in case any of them should run to four2 and within two years all this anticipation had been wiped off by ,peveril of the ,peak1 ,quentin ,durward1 ,st4 ,ronan's ,well1 and ,redgauntlet4 ,footnote #eg3 ,woodstock was finished #bfth ,march1 #ahbf4 ,he knew then of his ruin2 and wrote in bitterness1 but not in weakness4 ,the closing pages are the most beautiful of the book4 ,but a month afterwards ,lady ,scott died2 and he never wrote glad word more4 ,footnote #eh3 ,compare ,mr4 ,spurgeon's not unfrequent orations on the same subject4 ,footnote #ei3 ,there are three definite and intentional portraits of himself1 in the novels1 each giving a separate part of himself3 ,mr4 ,oldbuck1 ,frank ,osbaldistone1 and ,alan ,fairford4 ,footnote #fj3 ,see note1 p4 #bbd4--;,,ed4 ,footnote #fa3 ,andrew knows ,latin1 and might have coined the word in his conceit2 but1 writing to a kind friend in ,glasgow1 ,i find the brook was called ,molyndona even before the building of the ,subdean ,mill in #addf4 ,see also account of the locality in ,mr4 ,george's admirable volume1 ,old ,glasgow1 pp4 #abi1 #adi1 etc4 ,the ,protestantism of ,glasgow1 since throwing that powder of saints into her brook ,kidron1 has presented it with other pious offerings2 and my friend goes on to say that the brook1 once famed for the purity of its waters 7much used for bleaching71 has for nearly a hundred years been a crawling stream of loathsomeness4 ,it is now bricked over1 and a carriage-way made on the top of it2 underneath the foul mess still passes through the heart of the city1 till it falls into the ,clyde close to the harbor4 ,,fiction1 ,,fair ,,and ,,foul4#fb ,,ii4 #ce4 ,he hated greetings in the market-place1 and there were generally loiterers in the streets to persecute him either about the events of the day1 or about some petty pieces of business4 ,these lines1 which the reader will find near the beginning of the sixteenth chapter of the first volume of the ,antiquary1 contain two indications of the old man's character1 which1 receiving the ideal of him as a portrait of ,scott himself1 are of extreme interest to me4 ,they mean essentially that neither ,monkbarns nor ,scott had any mind to be called of men1 ,rabbi1 in mere hearing of the mob2 and especially that they hated to be drawn back out of their far-away thoughts1 or forward out of their long-ago thoughts1 by any manner of daily news1 whether printed or gabbled4 ,of which two vital characteristics1 deeper in both men1 7for ,i must always speak of ,scott's creations as if they were as real as himself17 than any of their superficial vanities1 or passing enthusiasms1 ,i have to speak more at another time4 ,i quote the passage just now1 because there was one piece of the daily news of the year #ahae which did extremely interest ,scott1 and materially direct the labor of the latter part of his life2 nor is there any piece of history in this whole nineteenth century quite so pregnant with various instruction as the study of the reasons which influenced ,scott and ,byron in their opposite views of the glories of the battle of ,waterloo4 #cf4 ,but ,i quote it for another reason also4 ,the principal greeting which ,mr4 ,oldbuck on this occasion receives in the market-place1 being compared with the speech of ,andrew ,fairservice1 examined in my first paper1 will furnish me with the text of what ,i have mainly to say in the present one4 ',mr4 ,oldbuck1' said the town-clerk 7a more important person1 who came in front and ventured to stop the old gentleman71 'the provost1 understanding you were in town1 begs on no account that you'll quit it without seeing him2 he wants to speak to ye about bringing the water frae the ,fairwell spring through a part o' your lands4' ',what the deuce6--have they nobody's land but mine to cut and carve on8--,i won't consent1 tell them4' ',and the provost1' said the clerk1 going on1 without noticing the rebuff1 'and the council1 wad be agreeable that you should hae the auld stanes at ,donagild's ,chapel1 that ye was wussing to hae4' ',eh8--what8--,oho6 that's another story--,well1 well1 ,i'll call upon the provost1 and we'll talk about it4' ',but ye maun speak your mind on't forthwith1 ,monkbarns1 if ye want the stanes2 for ,deacon ,harlewalls thinks the carved through-stanes might be put with advantage on the front of the new council house--that is1 the twa cross-legged figures that the callants used to ca' ,robbin and ,bobbin1 ane on ilka door-cheek2 and the other stane1 that they ca'd ,ailie ,dailie1 abune the door4 ,it will be very tastefu'1 the ,deacon says1 and just in the style of modern ,gothic4' ',good ,lord deliver me from this ,gothic generation6' exclaimed the ,antiquary1--'a monument of a knight-templar on each side of a ,grecian porch1 and a ,madonna on the top of it6--,o crimini6--,well1 tell the provost ,i wish to have the stones1 and we'll not differ about the water-course4--,it's lucky ,i happened to come this way to-day4' ,they parted mutually satisfied2 but the wily clerk had most reason to exult in the dexterity he had displayed1 since the whole proposal of an exchange between the monuments 7which the council had determined to remove as a nuisance1 because they encroached three feet upon the public road7 and the privilege of conveying the water to the burgh1 through the estate of ,monkbarns1 was an idea which had originated with himself upon the pressure of the moment4 #cg4 ,in this single page of ,scott1 will the reader please note the kind of prophetic instinct with which the great men of every age mark and forecast its destinies8 ,the water from the ,fairwell is the future ,thirlmere carried to ,manchester2 the auld stanes#fc at ,donagild's ,chapel1 removed as a nuisance1 foretell the necessary view taken by modern cockneyism1 ,liberalism1 and progress1 of all things that remind them of the noble dead1 of their fathers' fame1 or of their own duty2 and the public road becomes their idol1 instead of the saint's shrine4 ,finally1 the roguery of the entire transaction--the mean man seeing the weakness of the honorable1 and besting him--in modern slang1 in the manner and at the pace of modern trade--on the pressure of the moment4 ,but neither are these things what ,i have at present quoted the passage for4 ,i quote it1 that we may consider how much wonderful and various history is gathered in the fact recorded for us in this piece of entirely fair fiction1 that in the ,scottish borough of ,fairport 7,montrose1 really71 in the year #ag--of ,christ1 the knowledge given by the pastors and teachers provided for its children by enlightened ,scottish ,protestantism1 of their fathers' history1 and the origin of their religion1 had resulted in this substance and sum2--that the statues of two crusading knights had become1 to their children1 ,bobbin and ,bobbin2 and the statue of the ,madonna1 ,ailie ,dailie4 ,a marvelous piece of history1 truly3 and far too comprehensive for general comment here4 ,only one small piece of it ,i must carry forward the readers' thoughts upon4 #ch4 ,the pastors and teachers aforesaid1 7represented typically in another part of this errorless book by ,mr4 ,blattergowl17 are not1 whatever else they may have to answer for1 answerable for these names4 ,the names are of the children's own choosing and bestowing1 but not of the children's own inventing4 ,robin is a classically endearing cognomen1 recording the errant heroism of old days--the name of the ,bruce and of ,rob ,roy4 ,bobbin is a poetical and symmetrical fulfillment and adornment of the original phrase4 ,ailie is the last echo of ,ave1 changed into the softest ,scottish ,christian name familiar to the children1 itself the beautiful feminine form of royal ,louis2 the ,dailie again symmetrically added for kinder and more musical endearment4 ,the last vestiges1 you see1 of honor for the heroism and religion of their ancestors1 lingering on the lips of babes and sucklings4 ,but what is the meaning of this necessity the children find themselves under of completing the nomenclature rhythmically and rhymingly8 ,note first the difference carefully1 and the attainment of both qualities by the couplets in question4 ,rhythm is the syllabic and quantitative measure of the words1 in which ,robin both in weight and time1 balances ,bobbin2 and ,dailie holds level scale with ,ailie4 ,but rhyme is the added correspondence of sound2 unknown and undesired1 so far as we can learn1 by the ,greek ,orpheus1 but absolutely essential to1 and1 as special virtue1 becoming titular of1 the ,scottish ,thomas4 #ci4 ,the ,ryme1#fd you may at first fancy1 is the especially childish part of the work4 ,not so4 ,it is the especially chivalric and ,christian part of it4 ,it characterizes the ,christian chant or canticle1 as a higher thing than a ,greek ode1 melos1 or hymnos1 or than a ,latin carmen4 ,think of it2 for this again is wonderful6 ,that these children of ,montrose should have an element of music in their souls which ,homer had not1--which a melos of ,david the ,prophet and ,king had not1--which ,orpheus and ,amphion had not1--which ,apollo's unrymed oracles became mute at the sound of4 ,a strange new equity this1--melodious justice and judgment1 as it were1--in all words spoken solemnly and ritualistically by ,christian human creatures2--,robin and ,bobbin--by the ,crusader's tomb1 up to ,dies ir1 dies illa1 at judgment of the crusading soul4 ,you have to understand this most deeply of all ,christian minstrels1 from first to last2 that they are more musical1 because more joyful1 than any others on earth3 ethereal minstrels1 pilgrims of the sky1 true to the kindred points of heaven and home2 their joy essentially the sky-lark's1 in light1 in purity2 but1 with their human eyes1 looking for the glorious appearing of something in the sky1 which the bird cannot4 ,this it is that changes ,etruscan murmur into ,terza rima--,horatian ,latin into ,provenal troubadour's melody2 not1 because less artful1 less wise4 #dj4 ,here is a little bit1 for instance1 of ,french ryming just before ,chaucer's time--near enough to our own ,french to be intelligible to us yet4 ,o quant trs-glorieuse vie1 ,quant cil qui tout peut et maistrie1 ,veult esprouver pour ncessaire1 ,ne pour quant il ne blasma mie ,la vie de ,marthe sa mie3 ,mais il lui donna exemplaire ,d'autrement vivre1 et de bien plaire ,a ,dieu2 et plut de bien faire3 ,pour se conclut-il que ,marie ,qui estoit ses piedz sans braire1 ,et pensoit d'entendre et de taire1 ,estleut la plus saine partie4 ,la meilleur partie esleut-elle ,et la plus saine et la plus belle1 ,qui j ne luy sera oste ,car par vrit se fut celle ,qui fut tousjours fresche et nouvelle1 ,d'aymer ,dieu et d'en estre ayme2 ,car jusqu'au cueur fut entame1 ,et si ardamment enflame1 ,que tousjours ardoit ,i'estincelle2 ,par quoi elle fut visite ,et de ,dieu premier conforte2 ,car charit est trop ysnelle4 #da4 ,the only law of meter1 observed in this song1 is that each line shall be octosyllabic3 ,qui fut tousjours fresche et nouvelle1 ,d'autre ment vi vret de bien 7ben7 plaire ,et pen soit den tendret de taire4 ,but the reader must note that words which were two-syllabled in ,latin mostly remain yet so in the ,french4 ,la vi e de ,marthe sa mie1 although mie1 which is pet language1 loving abbreviation of amica through amie1 remains monosyllabic4 ,but vie elides its e before a vowel3 ,car ,mar- the me nait vie active ,et ,ma- ri-e contemp lative2 and custom endures many exceptions4 ,thus ,marie may be three-syllabled1 as above1 or answer to mie as a dissyllable2 but vierge is always1 ,i think1 dissyllabic1 vier-ge1 with even stronger accent on the -ge1 for the ,latin -go4 ,then1 secondly1 of quantity1 there is scarcely any fixed law4 ,the meters may be timed as the minstrel chooses--fast or slow--and the iambic current checked in reverted eddy1 as the words chance to come4 ,but1 thirdly1 there is to be rich ryming and chiming1 no matter how simply got1 so only that the words jingle and tingle together with due art of interlacing and answering in different parts of the stanza1 correspondent to the involutions of tracery and illumination4 ,the whole twelve-line stanza is thus constructed with two rymes only1 six of each1 thus arranged3 ,a ,a ,b ,a ,a ,b ,b ,b ,a ,b ,b ,a dividing the verse thus into four measures1 reversed in ascent and descent1 or descant more properly2 and doubtless with correspondent phases in the voice-given1 and duly accompanying1 or following1 music2 ,thomas the ,rymer's own precept1 that tong is chefe in mynstrelsye1 being always kept faithfully in mind4#fe #db4 ,here then you have a sufficient example of the pure chant of the ,christian ages2 which is always at heart joyful1 and divides itself into the four great forms2 ,song of ,praise1 ,song of ,prayer1 ,song of ,love1 and ,song of ,battle2 praise1 however1 being the keynote of passion through all the four forms2 according to the first law which ,i have already given in the ,laws of ,fsole2 all great ,art is ,praise1 of which the contrary is also true1 all foul or miscreant ,art is accusation1 ,greek3 diabol3 ,she gave me of the tree and ,i did eat being an entirely museless expression on ,adam's part1 the briefly essential contrary of ,love-song4 ,with these four perfect forms of ,christian chant1 of which we may take for pure examples the ,te ,deum1 the ,te ,lucis ,ante1 the ,amor che nella mente1#ff and the ,chant de ,roland1 are mingled songs of mourning1 of ,pagan origin 7whether ,greek or ,danish71 holding grasp still of the races that have once learned them1 in times of suffering and sorrow2 and songs of ,christian humiliation or grief1 regarding chiefly the sufferings of ,christ1 or the conditions of our own sin3 while through the entire system of these musical complaints are interwoven moralities1 instructions1 and related histories1 in illustration of both1 passing into ,epic and ,romantic verse1 which gradually1 as the forms and learnings of society increase1 becomes less joyful1 and more didactic1 or satiric1 until the last echoes of ,christian joy and melody vanish in the ,vanity of human wishes4 #dc4 ,and here ,i must pause for a minute or two to separate the different branches of our inquiry clearly from one another4 ,for one thing1 the reader must please put for the present out of his head all thought of the progress of civilization--that is to say1 broadly1 of the substitution of wigs for hair1 gas for candles1 and steam for legs4 ,this is an entirely distinct matter from the phases of policy and religion4 ,it has nothing to do with the ,british ,constitution1 or the ,french ,revolution1 or the unification of ,italy4 ,there are1 indeed1 certain subtle relations between the state of mind1 for instance1 in ,venice1 which makes her prefer a steamer to a gondola1 and that which makes her prefer a gazetteer to a duke2 but these relations are not at all to be dealt with until we solemnly understand that whether men shall be ,christians and poets1 or infidels and dunces1 does not depend on the way they cut their hair1 tie their breeches1 or light their fires4 ,dr4 ,johnson might have worn his wig in fullness conforming to his dignity1 without therefore coming to the conclusion that human wishes were vain2 nor is ,queen ,antoinette's civilized hair-powder1 as opposed to ,queen ,bertha's savagely loose hair1 the cause of ,antoinette's laying her head at last in scaffold dust1 but ,bertha in a pilgrim-haunted tomb4 #dd4 ,again1 ,i have just now used the words poet and dunce1 meaning the degree of each quality possible to average human nature4 ,men are eternally divided into the two classes of poet 7believer1 maker1 and praiser7 and dunce 7or unbeliever1 unmaker1 and dispraiser74 ,and in process of ages they have the power of making faithful and formative creatures of themselves1 or unfaithful and de-formative4 ,and this distinction between the creatures who1 blessing1 are blessed1 and evermore benedicti1 and the creatures who1 cursing1 are cursed1 and evermore maledicti1 is one going through all humanity2 antediluvian in ,cain and ,abel1 diluvian in ,ham and ,shem4 ,and the question for the public of any given period is not whether they are a constitutional or unconstitutional vulgus1 but whether they are a benignant or malignant vulgus4 ,so also1 whether it is indeed the gods who have given any gentleman the grace to despise the rabble1 depends wholly on whether it is indeed the rabble1 or he1 who are the malignant persons4 #de4 ,but yet again4 ,this difference between the persons to whom ,heaven1 according to ,orpheus1 has granted the hour of delight1#fg and those whom it has condemned to the hour of detestableness1 being1 as ,i have just said1 of all times and nations1--it is an interior and more delicate difference which we are examining in the gift of ,christian as distinguished from unchristian1 song4 ,orpheus1 ,pindar1 and ,horace are indeed distinct from the prosaic rabble1 as the bird from the snake2 but between ,orpheus and ,palestrina1 ,horace and ,sidney1 there is another division1 and a new power of music and song given to the humanity which has hope of the ,resurrection4 ,this is the root of all life and all rightness in ,christian harmony1 whether of word or instrument2 and so literally1 that in precise manner as this hope disappears1 the power of song is taken away1 and taken away utterly4 ,when the ,christian falls back out of the bright hope of the ,resurrection1 even the ,orpheus song is forbidden him4 ,not to have known the hope is blameless3 one may sing1 unknowing1 as the swan1 or ,philomela4 ,but to have known and fall away from it1 and to declare that the human wishes1 which are summed in that one--,thy kingdom come--are vain6 ,the ,fates ordain there shall be no singing after that denial4 #df4 ,for observe this1 and earnestly4 ,the old ,orphic song1 with its dim hope of yet once more ,eurydice1--the ,philomela song--granted after the cruel silence1--the ,halcyon song--with its fifteen days of peace1 were all sad1 or joyful only in some vague vision of conquest over death4 ,but the ,johnsonian vanity of wishes is on the whole satisfactory to ,johnson--accepted with gentlemanly resignation by ,pope--triumphantly and with bray of penny trumpets and blowing of steam-whistles1 proclaimed for the glorious discovery of the civilized ages1 by ,mrs4 ,barbauld1 ,miss ,edgeworth1 ,adam ,smith1 and ,co4 ,there is no ,god1 but have we not invented gunpowder8--who wants a ,god1 with that in his pocket8#fh ,there is no ,resurrection1 neither angel nor spirit2 but have we not paper and pens1 and cannot every blockhead print his opinions1 and the ,day of ,judgment become ,republican1 with everybody for a judge1 and the flat of the universe for the throne8 ,there is no law1 but only gravitation and congelation1 and we are stuck together in an everlasting hail1 and melted together in everlasting mud1 and great was the day in which our worships were born4 ,and there is no gospel1 but only1 whatever we've got1 to get more1 and1 wherever we are1 to go somewhere else4 ,and are not these discoveries1 to be sung of1 and drummed of1 and fiddled of1 and generally made melodiously indubitable in the eighteenth century song of praise8 #dg4 ,the ,fates will not have it so4 ,no word of song is possible1 in that century1 to mortal lips4 ,only polished versification1 sententious pentameter and hexameter1 until1 having turned out its toes long enough without dancing1 and pattered with its lips long enough without piping1 suddenly ,astra returns to the earth1 and a ,day of ,judgment of a sort1 and there bursts out a song at last again1 a most curtly melodious triplet of ,amphisbnic ryme1 a ira4 ,amphisbnic1 fanged in each ryme with fire1 and obeying ,ercildoune's precept1 ,tong is chefe of mynstrelsye1 to the syllable4--,don ,giovanni's hitherto fondly chanted ,andiam1 andiam1 become suddenly impersonal and prophetic3 ,,it shall go1 and you also4 ,a cry--before it is a song1 then song and accompaniment together--perfectly done2 and the march towards the field of ,mars4 ,the two hundred and fifty thousand--they to the sound of stringed music--preceded by young girls with tricolor streamers1 they have shouldered soldierwise their shovels and picks1 and with one throat are singing a ira4#fi ,through all the springtime of #agij1 from ,brittany to ,burgundy1 on most plains of ,france1 under most city walls1 there march and constitutionally wheel to the a-iraing mood of fife and drum--our clear glancing phalanxes2--the song of the two hundred and fifty thousand1 virgin-led1 is in the long light of ,july4 ,nevertheless1 another song is yet needed1 for phalanx1 and for maid4 ,for1 two springs and summers having gone--amphisbnic1--on the #bhth of ,august1 #agib1 ,dumouriez rode from the camp of ,maulde1 eastwards to ,sedan4#gj #dh4 ,and ,longwi has fallen basely1 and ,brunswick and the ,prussian king will beleaguer ,verdun1 and ,clairfait and the ,austrians press deeper in over the northern marches1 ,cimmerian ,europe behind4 ,and on that same night ,dumouriez assembles council of war at his lodgings in ,sedan4 ,prussians here1 ,austrians there1 triumphant both4 ,with broad highway to ,paris and little hindrance--we scattered1 helpless here and there--what to advise8 ,the generals advise retreating1 and retreating till ,paris be sacked at the latest day possible4 ,dumouriez1 silent1 dismisses them1--keeps only1 with a sign1 ,thouvenot4 ,silent thus1 when needful1 yet having voice1 it appears1 of what musicians call tenor quality1 of a rare kind4 ,rubini-esque1 even1 but scarcely producible to the fastidious ears at opera4 ,the seizure of the forest of ,argonne follows--the cannonade of ,valmy4 ,the ,prussians do not march on ,paris this time1 the autumnal hours of fate pass on--a ira--and on the #fth of ,november1 ,dumouriez meets the ,austrians also4 ,dumouriez wide-winged1 they wide-winged--at and around ,jemappes1 its green heights fringed and maned with red fire4 ,and ,dumouriez is swept back on this wing and swept back on that1 and is like to be swept back utterly1 when he rushes up in person1 speaks a prompt word or two1 and then1 with clear tenor-pipe1 uplifts the hymn of the ,marseillaise1 ten thousand tenor or bass pipes joining1 or say some forty thousand in all1 for every heart leaps up at the sound2 and so1 with rhythmic march melody1 they rally1 they advance1 they rush death-defying1 and like the fire whirlwind sweep all manner of ,austrians from the scene of action4 ,thus1 through the lips of ,dumouriez1 sings ,tyrtus1 ,rouget de ,lisle4#ga ,aux armes--marchons4 ,iambic measure with a witness6 in what wide strophe here beginning--in what unthought-of antistrophe returning to that council chamber in ,sedan6 #di4 ,while these two great songs were thus being composed1 and sung1 and danced to in cometary cycle1 by the ,french nation1 here in our less giddy island there rose1 amidst hours of business in ,scotland and of idleness in ,england1 three troubadours of quite different temper4 ,different also themselves1 but not opponent2 forming a perfect chord1 and adverse all the three of them alike to the ,french musicians1 in this main point--that while the ,ca ira and ,marseillaise were essentially songs of blame and wrath1 the ,british bards wrote1 virtually1 always songs of praise1 though by no means psalmody in the ancient keys4 ,on the contrary1 all the three are alike moved by a singular antipathy to the priests1 and are pointed at with fear and indignation by the pietists1 of their day2--not without latent cause4 ,for they are all of them1 with the most loving service1 servants of that world which the ,puritan and monk alike despised2 and1 in the triple chord of their song1 could not but appear to the religious persons around them as respectively and specifically the praisers--,scott of the world1 ,burns of the flesh1 and ,byron of the devil4 ,to contend with this carnal orchestra1 the religious world1 having long ago rejected its ,catholic ,psalms as antiquated and unscientific1 and finding its ,puritan melodies sunk into faint jar and twangle from their native trumpet-tone1 had nothing to oppose but the innocent1 rather than religious1 verses of the school recognized as that of the ,english ,lakes2 very creditable to them2 domestic at once and refined2 observing the errors of the world outside of the ,lakes with a pitying and tender indignation1 and arriving in lacustrine seclusion at many valuable principles of philosophy1 as pure as the tarns of their mountains1 and of corresponding depth4#gb #ej4 ,i have lately seen1 and with extreme pleasure1 ,mr4 ,matthew ,arnold's arrangement of ,wordsworth's poems2 and read with sincere interest his high estimate of them4 ,but a great poet's work never needs arrangement by other hands2 and though it is very proper that ,silver ,how should clearly understand and brightly praise its fraternal ,rydal ,mount1 we must not forget that1 over yonder1 are the ,andes1 all the while4 ,wordsworth's rank and scale among poets were determined by himself1 in a single exclamation3 ,what was the great ,parnassus' self to thee1 ,mount ,skiddaw8 ,answer his question faithfully1 and you have the relation between the great masters of the ,muse's teaching and the pleasant fingerer of his pastoral flute among the reeds of ,rydal4 ,wordsworth is simply a ,westmoreland peasant1 with considerably less shrewdness than most border ,englishmen or ,scotsmen inherit2 and no sense of humor3 but gifted 7in this singularly7 with vivid sense of natural beauty1 and a pretty turn for reflections1 not always acute1 but1 as far as they reach1 medicinal to the fever of the restless and corrupted life around him4 ,water to parched lips may be better than ,samian wine1 but do not let us therefore confuse the qualities of wine and water4 ,i much doubt there being many inglorious ,miltons in our country churchyards2 but ,i am very sure there are many ,wordsworths resting there1 who were inferior to the renowned one only in caring less to hear themselves talk4 ,with an honest and kindly heart1 a stimulating egoism1 a wholesome contentment in modest circumstances1 and such sufficient ease1 in that accepted state1 as permitted the passing of a good deal of time in wishing that daisies could see the beauty of their own shadows1 and other such profitable mental exercises1 ,wordsworth has left us a series of studies of the graceful and happy shepherd life of our lake country1 which to me personally1 for one1 are entirely sweet and precious2 but they are only so as the mirror of an existent reality in many ways more beautiful than its picture4 #ea4 ,but the other day ,i went for an afternoon's rest into the cottage of one of our country people of old statesman class2 cottage lying nearly midway between two village churches1 but more conveniently for downhill walk towards one than the other4 ,i found1 as the good housewife made tea for me1 that nevertheless she went up the hill to church4 ,why do not you go to the nearer church8 ,i asked4 ,don't you like the clergyman8 ,oh no1 sir1 she answered1 it isn't that2 but you know ,i couldn't leave my mother4 ,your mother6 she is buried at ,h---- then8 ,yes1 sir2 and you know ,i couldn't go to church anywhere else4 ,that feelings such as these existed among the peasants1 not of ,cumberland only1 but of all the tender earth that gives forth her fruit for the living1 and receives her dead to peace1 might perhaps have been1 to our great and endless comfort1 discovered before now1 if ,wordsworth had been content to tell us what he knew of his own villages and people1 not as the leader of a new and only correct school of poetry1 but simply as a country gentleman of sense and feeling1 fond of primroses1 kind to the parish children1 and reverent of the spade with which ,wilkinson had tilled his lands3 and ,i am by no means sure that his influence on the stronger minds of his time was anywise hastened or extended by the spirit of tunefulness under whose guidance he discovered that heaven rymed to seven1 and ,foy to boy4 #eb4 ,tuneful nevertheless at heart1 and of the heavenly choir1 ,i gladly and frankly acknowledge him2 and our ,english literature enriched with a new and a singular virtue in the arial purity and healthful rightness of his quiet song2--but arial only1--not ethereal2 and lowly in its privacy of light4 ,a measured mind1 and calm2 innocent1 unrepentant2 helpful to sinless creatures and scathless1 such of the flock as do not stray4 ,hopeful at least1 if not faithful2 content with intimations of immortality such as may be in skipping of lambs1 and laughter of children--incurious to see in the hands the print of the ,nails4 ,a gracious and constant mind2 as the herbage of its native hills1 fragrant and pure2--yet1 to the sweep and the shadow1 the stress and distress1 of the greater souls of men1 as the tufted thyme to the laurel wilderness of ,tempe1--as the gleaming euphrasy to the dark branches of ,dodona4 ,i am obliged to defer the main body of this paper to next month1--revises penetrating all too late into my lacustrine seclusion2 as chanced also unluckily with the preceding paper1 in which the reader will perhaps kindly correct the consequent misprints now corrected1 ,,ed41 p4 #bjc1 l4 #bc1 of scarcely to securely1 and p4 #bjf1 l4 #f1 full1 with comma to fall1 without one2 noticing besides that ,redgauntlet has been omitted in the list1 pp4 #aih1 #aii2 and that the reference to note should not be at the word imagination1 p4 #aih1 l4 #f1 but at the word trade1 l4 #ae4 ,my dear old friend1 ,dr4 ,john ,brown1 sends me1 from ,jamieson's ,dictionary1 the following satisfactory end to one of my difficulties3--,coup the crans4 ,the language is borrowed from the cran1 or trivet on which small pots are placed in cookery1 which is sometimes turned with its feet uppermost by an awkward assistant4 ,thus it signifies to be completely upset4 ,,footnotes3 ,footnote #fb3 ,august1 #ahhj4 ,footnote #fc3 ,the following fragments out of the letters in my own possession1 written by ,scott to the builder of ,abbotsford1 as the outer decorations of the house were in process of completion1 will show how accurately ,scott had pictured himself in ,monkbarns4 ,,abbotsford3 ,april #ba1 #ahag4 ,,dear ,,sir1--,nothing can be more obliging than your attention to the old stones4 ,you have been as true as the sundial itself4 ,the sundial had just been erected4 ,of the two ,i would prefer the larger one1 as it is to be in front of a parapet quite in the old taste4 ,but in case of accidents it will be safest in your custody till ,i come to town again on the #abth of ,may4 ,your former favors 7which were weighty as acceptable7 have come safely out here1 and will be disposed of with great effect4 ,,abbotsford3 ,july #cjth4 ,i fancy the ,tolbooth still keeps its feet1 but1 as it must soon descend1 ,i hope you will remember me4 ,i have an important use for the niche above the door2 and though many a man has got a niche in the ,tolbooth by building1 ,i believe ,i am the first that ever got a niche out of it on such an occasion4 ,for which ,i have to thank your kindness1 and to remain very much your obliged humble servant1 ,,walter ,,scott4 ,august #af4 ,,my ,,dear ,,sir1--,i trouble you with this sic few lines to thank you for the very accurate drawings and measurements of the ,tolbooth door1 and for your kind promise to attend to my interest and that of ,abbotsford in the matter of the ,thistle and ,fleur de ,lis4 ,most of our scutcheons are now mounted1 and look very well1 as the house is something after the model of an old hall 7not a castle71 where such things are well in character4 ,alas--,sir ,walter1 ,sir ,walter6 ,i intend the old lion to predominate over a well which the children have christened the ,fountain of the ,lions4 ,his present den1 however1 continues to be the hall at ,castle ,street4 ,september #e4 ,,dear ,,sir1--,i am greatly obliged to you for securing the stone4 ,i am not sure that ,i will put up the gate quite in the old form1 but ,i would like to secure the means of doing so4 ,the ornamental stones are now put up1 and have a very happy effect4 ,if you will have the kindness to let me know when the ,tolbooth door comes down1 ,i will send in my carts for the stones2 ,i have an admirable situation for it4 ,i suppose the door itself he means the wooden one will be kept for the new jail2 if not1 and not otherwise wanted1 ,i would esteem it curious to possess it4 ,certainly ,i hope so many sore hearts will not pass through the celebrated door when in my possession as heretofore4 ,september #h4 ,i should esteem it very fortunate if ,i could have the door also1 though ,i suppose it is modern1 having been burned down at the time of ,porteous-mob4 ,i am very much obliged to the gentlemen who thought these remains of the ,heart of ,midlothian are not ill bestowed on their intended possessor4 ,footnote #fd3 ,henceforward1 not in affectation1 but for the reader's better convenience1 ,i shall continue to spell ,ryme without our wrongly added h4 ,footnote #fe3 ,l4 ii4 #bgh4 ,footnote #ff3 ,che nella mente mia ragiona4 ,love--you observe1 the highest ,reasonableness1 instead of ,french ivresse1 or even ,shakespearian mere folly2 and ,beatrice as the ,goddess of ,wisdom in this third song of the ,convito1 to be compared with the ,revolutionary ,goddess of ,reason2 remembering of the whole poem chiefly the line3-- ,costei penso chi che mosso l'universo4 7,see ,lyell's ,canzoniere1 p4 #ajd47 ,footnote #fg3 ,greek3 hran ts trpsios--,plato1 ,laws1 ii41 ,steph4 #ffi4 ,hour having here nearly the power of ,fate with added sense of being a daughter of ,themis4 ,footnote #fh3 ,gunpowder is one of the greatest inventions of modern times1 and what has given such a superiority to civilized nations over barbarous6 7,evenings at ,home--fifth evening47 ,no man can owe more than ,i both to ,mrs4 ,barbauld and ,miss ,edgeworth2 and ,i only wish that in the substance of what they wisely said1 they had been more listened to4 ,nevertheless1 the germs of all modern conceit and error respecting manufacture and industry1 as rivals to ,art and to ,genius1 are concentrated in ,evenings at ,home and ,harry and ,lucy--being all the while themselves works of real genius1 and prophetic of things that have yet to be learned and fulfilled4 ,see for instance the paper1 ,things by their ,right ,names1 following the one from which ,i have just quoted 7,the ,ship71 and closing the first volume of the old edition of the ,evenings4 ,footnote #fi3 ,carlyle1 ,french ,revolution 7,chapman1 #ahfi71 vol4 ii4 p4 #gj2 conf4 p4 #be1 and the a ira at ,arras1 vol4 iii4 p4 #bgf4 ,footnote #gj3 ,ibid4 iii4 #bf4 ,footnote #ga3 ,carlyle1 ,french ,revolution1 iii4 #ajf1 the last sentence altered in a word or two4 ,footnote #gb3 ,i have been greatly disappointed1 in taking soundings of our most majestic mountain pools1 to find them1 in no case1 verge on the unfathomable4 ,,fiction1 ,,fair ,,and ,,foul4 ,,iii4#gc ,,byron ,parching summer hath no warrant ,to consume this crystal well2 ,rains1 that make each brook a torrent1 ,neither sully it1 nor swell4 #ec4 ,so was it year by year1 among the unthought-of hills4 ,little ,duddon and child ,rotha ran clear and glad2 and laughed from ledge to pool1 and opened from pool to mere1 translucent1 through endless days of peace4 ,but eastward1 between her orchard plains1 ,loire locked her embracing dead in silent sands2 dark with blood rolled ,iser2 glacial-pale1 ,beresina-,lethe1 by whose shore the weary hearts forgot their people1 and their father's house4 ,nor unsullied1 ,tiber2 nor unswoln1 ,arno and ,aufidus2 and ,euroclydon high on ,helle's wave2 meantime1 let our happy piety glorify the garden rocks with snowdrop circlet1 and breathe the spirit of ,paradise1 where life is wise and innocent4 ,maps many have we1 nowadays clear in display of earth constituent1 air current1 and ocean tide4 ,shall we ever engrave the map of meaner research1 whose shadings shall content themselves in the task of showing the depth1 or drought1--the calm1 or trouble1 of ,human ,compassion8 #ed4 ,for this is indeed all that is noble in the life of ,man1 and the source of all that is noble in the speech of ,man4 ,had it narrowed itself then1 in those days1 out of all the world1 into this peninsula between ,cockermouth and ,shap8 ,not altogether so2 but indeed the ,vocal piety seemed conclusively to have retired 7or excursed87 into that mossy hermitage1 above ,little ,langdale4 ,the ,unvocal piety1 with the uncomplaining sorrow1 of ,man1 may have a somewhat wider range1 for aught we know3 but history disregards those items2 and of firmly proclaimed and sweetly canorous religion1 there really seemed at that juncture none to be reckoned upon1 east of ,ingleborough1 or north of ,criffel4 ,only under ,furness ,fells1 or by ,bolton ,priory1 it seems we can still write ,ecclesiastical ,sonnets1 stanzas on the force of ,prayer1 ,odes to ,duty1 and complimentary addresses to the ,deity upon ,his endurance for adoration4 ,far otherwise1 over yonder1 by ,spezzia ,bay1 and ,ravenna ,pineta1 and in ravines of ,hartz4 ,there1 the softest voices speak the wildest words2 and ,keats discourses of ,endymion1 ,shelley of ,demogorgon1 ,goethe of ,lucifer1 and ,burger of the ,resurrection of ,death unto ,death--while even ,puritan ,scotland and ,episcopal ,anglia produce for us only these three minstrels of doubtful tone1 who show but small respect for the unco guid1 put but limited faith in gifted ,gilfillan1 and translate with unflinching frankness the ,morgante ,maggiore4#gd #ee4 ,dismal the aspect of the spiritual world1 or at least the sound of it1 might well seem to the eyes and ears of ,saints 7such as we had7 of the period--dismal in angels' eyes also assuredly6 ,yet is it possible that the dismalness in angelic sight may be otherwise quartered1 as it were1 from the way of mortal heraldry2 and that seen1 and heard1 of angels1--again ,i say--hesitatingly--is it possible that the goodness of the ,unco ,guid1 and the gift of ,gilfillan1 and the word of ,mr4 ,blattergowl1 may severally not have been the goodness of ,god1 the gift of ,god1 nor the word of ,god3 but that in the much blotted and broken efforts at goodness1 and in the careless gift which they themselves despised1#ge and in the sweet ryme and murmur of their unpurposed words1 the ,spirit of the ,lord had1 indeed1 wandering1 as in chaos days on lightless waters1 gone forth in the hearts and from the lips of those other three strange prophets1 even though they ate forbidden bread by the altar of the poured-out ashes1 and even though the wild beast of the desert found them1 and slew4 ,this1 at least1 ,i know1 that it had been well for ,england1 though all her other prophets1 of the ,press1 the ,parliament1 the ,doctor's chair1 and the ,bishop's throne1 had fallen silent2 so only that she had been able to understand with her heart here and there the simplest line of these1 her despised4 #ef4 ,i take one at mere chance3 ,who thinks of self1 when gazing on the sky8#gf ,well1 ,i don't know2 ,mr4 ,wordsworth certainly did1 and observed1 with truth1 that its clouds took a sober coloring in consequence of his experiences4 ,it is much if1 indeed1 this sadness be unselfish1 and our eyes have kept loving watch o'er ,man's ,mortality4 ,i have found it difficult to make anyone nowadays believe that such sobriety can be2 and that ,turner saw deeper crimson than others in the clouds of ,goldau4 ,but that any should yet think the clouds brightened by ,man's ,immortality instead of dulled by his death1--and1 gazing on the sky1 look for the day when every eye must gaze also--for behold1 ,he cometh with clouds--this it is no more possible for ,christian ,england to apprehend1 however exhorted by her gifted and guid4 #eg4 ,but ,byron was not thinking of such things6--,he1 the reprobate6 how should such as he think of ,christ8 ,perhaps not wholly as you or ,i think of ,him4 ,take1 at chance1 another line or two1 to try3 ,carnage 7so ,wordsworth tells you7 is ,god's daughter2#gg ,if he speak truth1 she is ,christ's sister1 and ,just now1 behaved as in the ,holy ,land4 ,blasphemy1 cry you1 good reader8 ,are you sure you understand it8 ,the first line ,i gave you was easy ,byron--almost shallow ,byron--these are of the man in his depth1 and you will not fathom them1 like a tarn--nor in a hurry4 ,just now behaved as in the ,holy ,land4 ,how did ,carnage behave in the ,holy ,land then8 ,you have all been greatly questioning1 of late1 whether the sun1 which you find to be now going out1 ever stood still4 ,did you in any lagging minute1 on those scientific occasions1 chance to reflect what he was bid stand still for8 or if not--will you please look--and what also1 going forth again as a strong man to run his course1 he saw1 rejoicing8 ,then ,joshua passed from ,makkedah unto ,libnah--and fought against ,libnah4 ,and the ,lord delivered it and the king thereof into the hand of ,israel1 and he smote it with the edge of the sword1 and all the souls that were therein4 ,and from ,lachish to ,eglon1 and from ,eglon to ,kirjath-,arba1 and ,sarah's grave in the ,amorites' land1 and ,joshua smote all the country of the hills and of the south--and of the vale and of the springs1 and all their kings3 he left none remaining1 but utterly destroyed all that breathed--as the ,lord ,god of ,israel commanded4 #eh4 ,thus1 it is written3 though you perhaps do not so often hear these texts preached from1 as certain others about taking away the sins of the world4 ,i wonder how the world would like to part with them6 hitherto it has always preferred parting first with its life--and ,god has taken it at its word4 ,but ,death is not ,his ,begotten ,son1 for all that2 nor is the death of the innocent in battle carnage ,his instrument for working out a pure intent as ,mr4 ,wordsworth puts it2 but ,man's instrument for working out an impure one1 as ,byron would have you to know4 ,theology perhaps less orthodox1 but certainly more reverent2--neither is the ,woolwich ,infant a ,child of ,god2 neither does the iron-clad ,thunderer utter thunders of ,god--which facts if you had had the grace or sense to learn from ,byron1 instead of accusing him of blasphemy1 it had been better at this day for you1 and for many a savage soul also1 by ,euxine shore1 and in ,zulu and ,afghan lands4 #ei4 ,it was neither1 however1 for the theology1 nor the use1 of these lines that ,i quoted them2 but to note this main point of ,byron's own character4 ,he was the first great ,englishman who felt the cruelty of war1 and1 in its cruelty1 the shame4 ,its guilt had been known to ,george ,fox--its folly shown practically by ,penn4 ,but the compassion of the pious world had still for the most part been shown only in keeping its stock of ,barabbases unhanged if possible3 and1 till ,byron came1 neither ,kunersdorf1 ,eylau1 nor ,waterloo1 had taught the pity and the pride of men that ,the drying up a single tear has more ,of honest fame than shedding seas of gore4#gh ,such pacific verse would not indeed have been acceptable to the ,edinburgh volunteers on ,portobello sands4 ,but ,byron can write a battle song too1 when it is his cue to fight4 ,if you look at the introduction to the ,isles of ,greece1 namely the #heth and #hfth stanzas of the #crd canto of ,don ,juan1--you will find--what will you not find1 if only you understand them6 ,he in the first line1 remember1 means the typical modern poet4 ,thus usually1 when he was asked to sing1 ,he gave the different nations something national4 ',twas all the same to him--',god save the ,king' ,or ',ca ira' according to the fashion all2 ,his muse made increment of anything ,from the high lyric down to the low rational3 ,if ,pindar sang horse-races1 what should hinder ,himself from being as pliable as ,pindar8 ,in ,france1 for instance1 he would write a chanson2 ,in ,england a six-canto quarto tale2 ,in ,spain1 he'd make a ballad or romance on ,the last war--much the same in ,portugal2 ,in ,germany1 the ,pegasus he'd prance on ,would be old ,goethe's--7see what says de ,stal7 ,in ,italy1 he'd ape the ',trecentisti'2 ,in ,greece1 he'd sing some sort of hymn like this t'ye4 #fj4 ,note first here1 as we did in ,scott1 the concentrating and foretelling power4 ,the ,god ,save the ,queen in ,england1 fallen hollow now1 as the ,ca ira in ,france--not a man in ,france knowing where either ,france or that 7whatever that may be7 is going to2 nor the ,queen of ,england daring1 for her life1 to ask the tiniest ,englishman to do a single thing he doesn't like2--nor any salvation1 either of ,queen or ,realm1 being any more possible to ,god1 unless under the direction of the ,royal ,society3 then1 note the estimate of height and depth in poetry1 swept in an instant1 high lyric to low rational4 ,pindar to ,pope 7knowing ,pope's height1 too1 all the while1 no man better72 then1 the poetic power of ,france--resumed in a word--,branger2 then the cut at ,marmion1 entirely deserved1 as we shall see1 yet kindly given1 for everything he names in these two stanzas is the best of its kind2 then ',romance in ,spain on--the last war1 7present war not being to ,spanish poetical taste17 then1 ,goethe the real heart of all ,germany1 and last1 the aping of the ,trecentisti which has since consummated itself in ,pre-,raphaelitism6 that also being the best thing ,italy has done through ,england1 whether in ,rossetti's blessed damozels or ,burne ,jones's days of creation4 ,lastly comes the mock at himself--the modern ,english ,greek--7followed up by the degenerate into hands like mine in the song itself72 and then--to amazement1 forth he thunders in his ,achilles-voice4 ,we have had one line of him in his clearness--five of him in his depth--sixteen of him in his play4 ,hear now but these1 out of his whole heart3-- ,what1--silent yet8 and silent all8 ,ah no1 the voices of the dead ,sound like a distant torrent's fall1 ,and answer1 ',let one living head1 ,but one1 arise--we come--we come3' --',tis but the living who are dumb4 ,resurrection1 this1 you see like ,brger's2 but not of death unto death4 #fa4 ,sound like a distant torrent's fall4 ,i said the whole heart of ,byron was in this passage4 ,first its compassion1 then its indignation1 and the third element1 not yet examined1 that love of the beauty of this world in which the three--unholy--children1 of its ,fiery ,furnace were like to each other2 but ,byron the widest-hearted4 ,scott and ,burns love ,scotland more than ,nature itself3 for ,burns the moon must rise over ,cumnock ,hills1--for ,scott1 the ,rymer's glen divide the ,eildons2 but1 for ,byron1 ,loch-na-,gar with ,ida1 looks o'er ,troy1 and the soft murmurs of the ,dee and the ,bruar change into voices of the dead on distant ,marathon4 ,yet take the parallel from ,scott1 by a field of homelier rest3-- ,and silence aids--though the steep hills ,send to the lake a thousand rills2 ,in summer tide1 so soft they weep1 ,the sound but lulls the ear asleep2 ,your horse's hoof-tread sounds too rude1 ,so stilly is the solitude4 ,nought living meets the eye or ear1 ,but well ,i ween the dead are near2 ,for though1 in feudal strife1 a foe ,hath laid our ,lady's ,chapel low1 ,yet still beneath the hallowed soil1 ,the peasant rests him from his toil1 ,and1 dying1 bids his bones be laid ,where erst his simple fathers prayed4 ,and last take the same note of sorrow--with ,burns's finger on the fall of it3 ,mourn1 ilka grove the cushat kens1 ,ye hazly shaws and briery dens1 ,ye burnies1 wimplin' down your glens ,wi' toddlin' din1 ,or foamin' strang wi' hasty stens ,frae lin to lin4 #fb4 ,as you read1 one after another1 these fragments of chant by the great masters1 does not a sense come upon you of some element in their passion1 no less than in their sound1 different1 specifically1 from that of ,parching summer hath no warrant8 ,is it more profane1 think you--or more tender--nay1 perhaps1 in the core of it1 more true8 ,for instance1 when we are told that ,wharfe1 as he moved along1 ,to matins joined a mournful voice1 is this disposition of the river's mind to pensive psalmody quite logically accounted for by the previous statement1 7itself by no means rythmically dulcet17 that ,the boy is in the arms of ,wharfe1 ,and strangled by a merciless force8 ,or1 when we are led into the improving reflection1 ,how sweet were leisure1 could it yield no more ,than 'mid this wave-washed churchyard to recline1 ,from pastoral graves extracting thoughts divine6 --is the divinity of the extract assured to us by its being made at leisure1 and in a reclining attitude--as compared with the meditations of otherwise active men1 in an erect one8 ,or are we perchance1 many of us1 still erring somewhat in our notions alike of ,divinity and ,humanity1--poetical extraction1 and moral position8 #fc4 ,on the chance of its being so1 might ,i ask hearing for just a few words more of the school of ,belial8 ,their occasion1 it must be confessed1 is a quite unjustifiable one4 ,some very wicked people--mutineers1 in fact--have retired1 misanthropically1 into an unfrequented part of the country1 and there find themselves safe indeed1 but extremely thirsty4 ,whereupon ,byron thus gives them to drink3 ,a little stream came tumbling from the height ,and straggling into ocean as it might4 ,its bounding crystal frolicked in the ray ,and gushed from cliff to crag with saltless spray1 ,close on the wild wide ocean1--yet as pure ,and fresh as ,innocence2 and more secure4 ,its silver torrent glittered o'er the deep ,as the shy chamois' eye o'erlooks the steep1 ,while1 far below1 the vast and sullen swell ,of ocean's ,alpine azure rose and fell4#gi ,now1 ,i beg1 with such authority as an old workman may take concerning his trade1 having also looked at a waterfall or two in my time1 and not unfrequently at a wave1 to assure the reader that here is entirely first-rate literary work4 ,though ,lucifer himself had written it1 the thing is itself good1 and not only so1 but unsurpassedly good1 the closing line being probably the best concerning the sea yet written by the race of the sea-kings4 #fd4 ,but ,lucifer himself could not have written it2 neither any servant of ,lucifer4 ,i do not doubt but that most readers were surprised at my saying1 in the close of my first paper1 that ,byron's style depended in any wise on his views respecting the ,ten ,commandments4 ,that so all-important a thing as style should depend in the least upon so ridiculous a thing as moral sense3 or that ,allegra's father1 watching her drive by in ,count ,g4's coach and six1 had any remnant of so ridiculous a thing to guide1--or check1--his poetical passion1 may alike seem more than questionable to the liberal and chaste philosophy of the existing ,british public4 ,but1 first of all1 putting the question of who writes or speaks aside1 do you1 good reader1 know good style when you get it8 ,can you say1 of half a dozen given lines taken anywhere out of a novel1 or poem1 or play1 ,that is good1 essentially1 in style1 or bad1 essentially8 and can you say why such half-dozen lines are good1 or bad8 #fe4 ,i imagine that in most cases1 the reply would be given with hesitation1 yet if you will give me a little patience1 and take some accurate pains1 ,i can show you the main tests of style in the space of a couple of pages4 ,i take two examples of absolutely perfect1 and in manner highest1 i4 e41 kingly1 and heroic1 style3 the first example in expression of anger1 the second of love4 7#a7 ,we are glad the ,dauphin is so pleasant with us1 ,his present1 and your pains1 we thank you for4 ,when we have match'd our rackets to these balls1 ,we will in ,france1 by ,god's grace1 play a set ,shall strike his father's crown into the hazard4 7#b7 ,my gracious ,silence1 hail6 ,would'st thou have laughed1 had ,i come coffin'd home ,that weep'st to see me triumph8 ,ah1 my dear1 ,such eyes the widows in ,corioli wear ,and mothers that lack sons4 #ff4 ,let us note1 point by point1 the conditions of greatness common to both these passages1 so opposite in temper4 ,a4 ,absolute command over all passion1 however intense2 this the first-of-first conditions1 7see the ,king's own sentence just before1 ,we are no tyrant1 but a ,christian ,king1 ,unto whose grace our passion is as subject ,as are our wretches fettered in our prisons72 and with this self-command1 the supremely surveying grasp of every thought that is to be uttered1 before its utterance2 so that each may come in its exact place1 time1 and connection4 ,the slightest hurry1 the misplacing of a word1 or the unnecessary accent on a syllable1 would destroy the style in an instant4 ,b4 ,choice of the fewest and simplest words that can be found in the compass of the language1 to express the thing meant3 these few words being also arranged in the most straightforward and intelligible way2 allowing inversion only when the subject can be made primary without obscurity3 7thus1 his present1 and your pains1 we thank you for is better than we thank you for his present and your pains1 because the ,dauphin's gift is by courtesy put before the ,ambassador's pains2 but when to these balls our rackets we have matched would have spoiled the style in a moment1 because--,i was going to have said1 ball and racket are of equal rank1 and therefore only the natural order proper2 but also here the natural order is the desired one1 the ,english racket to have precedence of the ,french ball74 ,in the fourth line the in ,france comes first1 as announcing the most important resolution of action2 the by ,god's grace next1 as the only condition rendering resolution possible2 the detail of issue follows with the strictest limit in the final word4 ,the ,king does not say danger1 far less dishonor1 but hazard only2 of that he is1 humanly speaking1 sure4 #fg4 ,c4 ,perfectly emphatic and clear utterance of the chosen words2 slowly in the degree of their importance1 with omission however of every word not absolutely required2 and natural use of the familiar contractions of final dissyllable4 ,thus play a set shall strike is better than play a set that shall strike1 and match'd is kingly short--no necessity of meter could have excused matched instead4 ,on the contrary1 the three first words1 ,we are glad1 would have been spoken by the king more slowly and fully than any other syllables in the whole passage1 first pronouncing the kingly we at its proudest1 and then the are as a continuous state1 and then the glad1 as the exact contrary of what the ambassadors expected him to be4#hj ,d4 ,absolute spontaneity in doing all this1 easily and necessarily as the heart beats4 ,the king cannot speak otherwise than he does--nor the hero4 ,the words not merely come to them1 but are compelled to them4 ,even lisping numbers come1 but mighty numbers are ordained1 and inspired4 ,e4 ,melody in the words1 changeable with their passion1 fitted to it exactly1 and the utmost of which the language is capable--the melody in prose being ,eolian and variable--in verse1 nobler by submitting itself to stricter law4 ,i will enlarge upon this point presently4 ,f4 ,utmost spiritual contents in the words2 so that each carries not only its instant meaning1 but a cloudy companionship of higher or darker meaning according to the passion--nearly always indicated by metaphor3 play a set--sometimes by abstraction--7thus in the second passage silence for silent one7 sometimes by description instead of direct epithet 7coffined for dead7 but always indicative of there being more in the speaker's mind than he has said1 or than he can say1 full though his saying be4 ,on the quantity of this attendant fullness depends the majesty of style2 that is to say1 virtually1 on the quantity of contained thought in briefest words1 such thought being primarily loving and true3 and this the sum of all--that nothing can be well said1 but with truth1 nor beautifully1 but by love4 #fh4 ,these are the essential conditions of noble speech in prose and verse alike1 but the adoption of the form of verse1 and especially rymed verse1 means the addition to all these qualities of one more2 of music1 that is to say1 not ,eolian merely1 but ,apolline2 a construction or architecture of words fitted and befitting1 under external laws of time and harmony4 ,when ,byron says rhyme is of the rude1#ha he means that ,burns needs it1--while ,henry the ,fifth does not1 nor ,plato1 nor ,isaiah--yet in this need of it by the simple1 it becomes all the more religious3 and thus the loveliest pieces of ,christian language are all in ryme--the best of ,dante1 ,chaucer1 ,douglas1 ,shakespeare1 ,spenser1 and ,sidney4 #fi4 ,i am not now able to keep abreast with the tide of modern scholarship2 7nor1 to say the truth1 do ,i make the effort1 the first edge of its waves being mostly muddy1 and apt to make a shallow sweep of the shore refuse37 so that ,i have no better book of reference by me than the confused essay on the antiquity of ryme at the end of ,turner's ,anglo-,saxons4 ,i cannot however conceive a more interesting piece of work1 if not yet done1 than the collection of sifted earliest fragments known of rymed song in ,european languages4 ,of ,eastern ,i know nothing2 but1 this side ,hellespont1 the substance of the matter is all given in ,king ,canute's impromptu ,gaily 7or is it sweetly8--,i forget which1 and it's no matter7 sang the monks of ,ely1 ,as ,knut the king came sailing by2 much to be noted by any who make their religion lugubrious1 and their ,sunday the eclipse of the week4 ,and observe further1 that if ,milton does not ryme1 it is because his faculty of ,song was concerning ,loss1 chiefly2 and he has little more than faculty of ,croak1 concerning ,gain2 while ,dante1 though modern readers never go further with him than into the ,pit1 is stayed only by ,casella in the ascent to the ,rose of ,heaven4 ,so1 ,gibbon can write in his manner the ,fall of ,rome2 but ,virgil1 in his manner1 the rise of it2 and finally ,douglas1 in his manner1 bursts into such rymed passion of praise both of ,rome and ,virgil1 as befits a ,christian ,bishop1 and a good subject of the ,holy ,see4 ,master of ,masters--sweet source1 and springing well1 ,wide where over all rings thy heavenly bell2 99 99 99 99 99 ,why should ,i then with dull forehead and vain1 ,with rude ingene1 and barane1 emptive brain1 ,with bad harsh speech1 and lewit barbare tongue ,presume to write1 where thy sweet bell is rung1 ,or counterfeit thy precious wordis dear8 ,na1 na--not so2 but kneel when ,i them hear4 ,but farther more--and lower to descend ,forgive me1 ,virgil1 if ,i thee offend ,pardon thy scolar1 suffer him to ryme ,since thou wast but ane mortal man sometime4 ,before honor is humility4 ,does not clearer light come for you on that law after reading these nobly pious words8 ,and note you whose humility8 ,how is it that the sound of the bell comes so instinctively into his chiming verse8 ,this gentle singer is the son of--,archibald ,bell-the-,cat6 #gj4 ,and now perhaps you can read with right sympathy the scene in ,marmion between his father and ,king ,james4 ,his hand the monarch sudden took-- ',now1 by the ,bruce's soul1 ,angus1 my hasty speech forgive1 ,for sure as doth his spirit live ,as he said of the ,douglas old ,i well may say of you1-- ,that never king did subject hold1 ,in speech more free1 in war more bold1 ,more tender and more true3' ,and while the king his hand did strain ,the old man's tears fell down like rain4 ,i believe the most infidel of scholastic readers can scarcely but perceive the relation between the sweetness1 simplicity1 and melody of expression in these passages1 and the gentleness of the passions they express1 while men who are not scholastic1 and yet are true scholars1 will recognize further in them that the simplicity of the educated is lovelier than the simplicity of the rude4 ,hear next a piece of ,spenser's teaching how rudeness itself may become more beautiful even by its mistakes1 if the mistakes are made lovingly4 ,ye shepherds' daughters that dwell on the green1 ,hye you there apace2 ,let none come there but that virgins been ,to adorn her grace3 ,and when you come1 whereas she in place1 ,see that your rudeness do not you disgrace2 ,bind your fillets fast1 ,and gird in your waste1 ,for more fineness1 with a taudry lace4 ,bring hither the pink and purple cullumbine ,with gylliflowers2 ,bring coronatins1 and sops in wine1 ,worn of paramours2 ,strow me the ground with daffadowndillies ,and cowslips1 and kingcups1 and loved lilies2 ,the pretty paunce ,and the chevisaunce ,shall match with the fair flowre-delice4#hb #ga4 ,two short pieces more only of master song1 and we have enough to test all by4 7#a7 ,no more1 no more1 since thou art dead1 ,shall we e'er bring coy brides to bed1 ,no more1 at yearly festivals1 ,we cowslip balls ,or chains of columbines shall make1 ,for this or that occasion's sake4 ,no1 no6 our maiden pleasures be ,wrapt in thy winding-sheet with thee4#hc 7#b7 ,death is now the phoenix nest1 ,and the turtle's loyal breast ,to eternity doth rest4 ,truth may seem1 but cannot be2 ,beauty brag1 but 'tis not she3 ,truth and beauty buried be4#hd #gb4 ,if now1 with the echo of these perfect verses in your mind1 you turn to ,byron1 and glance over1 or recall to memory1 enough of him to give means of exact comparison1 you will1 or should1 recognize these following kinds of mischief in him4 ,first1 if anyone offends him--as for instance ,mr4 ,southey1 or ,lord ,elgin--his manners have not that repose that marks the caste1 etc4 ,this defect in his ,lordship's style1 being myself scrupulously and even painfully reserved in the use of vituperative language1 ,i need not say how deeply ,i deplore4#he ,secondly4 ,in the best and most violet-bedded bits of his work there is yet1 as compared with ,elizabethan and earlier verse1 a strange taint2 an indefinable--evening flavor of ,covent ,garden1 as it were2--not to say1 escape of gas in the ,strand4 ,that is simply what it proclaims itself--,london air4 ,if he had lived all his life in ,green-head ,ghyll1 things would of course have been different4 ,but it was his fate to come to town--modern town--like ,michael's son2 and modern ,london 7and ,venice7 are answerable for the state of their drains1 not ,byron4 ,thirdly4 ,his melancholy is without any relief whatsoever2 his jest sadder than his earnest2 while1 in ,elizabethan work1 all lament is full of hope1 and all pain of balsam4 ,of this evil he has himself told you the cause in a single line prophetic of all things since and now4 ,where he gazed1 a gloom pervaded space4#hf ,so that1 for instance1 while ,mr4 ,wordsworth1 on a visit to town1 being an exemplary early riser1 could walk1 felicitous1 on ,westminster ,bridge1 remarking how the city now did like a garment wear the beauty of the morning2 ,byron1 rising somewhat later1 contemplated only the garment which the beauty of the morning had by that time received for wear from the city3 and again1 while ,mr4 ,wordsworth1 in irrepressible religious rapture1 calls ,god to witness that the houses seem asleep1 ,byron1 lame demon as he was1 flying smoke-drifted1 unroofs the houses at a glance1 and sees what the mighty cockney heart of them contains in the still lying of it1 and will stir up to purpose in the waking business of it1 ,the sordor of civilization1 mixed ,with all the passions which ,man's fall hath fixed4#hg #gc4 ,fourthly1 with this steadiness of bitter melancholy1 there is joined a sense of the material beauty1 both of inanimate nature1 the lower animals1 and human beings1 which in the iridescence1 color-depth1 and morbid 7,i use the word deliberately7 mystery and softness of it1--with other qualities indescribable by any single words1 and only to be analyzed by extreme care1--is found1 to the full1 only in five men that ,i know of in modern times2 namely1 ,rousseau1 ,shelley1 ,byron1 ,turner1 and myself1--differing totally and throughout the entire group of us1 from the delight in clear-struck beauty of ,angelico and the ,trecentisti2 and separated1 much more singularly1 from the cheerful joys of ,chaucer1 ,shakespeare1 and ,scott1 by its unaccountable affection for ,rokkes blak and other forms of terror and power1 such as those of the ice-oceans1 which to ,shakespeare were only ,alpine rheum2 and the ,via ,malas and ,diabolic ,bridges which ,dante would have condemned none but lost souls to climb1 or cross2--all this love of impending mountains1 coiled thunder-clouds1 and dangerous sea1 being joined in us with a sulky1 almost ferine1 love of retreat in valleys of ,charmettes1 gulfs of ,spezzia1 ravines of ,olympus1 low lodgings in ,chelsea1 and close brushwood at ,coniston4 #gd4 ,and1 lastly1 also in the whole group of us1 glows volcanic instinct of ,astran justice returning not to1 but up out of1 the earth1 which will not at all suffer us to rest any more in ,pope's serene whatever is1 is right2 but holds1 on the contrary1 profound conviction that about ninety-nine hundredths of whatever at present is1 is wrong3 conviction making four of us1 according to our several manners1 leaders of revolution for the poor1 and declarers of political doctrine monstrous to the ears of mercenary mankind2 and driving the fifth1 less sanguine1 into mere painted-melody of lament over the fallacy of ,hope and the implacableness of ,fate4 ,in ,byron the indignation1 the sorrow1 and the effort are joined to the death3 and they are the parts of his nature 7as of mine also in its feebler terms71 which the selfishly comfortable public have1 literally1 no conception of whatever2 and from which the piously sentimental public1 offering up daily the pure oblation of divine tranquillity1 shrink with anathema not unembittered by alarm4 #ge4 ,concerning which matters ,i hope to speak further and with more precise illustration in my next paper2 but1 seeing that this present one has been hitherto somewhat somber1 and perhaps1 to gentle readers1 not a little discomposing1 ,i will conclude it with a piece of light biographic study1 necessary to my plan1 and as conveniently admissible in this place as afterwards2--namely1 the account of the manner in which ,scott--whom we shall always find1 as aforesaid1 to be in salient and palpable elements of character1 of the ,world1 worldly1 as ,burns is of the ,flesh1 fleshly1 and ,byron of the ,deuce1 damnable1--spent his ,sunday4 #gf4 ,as usual1 from ,lockhart's farrago we cannot find out the first thing we want to know1--whether ,scott worked after his week-day custom1 on the ,sunday morning4 ,but1 ,i gather1 not2 at all events his household and his cattle rested 7,l4 iii4 #ajh74 ,i imagine he walked out into his woods1 or read quietly in his study4 ,immediately after breakfast1 whoever was in the house1 ,ladies and gentlemen1 ,i shall read prayers at eleven1 when ,i expect you all to attend 7vii4 #cjf74 ,question of college and other externally unanimous prayer settled for us very briefly3 if you have no faith1 have at least manners4 ,he read the ,church of ,england service1 lessons and all1 the latter1 if interesting1 eloquently 7ibid474 ,after the service1 one of ,jeremy ,taylor's sermons 7vi4 #ahh74 ,after sermon1 if the weather was fine1 walk with his family1 dogs included and guests1 to cold picnic 7iii4 #aji71 followed by short extempore biblical novelettes2 for he had his ,bible1 the ,old ,testament especially1 by heart1 it having been his mother's last gift to him 7vi4 #agd74 ,these lessons to his children in ,bible history were always given1 whether there was picnic or not4 ,for the rest of the afternoon he took his pleasure in the woods with ,tom ,purdie1 who also always appeared at his master's elbow on ,sunday after dinner was over1 and drank long life to the laird and his lady and all the good company1 in a quaigh of whisky or a tumbler of wine1 according to his fancy 7vi4 #aie74 ,whatever might happen on the other evenings of the week1 ,scott always dined at home on ,sunday2 and with old friends3 never1 unless inevitably1 receiving any person with whom he stood on ceremony 7v4 #cce74 ,he came into the room rubbing his hands like a boy arriving at home for the holidays1 his ,peppers and ,mustards gamboling about him1 and even the stately ,maida grinning and wagging his tail with sympathy4 ,for the usquebaugh of the less honored week-days1 at the ,sunday board he circulated the champagne briskly during dinner1 and considered a pint of claret each man's fair share afterwards 7v4 #cci74 ,in the evening1 music being to the ,scottish worldly mind indecorous1 he read aloud some favorite author1 for the amusement or edification of his little circle4 ,shakespeare it might be1 or ,dryden1--,johnson1 or ,joanna ,baillie1--,crabbe1 or ,wordsworth4 ,but in those days ,byron was pouring out his spirit fresh and full1 and if a new piece from his hand had appeared1 it was sure to be read by ,scott the ,sunday evening afterwards2 and that with such delighted emphasis as showed how completely the elder bard had kept up his enthusiasm for poetry at pitch of youth1 and all his admiration of genius1 free1 pure1 and unstained by the least drop of literary jealousy 7v4 #cda74 #gg4 ,with such necessary and easily imaginable varieties as chanced in having ,dandie ,dinmont or ,captain ,brown for guests at ,abbotsford1 or ,colonel ,mannering1 ,counselor ,pleydell1 and ,dr4 ,robertson in ,castle ,street1 such was ,scott's habitual ,sabbath3 a day1 we perceive1 of eating the fat1 7dinner1 presumably not cold1 being a work of necessity and mercy--thou also1 even thou1 ,saint ,thomas of ,turnbull1 hast thine67 and drinking the sweet1 abundant in the manner of ,mr4 ,southey's cataract of ,lodore1--,here it comes1 sparkling4 ,a day bestrewn with coronatins and sops in wine2 deep in libations to good hope and fond memory2 a day of rest to beast1 and mirth to man1 7as also to sympathetic beasts that can be merry17 and concluding itself in an ,orphic hour of delight1 signifying peace on ,tweedside1 and goodwill to men1 there or far away2--always excepting the ,french1 and ,boney4 ,yes1 and see what it all came to in the end4 ,not so1 dark-virulent ,minos-,mucklewrath2 the end came of quite other things2 of these1 came such length of days and peace as ,scott had in his ,fatherland1 and such immortality as he has in all lands4 #gh4 ,nathless1 firm1 though deeply courteous1 rebuke1 for his sometimes overmuch lightmindedness1 was administered to him by the more grave and thoughtful ,byron4 ,for the ,lord ,abbot of ,newstead knew his ,bible by heart as well as ,scott1 though it had never been given him by his mother as her dearest possession4 ,knew it1 and what was more1 had thought of it1 and sought in it what ,scott had never cared to think1 nor been fain to seek4 ,and loving ,scott well1 and always doing him every possible pleasure in the way he sees to be most agreeable to him--as1 for instance1 remembering with precision1 and writing down the very next morning1 every blessed word that the ,prince ,regent had been pleased to say of him before courtly audience1--he yet conceived that such cheap ryming as his own ,bride of ,abydos1 for instance1 which he had written from beginning to end in four days1 or even the traveling reflections of ,harold and ,juan on men and women1 were scarcely steady enough ,sunday afternoon's reading for a patriarch-,merlin like ,scott4 ,so he dedicates to him a work of a truly religious tendency1 on which for his own part he has done his best1--the drama of ,cain4 ,of which dedication the virtual significance to ,sir ,walter might be translated thus4 ,dearest and last of ,border soothsayers1 thou hast indeed told us of ,black ,dwarfs1 and of ,white ,maidens1 also of ,gray ,friars1 and ,green ,fairies2 also of sacred hollies by the well1 and haunted crooks in the glen4 ,but of the bushes that the black dogs rend in the woods of ,phlegethon2 and of the crooks in the glen1 and the bickerings of the burnie where ghosts meet the mightiest of us2 and of the black misanthrope1 who is by no means yet a dwarfed one1 and concerning whom wiser creatures than ,hobbie ,elliot may tremblingly ask ,gude guide us1 what's yon8 hast thou yet known1 seeing that thou hast yet told1 nothing4 ,scott may perhaps have his answer4 ,we shall in good time hear4 ,,footnotes3 ,footnote #gc3 ,september1 #ahhj4 ,footnote #gd3 ,it must be put by the original1 stanza for stanza1 and verse for verse2 and you will see what was permitted in a ,catholic country and a bigoted age to ,churchmen1 on the score of ,religion--and so tell those buffoons who accuse me of attacking the ,liturgy4 ,i write in the greatest haste1 it being the hour of the ,corso1 and ,i must go and buffoon with the rest4 ,my daughter ,allegra is just gone with the ,countess ,g4 in ,count ,g4's coach and six4 ,our old ,cardinal is dead1 and the new one not appointed yet--but the masquing goes on the same4 7,letter to ,murray1 #ceeth in ,moore1 dated ,ravenna1 ,feb4 #g1 #ahbj47 ,a dreadfully moral place1 for you must not look at anybody's wife1 except your neighbor's4 ,footnote #ge3 ,see quoted infra the mock1 by ,byron1 of himself and all other modern poets1 ,juan1 canto iii4 stanza #hj1 and compare canto xiv4 stanza #h4 ,in reference of future quotations the first numeral will stand always for canto2 the second for stanza2 the third1 if necessary1 for line4 ,footnote #gf3 ,island1 ii4 #af1 where see context4 ,footnote #gg3 ,juan1 viii4 #e2 but1 by your ,lordship's quotation1 ,wordsworth says instrument1--not daughter4 ,your ,lordship had better have said ,infant and taken the ,woolwich authorities to witness3 only ,infant would not have rymed4 ,footnote #gh3 ,juan1 viii4 #c2 compare #ad1 and #fc1 with all its lovely context #fa-fh3 then #hb1 and afterwards slowly and with thorough attention1 the ,devil's speech1 beginning1 ,yes1 ,sir1 you forget in scene #b of ,the ,deformed ,transformed3 then ,sardanapalus's1 act i4 scene #b1 beginning1 he is gone1 and on his finger bears my signet1 and finally the ,vision of ,judgment1 stanzas #c to #e4 ,footnote #gi3 ,island1 iii4 #c1 and compare1 of shore surf1 the slings its high flakes1 shivered into sleet of stanza #g4 ,footnote #hj3 ,a modern editor--of whom ,i will not use the expressions which occur to me--finding the we a redundant syllable in the iambic line1 prints1 we're4 ,it is a little thing--but ,i do not recollect1 in the forty years of my literary experience1 any piece of editor's retouch quite so base4 ,but ,i don't read the new editions much3 that must be allowed for4 ,footnote #ha3 ,island1 ii4 #e4 ,i was going to say1 ,look to the context1 but am fain to give it here2 for the stanza1 learned by heart1 ought to be our school-introduction to the literature of the world4 ,such was this ditty of ,tradition's days1 ,which to the dead a lingering fame conveys ,in song1 where fame as yet hath left no sign ,beyond the sound whose charm is half divine2 ,which leaves no record to the skeptic eye1 ,but yields young history all to harmony2 ,a boy ,achilles1 with the centaur's lyre ,in hand1 to teach him to surpass his sire4 ,for one long-cherish'd ballad's simple stave1 ,rung from the rock1 or mingled with the wave1 ,or from the bubbling streamlet's grassy side1 ,or gathering mountain echoes as they glide1 ,hath greater power o'er each true heart and ear1 ,than all the columns ,conquest's minions rear2 ,invites1 when hieroglyphics are a theme ,for sages' labors or the student's dream2 ,attracts1 when ,history's volumes are a toil-- ,the first1 the freshest bud of ,feeling's soil1 ,such was this rude rhyme--rhyme is of the rude1 ,but such inspired the ,norseman's solitude1 ,who came and conquer'd2 such1 wherever rise ,lands which no foes destroy or civilize1 ,exist2 and what can our accomplish'd art ,of verse do more than reach the awaken'd heart8 ,footnote #hb3 ,shepherd's ,calendar4 ,coronatin1 loyal-pastoral for ,carnation2 sops in wine1 jolly-pastoral for double pink2 paunce1 thoughtless pastoral for pansy2 chevisaunce1 ,i don't know 7not in ,gerarde72 flowre-delice--pronounce dellice--half made up of delicate and delicious4 ,footnote #hc3 ,herrick1 ,dirge for ,jephthah's ,daughter4 ,footnote #hd3 ,passionate ,pilgrim4 ,footnote #he3 ,in this point compare the ,curse of ,minerva with the ,tears of the ,muses4 ,footnote #hf3 ,he1--,lucifer2 7,vision of ,judgment1 #bd74 ,it is precisely because ,byron was not his servant1 that he could see the gloom4 ,to the ,devil's true servants1 their ,master's presence brings both cheerfulness and prosperity2 with a delightful sense of their own wisdom and virtue2 and of the progress of things in general3--in smooth sea and fair weather1--and with no need either of helm touch1 or oar toil3 as when once one is well within the edge of ,maelstrom4 ,footnote #hg3 ,island1 ii4 #d2 perfectly orthodox theology1 you observe2 no denial of the fall1--nor substitution of ,bacterian birth for it4 ,nay1 nearly ,evangelical theology1 in contempt for the human heart2 but with deeper than ,evangelical humility1 acknowledging also what is sordid in its civilization4 ,,fiction1 ,,fair ,,and ,,foul4 ,,iv4#hh #gi4 ,i fear the editor of the ,nineteenth ,century will get little thanks from his readers for allowing so much space in closely successive numbers to my talk of old-fashioned men and things4 ,i have nevertheless asked his indulgence1 this time1 for a note or two concerning yet older fashions1 in order to bring into sharper clearness the leading outlines of literary fact1 which ,i ventured only in my last paper to secure in silhouette1 obscurely asserting itself against the limelight of recent moral creed1 and fiction manufacture4 ,the ,bishop of ,manchester1 on the occasion of the great ,wordsworthian movement in that city for the enlargement1 adornment1 and sale of ,thirlmere1 observed1 in his advocacy of these operations1 that very few people1 he supposed1 had ever seen ,tairlmere4 ,his ,lordship might have supposed1 with greater felicity1 that very few people had ever read ,wordsworth4 ,my own experience in that matter is that the amiable persons who call themselves ,wordsworthian have read--usually a long time ago--,lucy ,gray1 ,the ,april ,mornings1 a picked sonnet or two1 and the ,ode on the ,intimations1 which last they seem generally to be under the impression that nobody else has ever met with3 and my further experience of these sentimental students is1 that they are seldom inclined to put in practice a single syllable of the advice tendered them by their model poet4 ,now1 as ,i happen myself to have used ,wordsworth as a daily text-book from youth to age1 and have lived1 moreover1 in all essential points according to the tenor of his teaching1 it was matter of some mortification to me1 when1 at ,oxford1 ,i tried to get the memory of ,mr4 ,wilkinson's spade honored by some practical spadework at ,ferry ,hincksey1 to find that no other tutor in ,oxford could see the slightest good or meaning in what ,i was about2 and that although my friend ,professor ,rolleston occasionally sought the shades of our ,rydalian laurels with expressions of admiration1 his professorial manner of from pastoral graves extracting thoughts divine was to fill the ,oxford ,museum with the scabbed skulls of plague-struck cretins4 #hj4 ,i therefore respectfully venture to intimate to my bucolic friends1 that ,i know1 more vitally by far than they1 what is in ,wordsworth1 and what is not4 ,any man who chooses to live by his precepts will thankfully find in them a beauty and rightness1 7exquisite rightness ,i called it1 in ,sesame and ,lilies17 which will preserve him alike from mean pleasure1 vain hope1 and guilty deed3 so that he will neither mourn at the gate of the fields which with covetous spirit he sold1 nor drink of the waters which with yet more covetous spirit he stole1 nor devour the bread of the poor in secret1 nor set on his guest-table the poor man's lamb3--in all these homely virtues and assured justices let him be ,wordsworth's true disciple2 and he will then be able with equanimity to hear it said1 when there is need to say so1 that his excellent master often wrote verses that were not musical1 and sometimes expressed opinions that were not profound4 ,and the need to say so becomes imperative when the unfinished verse1 and uncorrected fancy1 are advanced by the affection of his disciples into places of authority where they give countenance to the popular national prejudices from the infection of which1 in most cases1 they themselves sprang4 #ha4 ,take1 for example1 the following three and a half lines of the #chth ,ecclesiastical ,sonnet3-- ,amazement strikes the crowd2 while many turn ,their eyes away in sorrow1 others burn ,with scorn1 invoking a vindictive ban ,from outraged ,nature4 ,the first quite evident character of these lines is that they are extremely bad iambics1--as ill-constructed as they are unmelodious2 the turning and burning being at the wrong ends of them1 and the ends themselves put just when the sentence is in its middle4 ,but a graver fault of these three and a half lines is that the amazement1 the turning1 the burning1 and the banning1 are all alike fictitious2 and foul-fictitious1 calumniously conceived no less than falsely4 ,not one of the spectators of the scene referred to was in reality amazed--not one contemptuous1 not one maledictory4 ,it is only our gentle minstrel of the meres who sits in the seat of the scornful--only the hermit of ,rydal ,mount who invokes the malison of ,nature4 ,what the scene verily was1 and how witnessed1 it will not take long to tell2 nor will the tale be useless3 but ,i must first refer the reader to a period preceding1 by nearly a century1 the great symbolic action under the porch of ,st4 ,mark's4 #hb4 ,the ,protestant ecclesiastic1 and infidel historian1 who delight to prop their pride1 or edge their malice1 in unveiling the corruption through which ,christianity has passed1 should study in every fragment of authentic record which the fury of their age has left1 the lives of the three queens of the ,priesthood1 ,theodora1 ,marozia1 and ,matilda1 and the foundation of the merciless power of the ,popes1 by the monk ,hildebrand4 ,and if there be any of us who would satisfy with nobler food than the catastrophes of the stage1 the awe at what is marvelous in human sorrow which makes sacred the fountain of tears in authentic tragedy1 let them follow1 pace by pace1 and pang by pang1 the humiliation of the fourth ,henry at ,canossa1 and his death in the church he had built to the ,virgin at ,spire4 ,his antagonist1 ,hildebrand1 died twenty years before him2 captive to the ,normans in ,salerno1 having seen the ,rome in which he had proclaimed his princedom over all the earth1 laid in her last ruin2 and forever4 ,rome herself1 since her desolation by ,guiscard1 has been only a grave and a wilderness#hi--what we call ,rome1 is a mere colony of the stranger in her ,field of ,mars4 ,this destruction of ,rome by the ,normans is accurately and utterly the end of her ,capitoline and wolf-suckled power2 and from that day her ,leonine or ,christian power takes its throne in the ,leonine city1 sanctified in tradition by its prayer of safety for the ,saxon ,borgo1 in which the childhood of our own ,alfred had been trained4 ,and from this date forward1 7recollected broadly as #ajij1 the year of the birth of ,st4 ,bernard17 no longer oppressed by the remnants of ,roman death1--,christian faith1 chivalry1 and art possess the world1 and recreate it1 through the space of four hundred years--the twelfth1 thirteenth1 fourteenth1 and fifteenth centuries4 ,and1 necessarily1 in the first of these centuries comes the main debate between the powers of ,monk and ,knight which was reconciled in this scene under the porch of ,st4 ,mark's4 #hc4 ,that debate was brought to its crisis and issue by the birth of the new third elemental force of the ,state--the ,citizen4 ,sismondi's republican enthusiasm does not permit him to recognize the essential character of this power4 ,he speaks always of the ,republics and the liberties of ,italy1 as if a craftsman differed from a knight only in political privileges1 and as if his special virtue consisted in rendering obedience to no master4 ,but the strength of the great cities of ,italy was no more republican than that of her monasteries1 or fortresses4 ,the ,craftsman of ,milan1 ,sailor of ,pisa1 and ,merchant of ,venice are all of them essentially different persons from the soldier and the anchorite3--but the city1 under the banner of its caroccio1 and the command of its podesta1 was disciplined far more strictly than any wandering military squadron by its leader1 or any lower order of monks under their abbot4 ,in the founding of civic constitutions1 the ,lord of the city is usually its ,bishop3--and it is curious to hear the republican historian--who1 however in judgment blind1 is never in heart uncandid1 prepare to close his record of the ten years' war of ,como with ,milan1 with this summary of distress to the heroic mountaineers--that they had lost their ,bishop ,guido1 who was their soul4 #hd4 ,i perceive for quite one of the most hopeless of the many difficulties which ,modernism finds1 and will find1 insuperable either by steam or dynamite1 that of either wedging or welding into its own cast-iron head1 any conception of a king1 monk1 or townsman of the twelfth and two succeeding centuries4 ,and yet no syllable of the utterance1 no fragment of the arts of the middle ages1 far less any motive of their deeds1 can be read even in the letter--how much less judged in spirit--unless1 first of all1 we can somewhat imagine all these three ,living souls4 ,first1 a king who was the best knight in his kingdom1 and on whose own swordstrokes hung the fate of ,christendom4 ,a king such as ,henry the ,fowler1 the first and third ,edwards of ,england1 the ,bruce of ,scotland1 and this ,frederic the ,first of ,germany4 ,secondly1 a monk who had been trained from youth in greater hardship than any soldier1 and had learned at last to desire no other life than one of hardship2--a man believing in his own and his fellows' immortality1 in the aiding powers of angels1 and the eternal presence of ,god2 versed in all the science1 graceful in all the literature1 cognizant of all the policy of his age2 and fearless of any created thing1 on the earth or under it4 ,and1 lastly1 a craftsman absolutely master of his craft1 and taking such pride in the exercise of it as all healthy souls take in putting forth their personal powers3 proud also of his city and his people2 enriching1 year by year1 their streets with loftier buildings1 their treasuries with rarer possession2 and bequeathing his hereditary art to a line of successive masters1 by whose tact of race1 and honor of effort1 the essential skills of metal-work in gold and steel1 of pottery1 glass-painting1 woodwork1 and weaving1 were carried to a perfectness never to be surpassed2 and of which our utmost modern hope is to produce a not instantly detected imitation4 ,these three kinds of persons1 ,i repeat1 we have to conceive before we can understand any single event of the ,middle ,ages4 ,for all that is enduring in them was done by men such as these4 ,history1 indeed1 records twenty undoings for one deed1 twenty desolations for one redemption2 and thinks the fool and villain potent as the wise and true4 ,but ,nature and her laws recognize only the noble3 generations of the cruel pass like the darkness of locust plagues2 while one loving and brave heart establishes a nation4 #he4 ,i give the character of ,barbarossa in the words of ,sismondi1 a man sparing in the praise of emperors3-- ,the death of ,frederic was mourned even by the cities which so long had been the objects of his hostility1 and the victims of his vengeance4 ,all the ,lombards--even the ,milanese--acknowledged his rare courage1 his constancy in misfortune--his generosity in conquest4 ,an intimate conviction of the justice of his cause had often rendered him cruel1 even to ferocity1 against those who still resisted2 but after victory he took vengeance only on senseless walls2 and irritated as he had been by the people of ,milan1 ,crema1 and ,tortona1 and whatever blood he had shed during battle1 he never sullied his triumph by odious punishments4 ,in spite of the treason which he on one occasion used against ,alessandria1 his promises were in general respected2 and when1 after the peace of ,constance1 the towns which had been most inveterately hostile to him received him within their walls1 they had no need to guard against any attempt on his part to suppress the privileges he had once recognized4 ,my own estimate of ,frederic's character would be scarcely so favorable2 it is the only point of history on which ,i have doubted the authority even of my own master1 ,carlyle4 ,but ,i am concerned here only with the actualities of his wars in ,italy1 with the people of her cities1 and the head of her religion4 #hf4 ,frederic of ,suabia1 direct heir of the ,ghibelline rights1 while nearly related by blood to the ,guelph houses of ,bavaria and ,saxony1 was elected emperor almost in the exact middle of the twelfth century 7#aaeb74 ,he was called into ,italy by the voices of ,italians4 ,the then ,pope1 ,eugenius ,,iii41 invoked his aid against the ,roman people under ,arnold of ,brescia4 ,the people of ,lodi prayed his protection against the tyrannies of ,milan4 ,frederic entered the plain of ,verona in #aaed1 by the valley of the ,adige1--ravaged the territory of ,milan1--pillaged and burned ,tortona1 ,asti1 and ,chieri1--kept his ,christmas at ,novara2 marched on ,rome1--delivered up ,arnold to the ,pope#ij 7who1 instantly killing him1 ended for that time ,protestant reforms in ,italy7--destroyed ,spoleto2 and returned by ,verona1 having scorched his path through ,italy like a level thunderbolt along the ground4 ,three years afterwards1 ,adrian died2 and1 chiefly1 by the love and will of the ,roman people1 ,roland of ,siena was raised to the ,papal throne1 under the name of ,alexander ,,iii4 ,the conclave of cardinals chose another ,pope1 ,victor ,,iii42 ,frederic on his second invasion of ,italy 7#aaeh7 summoned both elected heads of the ,church to receive judgment of their claims before him4 ,the ,cardinals' ,pope1 ,victor1 obeyed4 ,the people's ,alexander1 refused2 answering that the successor of ,st4 ,peter submitted himself to the judgment neither of emperors nor councils4 ,the spirit of modern prelacy may perhaps have rendered it impossible for an ,english churchman to conceive this answer as other than that of insolence and hypocrisy4 ,but a faithful ,pope1 and worthy of his throne1 could answer no otherwise4 ,frederic of course at once confirmed the claims of his rival2 the ,german bishops and ,italian cardinals in council at ,pavia joined their powers to the ,emperor's and ,alexander1 driven from ,rome1 wandered--unsubdued in soul--from city to city1 taking refuge at last in ,france4 #hg4 ,meantime1 in #aaei1 ,frederic took and destroyed ,crema1 having first bound its hostages to his machines of war4 ,in #aafa1 ,milan submitted to his mercy1 and he decreed that her name should perish4 ,only a few pillars of a ,roman temple1 and the church of ,st4 ,ambrose1 remain to us of the ancient city4 ,warned by her destruction1 ,verona1 ,vicenza1 ,padua1 ,treviso1 and ,venice1 joined in the vow--called of the ,lombard ,league--to reduce the ,emperor's power within its just limits4 ,and1 in #aafd1 ,alexander1 under the protection of ,louis ,,vii4 of ,france and ,henry ,,ii4 of ,england1 returned to ,rome1 and was received at ,ostia by its senate1 clergy1 and people4 ,three years afterwards1 ,frederic again swept down on the ,campagna2 attacked the ,leonine city1 where the basilica of the ,vatican1 changed into a fortress1 and held by the ,pope's guard1 resisted his assault until1 by the ,emperor's order1 fire was set to the ,church of ,st4 ,mary of ,pity4 ,the ,leonine city was taken2 the ,pope retired to the ,coliseum1 whence1 uttering once again his fixed defiance of the ,emperor1 but fearing treachery1 he fled in disguise down the ,tiber to the sea1 and sought asylum at ,benevento4 ,the ,german army encamped round ,rome in ,august of #aaff1 with the sign before their eyes of the ruins of the church of ,our ,lady of ,pity4 ,the marsh-fever struck them--killed the ,emperor's cousin1 ,frederic of ,rothenburg1 the ,duke of ,bavaria1 the ,archbishop of ,cologne1 the ,bishops of ,lige1 ,spire1 ,ratisbonne1 and ,verden1 and two thousand knights2 the common dead were uncounted4 ,the ,emperor gathered the wreck of his army together1 retreated on ,lombardy1 quartered his soldiery at ,pavia1 and escaped in secret over the ,mont ,cenis with thirty knights4 #hh4 ,no places of strength remained to him south of the ,alps but ,pavia and ,montferrat2 and to hold these in check1 and command the plains of ,piedmont1 the ,lombard ,league built the fortress city1 which1 from the ,pope who had maintained through all adversity the authority of his throne and the cause of the ,italian people1 they named ,alessandria4 ,against this bulwark the ,emperor1 still indomitable1 dashed with his utmost regathered strength after eight years of pause1 and in the temper in which men set their souls on a single stake4 ,all had been lost in his last war1 except his honor--in this1 he lost his honor also4 ,whatever may be the just estimate of the other elements of his character1 he is unquestionably1 among the knights of his time1 notable in impiety4 ,in the battle of ,cassano1 he broke through the ,milanese vanguard to their caroccio1 and struck down with his own hand its golden crucifix2--two years afterwards its cross and standard were bowed before him--and in vain4#ia ,he fearlessly claims for himself right of decision between contending popes1 and camps against the rightful one on the ashes of the ,church of the ,virgin4 ,foiled in his first assault on ,alessandria1 detained before it through the inundations of the winter1 and threatened by the army of the ,league in the spring1 he announced a truce to the besieged1 that they might keep ,good ,friday4 ,then violating alike the day's sanctity and his own oath1 he attacked the trusting city through a secretly completed mine4 ,and1 for a second time1 the verdict of ,god went forth against him4 ,every man who had obtained entrance within the city was slain or cast from its ramparts2--the ,alessandrines threw all their gates open--fell1 with the broken fugitives1 on the investing troops1 scattered them in disorder1 and burned their towers of attack4 ,the ,emperor gathered their remains into ,pavia on ,easter ,sunday1--spared in his defeat by the army of the ,league4 #hi4 ,and yet1 once more1 he brought his cause to combat-trial4 ,temporizing at ,lodi with the ,pope's legates1 he assembled1 under the ,archbishops of ,magdebourg and ,cologne1 and the chief prelates and princes of ,germany1 a seventh army2 brought it down to ,como across the ,splgen1 put himself there at its head1 and in the early spring of #aagf1 the fifteenth year since he had decreed the effacing of the name of ,milan1 was met at ,legnano by the specter of ,milan4 ,risen from her grave1 she led the ,lombard ,league in this final battle4 ,three hundred of her nobles guarded her caroccio2 nine hundred of her knights bound themselves--under the name of the ,cohort of ,death--to win for her1 or to die4 ,the field of battle is in the midst of the plain1 now covered with maize and mulberry trees1 from which the traveler1 entering ,italy by the ,lago ,maggiore1 sees first the unbroken snows of the ,rosa behind him and the white pinnacles of ,milan ,cathedral in the south4 ,the ,emperor1 as was his wont1 himself led his charging chivalry4 ,the ,milanese knelt as it came2--prayed aloud to ,god1 ,st4 ,peter1 and ,st4 ,ambrose--then advanced round their caroccio on foot4 ,the ,emperor's charge broke through their ranks nearly up to their standard--then the ,cohort of ,death rode against him4 #ij4 ,and all his battle changed before them into flight4 ,for the first time in stricken field1 the imperial standard fell1 and was taken4 ,the ,milanese followed the broken host until their swords were weary2 and the ,emperor1 struck fighting from his horse1 was left1 lost among the dead4 ,the ,empress1 whose mercy to ,milan he had forbidden1 already wore mourning for him in ,pavia1 when her husband came1 solitary and suppliant1 to its gate4 ,the lesson at last sufficed2 and ,barbarossa sent his heretic bishops to ask forgiveness of the ,pope1 and peace from the ,lombards4 ,pardon and peace were granted--without conditions4 ,csar's successor had been the blight of ,italy for a quarter of a century2 he had ravaged her harvests1 burnt her cities1 decimated her children with famine1 her young men with the sword2 and1 seven times over1 in renewed invasion1 sought to establish dominion over her1 from the ,alps to the rock of ,scylla4 ,she asked of him no restitution2--coveted no province--demanded no fortress1 of his land4 ,neither coward nor robber1 she disdained alike guard and gain upon her frontiers3 she counted no compensation for her sorrow2 and set no price upon the souls of her dead4 ,she stood in the porch of her brightest temple--between the blue plains of her earth and sea1 and1 in the person of her spiritual father1 gave her enemy pardon4 ,black demons hovering o'er his mitered head1 think you1 gentle sonneteer of the daffodil-marsh8 ,and have ,barbarossa's race been taught of better angels how to bear themselves to a conquered emperor1--or ,england1 by braver and more generous impulses1 how to protect his exiled son8 ,the fall of ,venice1 since that day1 was measured by ,byron in a single line3 ,an ,emperor tramples where an emperor knelt4 ,but what words shall measure the darker humiliation of the ,german pillaging his helpless enemy and ,england leaving her ally under the savage's spear8 #ia4 ,with the clews now given1 and an hour or two's additional reading of any standard historian he pleases1 the reader may judge on secure grounds whether the truce of ,venice and peace of ,constance were of the ,devil's making3 whereof whatever he may ultimately feel or affirm1 this at least he will please note for positive1 that ,mr4 ,wordsworth1 having no shadow of doubt of the complete wisdom of every idea that comes into his own head1 writes down in dogmatic sonnet his first impression of black instrumentality in the business2 so that his innocent readers1 taking him for their sole master1 far from caring to inquire into the thing more deeply1 may remain even unconscious that it is disputable1 and forever incapable of conceiving either a ,catholic's feeling1 or a careful historian's hesitation1 touching the centrally momentous crisis of power in all the ,middle ,ages6 ,whereas ,byron1 knowing the history thoroughly1 and judging of ,catholicism with an honest and open heart1 ventures to assert nothing that admits of debate1 either concerning human motives or angelic presences2 but binds into one line of massive melody the unerringly counted sum of ,venetian majesty and shame4 #ib4 ,in a future paper1 ,i propose examining his method of dealing with the debate1 itself on a higher issue3 and will therefore close the present one by trampling a few of the briers and thorns of popular offense out of our way4 ,the common counts against ,byron are in the main1 three4 ,i4 ,that he confessed--in some sort1 even proclaimed defiantly 7which is a proud man's natural manner of confession7#ib--the naughtiness of his life4 ,the hypocrisy#ic even of ,pall ,mall and ,petit ,trianon does not1 ,i assume1 and dares not1 go so far as to condemn the naughtiness itself8 ,and that he did confess it1 is precisely the reason for reading him by his own motto ,trust ,byron4 ,you always may2 and the common smooth-countenanced man of the world is guiltier in the precise measure of your higher esteem for him4 ,,ii4 ,that he wrote about pretty things which ought never to be heard of4 ,in the presence of the exact proprieties of modern ,fiction1 ,art1 and ,drama1 ,i am shy of touching on the question of what should be mentioned1 and seen--and should not4 ,all that ,i care to say1 here1 is that ,byron tells you of realities1 and that their being pretty ones is1 to my mind1--at the first 7literally7 blush1 of the matter1 rather in his favor4 ,if however you have imagined that he means you to think ,dudu as pretty as ,myrrha1#id or even ,haidee1 whether in full dress or none1 as pretty as ,marina1 it is your fault1 not his4 #ic4 ,,iii4 ,that he blasphemed ,god and the ,king4 ,before replying to this count1 ,i must ask the reader's patience in a piece of very serious work1 the ascertainment of the real and full meaning of the word ,blasphemy4 ,it signifies simply ,harmful speaking--,male-diction--or shortly ,blame2 and may be committed as much against a child or a dog1 if you desire to hurt them1 as against the ,deity4 ,and it is1 in its original use1 accurately opposed to another ,greek word1 ,euphemy1 which means a reverent and loving manner of benediction--fallen entirely into disuse in modern sentiment and language4 ,now the compass and character of essential ,male-diction1 so-called in ,latin1 or ,blasphemy1 so-called in ,greek1 may1 ,i think1 be best explained to the general reader by an instance in a very little thing1 first translating the short pieces of ,plato which best show the meaning of the word in codes of ,greek morality4 ,these are the things then 7the true order of the ,sun1 ,moon1 and ,planets71 oh my friends1 of which ,i desire that all our citizens and youths should learn at least so much concerning the ,gods of ,heaven1 as not to blaspheme concerning them1 but to eupheme reverently1 both in sacrificing1 and in every prayer they pray4--,laws1 ,,vii4 ,steph4 #hba4 ,and through the whole of life1 beyond all other need for it1 there is need of ,euphemy from a man to his parents1 for there is no heavier punishment than that of light and winged words1 7to them78 for ,nemesis1 the angel of ,divine ,recompense1 has been throned ,bishop over all men who sin in such manner4--,,iv4 ,steph4 #gag4 ,the word which ,i have translated recompense is more strictly that heavenly ,justice--the proper ,light of the ,world1 from which nothing can be hidden1 and by which all who will may walk securely2 whence the mystic answer of ,ulysses to his son1 as ,athena1 herself invisible1 walks with them1 filling the chamber of the house with light1 ,this is the justice of the ,gods who possess ,olympus4 ,see the context in reference to which ,plato quotes the line4--,laws1 ,x4 ,steph4 #ijd4 ,the little story that ,i have to tell is significant chiefly in connection with the second passage of ,plato above quoted4 #id4 ,i have elsewhere mentioned that ,i was a homebred boy1 and that as my mother diligently and scrupulously taught me my ,bible and ,latin ,grammar1 so my father fondly and devotedly taught me my ,scott1 my ,pope1 and my ,byron4#ie ,the ,latin grammar out of which my mother taught me was the #aath edition of ,alexander ,adam's--7,edinb43 ,bell and ,bradfute1 #ahbc7--namely1 that ,alexander ,adam1 ,rector of ,edinburgh ,high ,school1 into whose upper class ,scott passed in ,october #aghb1 and who--previous masters having found nothing noticeable in the heavy-looking lad--did find sterling qualities in him1 and would constantly refer to him for dates1 and particulars of battles1 and other remarkable events alluded to in ,horace1 or whatever other authors the boys were reading2 and called him the historian of his class 7,l4 i4 #abf74 ,that ,alex4 ,adam1 also1 who1 himself a loving historian1 remembered the fate of every boy at his school during the fifty years he had headed it1 and whose last words--,it grows dark1 the boys may dismiss1 gave to ,scott's heart the vision and the audit of the death of ,elspeth of the ,craigburn-foot4 ,strangely1 in opening the old volume at this moment 7,i would not give it for an illuminated missal7 ,i find1 in its article on ,prosody1 some things extremely useful to me1 which ,i have been hunting for in vain through ,zumpt and ,matthi4 ,in all rational respects ,i believe it to be the best ,latin ,grammar that has yet been written4 ,when my mother had carried me through it as far as the syntax1 it was thought desirable that ,i should be put under a master3 and the master chosen was a deeply and deservedly honored clergyman1 the ,rev4 ,thomas ,dale1 mentioned in ,mr4 ,holbeach's article1 ,the ,new ,fiction1 7,contemporary ,review for ,february of this year71 together with ,mr4 ,melville1 who was our pastor after ,mr4 ,dale went to ,st4 ,pancras4 #ie4 ,on the first day when ,i went to take my seat in ,mr4 ,dale's schoolroom1 ,i carried my old grammar to him1 in a modest pride1 expecting some encouragement and honor for the accuracy with which ,i could repeat1 on demand1 some hundred and sixty close-printed pages of it4 ,but ,mr4 ,dale threw it back to me with a fierce bang upon his desk1 saying 7with accent and look of seven-times-heated scorn71 ,that's a ,scotch thing4 ,now1 my father being ,scotch1 and an ,edinburgh ,high ,school boy1 and my mother having labored in that book with me since ,i could read1 and all my happiest holiday time having been spent on the ,north ,inch of ,perth1 these four words1 with the action accompanying them1 contained as much insult1 pain1 and loosening of my respect for my parents1 love of my father's country1 and honor for its worthies1 as it was possible to compress into four syllables and an ill-mannered gesture4 ,which were therefore pure1 double-edged and point-envenomed blasphemy4 ,for to make a boy despise his mother's care1 is the straightest way to make him also despise his ,redeemer's voice2 and to make him scorn his father and his father's house1 the straightest way to make him deny his ,god1 and his ,god's ,heaven4 #if4 ,i speak1 observe1 in this instance1 only of the actual words and their effect2 not of the feeling in the speaker's mind1 which was almost playful1 though his words1 tainted with extremity of pride1 were such light ones as men shall give account of at the ,day of ,judgment4 ,the real sin of blasphemy is not in the saying1 nor even in the thinking2 but in the wishing which is father to thought and word3 and the nature of it is simply in wishing evil to anything2 for as the quality of ,mercy is not strained1 so neither that of ,blasphemy1 the one distilling from the clouds of ,heaven1 the other from the steam of the ,pit4 ,he that is unjust in little is unjust in much1 he that is malignant to the least is to the greatest1 he who hates the earth which is ,god's footstool1 hates yet more ,heaven which is ,god's throne1 and ,him that sitteth thereon4 ,finally1 therefore1 blasphemy is wishing ill to any thing2 and its outcome is in ,vanni ,fucci's extreme ill manners--wishing ill to ,god4 ,on the contrary1 ,euphemy is wishing well to everything1 and its outcome is in ,burns' extreme good manners1 wishing well to-- ,ah6 wad ye tak a thought1 and men'6 ,that is the supreme of ,euphemy4 #ig4 ,fix then1 first in your minds1 that the sin of malediction1 whether ,shimei's individual1 or ,john ,bull's national1 is in the vulgar malignity1 not in the vulgar diction1 and then note further that the phemy or fame of the two words1 blasphemy and euphemy1 signifies broadly the bearing of false witness against one's neighbor in the one case1 and of true witness for him in the other3 so that while the peculiar province of the blasphemer is to throw firelight on the evil in good persons1 the province of the euphuist 7,i must use the word inaccurately for want of a better7 is to throw sunlight on the good in bad ones2 such1 for instance1 as ,bertram1 ,meg ,merrilies1 ,rob ,roy1 ,robin ,hood1 and the general run of ,corsairs1 ,giaours1 ,turks1 ,jews1 ,infidels1 and ,heretics2 nay1 even sisters of ,rahab1 and daughters of ,moab and ,ammon2 and at last the whole spiritual race of him to whom it was said1 ,if thou doest well1 shalt thou not be accepted8 #ih4 ,and being thus brought back to our actual subject1 ,i purpose1 after a few more summary notes on the luster of the electrotype language of modern passion1 to examine what facts or probabilities lie at the root both of ,goethe's and ,byron's imagination of that contest between the powers of ,good and ,evil1 of which the ,scriptural account appears to ,mr4 ,huxley so inconsistent with the recognized laws of political economy2 and has been1 by the cowardice of our old translators1 so maimed of its vitality1 that the frank ,greek assertion of ,st4 ,michael's not daring to blaspheme the devil1#if is tenfold more mischievously deadened and caricatured by their periphrasis of durst not bring against him a railing accusation1 than by ,byron's apparently--and only apparently--less reverent description of the manner of angelic encounter for an inferior ruler of the people4 ,between ,his ,darkness and ,his ,brightness ,there passed a mutual glance of great politeness4 ,,paris1 ,september #bj1 #ahhj4 ,,postscript4 #ii4 ,i am myself extremely grateful1 nor doubt a like feeling in most of my readers1 both for the information contained in the first of the two following letters2 and the correction of references in the second1 of which1 however1 ,i have omitted some closing sentences which the writer will1 ,i think1 see to have been unnecessary4#ig ,,north ,,street1 ,,wirksworth3 ,august #b1 #ahhj4 ,,dear ,,sir1--,when reading your interesting article in the ,june number of the ,nineteenth ,century1 and your quotation from ,walter ,scott1 ,i was struck with the great similarity between some of the ,scotch words and my native tongue 7,norwegian74 ,whigmaleerie1 as to the derivation of which you seem to be in some perplexity1 is in ,norwegian ,vgmaleri4 ,vg1 pronounced ,vegg1 signifying wall1 and ,maleri picture1 pronounced almost the same as in ,scotch1 and derived from at male1 to paint4 ,siccan is in ,danish sikken1 used more about something comical than great1 and scarcely belonging to the written language1 in which slig1 such1 and slig en1 such a one1 would be the equivalent4 ,i need not remark that as to the written language ,danish and ,norwegian is the same1 only the dialects differ4 ,having been told by some ,english friends that this explanation would perhaps not be without interest to yourself1 ,i take the liberty of writing this letter4 ,i remain yours respectfully1 ,,thea ,,berg4 ,,inner ,,temple3 ,september #i1 #ahhj4 ,,sir1--,in your last article on ,fiction1 ,foul and ,fair 7,nineteenth ,century1 ,september #ahhj7 you have the following note3 ,juan viii4 #e 7it ought to be #i7 but by your ,lordship's quotation1 ,wordsworth says 'instrument' not 'daughter4' ,now in ,murray's edition of ,byron1 #ahcg1 octavo1 his ,lordship's quotation is as follows3-- ,but thy most dreaded instrument ,in working out a pure intent ,is man arranged for mutual slaughter2 ,yea1 ,carnage is thy daughter4 ,and his ,lordship refers you to ,wordsworth's ,thanksgiving ,ode4 ,i have no early edition of ,wordsworth4 ,in ,moxon's1 #ahdd1 no such lines appear in the ,thanksgiving ,ode1 but in the ode dated #ahae1 and printed immediately before it1 the following lines occur4 ,but man is thy most awful instrument ,in working out a pure intent4 ,it is hardly possible to avoid the conclusion that ,wordsworth altered the lines after ,don ,juan was written4 ,i am1 with great respect1 your obedient servant1 ,,ralph ,,thicknesse4 ,,john ,,ruskin1 ,esq4 ,,footnotes3 ,footnote #hh3 ,november1 #ahhj4--;,,ed4 ,footnote #hi3 ,childe ,harold1 iv4 #gi2 compare ,adonais1 and ,sismondi1 vol4 i4 p4 #adh4 ,footnote #ij3 ,adrian the ,fourth4 ,eugenius died in the previous year4 ,footnote #ia3 ,all the multitudes threw themselves on their knees1 praying mercy in the name of the crosses they bore3 the ,count of ,blandrata took a cross from the enemies with whom he had served1 and fell at the foot of the throne1 praying for mercy to them4 ,all the court and the witnessing army were in tears--the ,emperor alone showed no sign of emotion4 ,distrusting his wife's sensibility1 he had forbidden her presence at the ceremony2 the ,milanese1 unable to approach her1 threw towards her windows the crosses they carried1 to plead for them4--,sismondi 7,french edition71 vol4 i4 p4 #cgh4 ,footnote #ib3 ,the most noble and tender confession is in ,allegra's epitaph1 ,i shall go to her1 but she shall not return to me4 ,footnote #ic3 ,hypocrisy is too good a word for either ,pall ,mall or ,trianon1 being justly applied 7as always in the ,new ,testament71 only to men whose false religion has become earnest1 and a part of their being3 so that they compass heaven and earth to make a proselyte4 ,there is no relation between minds of this order and those of common rogues4 ,neither ,tartuffe nor ,joseph ,surface are hypocrites--they are simply impostors3 but many of the most earnest preachers in all existing churches are hypocrites in the highest2 and the ,tartuffe-,squiredom and ,joseph ,surface-,masterhood of our virtuous ,england which build churches and pay priests to keep their peasants and hands peaceable1 so that rents and per cents may be spent1 unnoticed1 in the debaucheries of the metropolis1 are darker forms of imposture than either heaven or earth have yet been compassed by2 and what they are to end in1 heaven and earth only know4 ,compare again1 ,island1 ii4 #d1 the prayers of ,abel linked to deeds of ,cain1 and ,juan1 viii4 #be1 #bf4 ,footnote #id3 ,perhaps some even of the attentive readers of ,byron may not have observed the choice of the three names--,myrrha 7bitter incense71 ,marina 7sea lady71 ,angiolina 7little angel7--in relation to the plots of the three plays4 ,footnote #ie3 ,i shall have lost my wits very finally when ,i forget the first time that ,i pleased my father with a couplet of ,english verse 7after many a year of trials72 and the radiant joy on his face as he declared1 reading it aloud to my mother with emphasis half choked by tears1--that it was as fine as anything that ,pope or ,byron ever wrote6 ,footnote #if3 ,of our tingle-tangle-titmouse disputes in ,parliament like ,robins in a bush1 but not a ,robin in all the house knowing his great ,a1 hear again ,plato3 ,but they1 for ever so little a quarrel1 uttering much voice1 blaspheming1 speak evil one of another1--and it is not becoming that in a city of well-ordered persons1 such things should be--no2 nothing of them nohow nowhere1--and let this be the one law for all--let nobody speak mischief of anybody 7,greek3 ,mdena kakgoreit mdeis74--,laws1 book ii4 s4 #ice2 and compare ,book iv4 #aag4 ,footnote #ig3 ,a paragraph beginning ,i find press corrections always irksome work1 and in my last paper trust the reader's kindness to make some corrections in the preceding paper1 is here omitted1 and the corrections made4--,,ed4 ,,fiction1 ,,fair ,,and ,,foul4 ,v4#ih ,,the ,,two ,,servants4 #ajj4 ,i have assumed throughout these papers1 that everybody knew what ,fiction meant2 as ,mr4 ,mill assumed in his ,political ,economy1 that everybody knew what wealth meant4 ,the assumption was convenient to ,mr4 ,mill1 and persisted in3 but1 for my own part1 ,i am not in the habit of talking1 even so long as ,i have done in this instance1 without making sure that the reader knows what ,i am talking about2 and it is high time that we should be agreed upon the primary notion of what ,fiction is4 ,a feigned1 fictitious1 artificial1 supernatural1 put-together-out-of-one's-head1 thing4 ,all this it must be1 to begin with4 ,the best type of it being the most practically fictile--a ,greek vase4 ,a thing which has two sides to be seen1 two handles to be carried by1 and a bottom to stand on1 and a top to be poured out of1 this1 every right fiction is1 whatever else it may be4 ,planned rigorously1 rounded smoothly1 balanced symmetrically1 handled handily1 lipped softly for pouring out oil and wine4 ,painted daintily at last with images of eternal things-- ,forever shalt thou love1 and she be fair4 #aja4 ,quite a different thing from a cast1--this work of clay in the hands of the potter1 as it seemed good to the potter to make it4 ,very interesting1 a cast from life may perhaps be2 more interesting1 to some people perhaps1 a cast from death2--most modern novels are like specimens from ,lyme ,regis1 impressions of skeletons in mud4 ,planned rigorously--,i press the conditions again one by one--it must be1 as ever ,memphian labyrinth or ,norman fortress4 ,intricacy full of delicate surprise2 covered way in secrecy of accurate purposes1 not a stone useless1 nor a word nor an incident thrown away4 ,rounded smoothly--the wheel of ,fortune revolving with it in unfelt swiftness2 like the world1 its story rising like the dawn1 closing like the sunset1 with its own sweet light for every hour4 ,balanced symmetrically--having its two sides clearly separate1 its war of good and evil rightly divided4 ,its figures moving in majestic law of light and shade4 ,handled handily--so that1 being careful and gentle1 you can take easy grasp of it and all that it contains2 a thing given into your hand henceforth to have and to hold4 ,comprehensible1 not a mass that both your arms cannot get round2 tenable1 not a confused pebble heap of which you can only lift one pebble at a time4 ,lipped softly--full of kindness and comfort3 the ,keats line indeed the perpetual message of it--,for ever shalt thou love1 and she be fair4 ,all beautiful fiction is of the ,madonna1 whether the ,virgin of ,athens or of ,judah--,pan-,athenaic always4 ,and all foul fiction is leze majest to the ,madonna and to womanhood4 ,for indeed the great fiction of every human life is the shaping of its ,love1 with due prudence1 due imagination1 due persistence and perfection from the beginning of its story to the end2 for every human soul1 its ,palladium4 ,and it follows that all right imaginative work is beautiful1 which is a practical and brief law concerning it4 ,all frightful things are either foolish1 or sick1 visits of frenzy1 or pollutions of plague4 #ajb4 ,taking thus the ,greek vase at its best time1 for the symbol of fair fiction3 of foul1 you may find in the great entrance-room of the ,louvre1 filled with the luxurious orfvrerie of the sixteenth century1 types perfect and innumerable3 ,satyrs carved in serpentine1 ,gorgons platted in gold1 ,furies with eyes of ruby1 ,scyllas with scales of pearl2 infinitely worthless toil1 infinitely witless wickedness2 pleasure satiated into idiocy1 passion provoked into madness1 no object of thought1 or sight1 or fancy1 but horror1 mutilation1 distortion1 corruption1 agony of war1 insolence of disgrace1 and misery of ,death4 ,it is true that the ease with which a serpent1 or something that will be understood for one1 can be chased or wrought in metal1 and the small workmanly skill required to image a satyr's hoof and horns1 as compared to that needed for a human foot or forehead1 have greatly influenced the choice of subject by incompetent smiths2 and in like manner1 the prevalence of such vicious or ugly story in the mass of modern literature is not so much a sign of the lasciviousness of the age1 as of its stupidity1 though each react on the other1 and the vapor of the sulphurous pool becomes at last so diffused in the atmosphere of our cities1 that whom it cannot corrupt1 it will at least stultify4 #ajc4 ,yesterday1 the last of ,august1 came to me from the ,fine ,art ,society1 a series of twenty black and white scrabbles#ii of which ,i am informed in an eloquent preface that the author was a ,michael ,angelo of the glebe1 and that his shepherds and his herdswomen are akin in dignity and grandeur to the prophets and ,sibyls of the ,sistine4 ,glancing through the series of these stupendous productions1 ,i find one peculiarly characteristic and expressive of modern picture-making and novel-writing1--called ,hauling or more definitely ,paysan rentrant du ,fumier1 which represents a man's back1 or at least the back of his waistcoat and trousers1 and hat1 in full light1 and a small blot where his face should be1 with a small scratch where its nose should be1 elongated into one representing a chink of timber in the background4 ,examining the volume farther1 in the hope of discovering some trace of reasonable motive for the publication of these works by the ,society1 ,i perceive that this ,michael ,angelo of the glebe had indeed natural faculty of no mean order in him1 and that the woeful history of his life contains very curious lessons respecting the modern conditions of ,imagination and ,art4 #ajd4 ,i find in the first place1 that he was a ,breton peasant2 his grandmother's godson1 baptized in good hope1 and christened ,jean1 after his father1 and ,franois after the ,saint of ,assisi1 his godmother's patron4 ,it was under her care and guidance and those of his uncle1 the ,abb ,charles1 that he was reared2 and the dignified and laborious earnestness of these governors of his was a chief influence in his life1 and a distinguishing feature in his character4 ,the ,millet family led an existence almost patriarchal in its unalterable simplicity and diligence2 and the boy grew up in an environment of toil1 sincerity and devoutness4 ,he was fostered upon the ,bible1 and the great book of nature4444 ,when he woke1 it was to the lowing of cattle and the song of birds2 he was at play all day1 among the sights and sounds of the open landscape2 and he slept with the murmur of the spinning-wheel in his ears1 and the memory of the evening prayer in his heart4444 ,he learned ,latin from the parish priest1 and from his uncle ,charles2 and he soon came to be a student of ,virgil1 and while yet young in his teens began to follow his father out into the fields1 and thenceforward1 as became the eldest boy in a large family1 worked hard at grafting and plowing1 sowing and reaping1 scything and shearing and planting1 and all the many duties of husbandmen4 ,meanwhile1 he had taken to drawing 444 copied everything he saw1 and produced not only studies but compositions also2 until at last his father was moved to take him away from farming1 and have him taught painting4 #aje4 ,now all this is related concerning the lad's early life by the prefatory and commenting author1 as if expecting the general reader to admit that there had been some advantage for him in this manner of education3--that simplicity and devoutness are wholesome states of mind2 that parish curs and uncle ,abbs are not betrayers or devourers of youthful innocence--that there is profitable reading in the ,bible1 and something agreeably soothing--if not otherwise useful--in the sound of evening prayer4 ,i may observe also in passing1 that his education1 thus far1 is precisely what1 for the last ten years1 ,i have been describing as the most desirable for all persons intending to lead an honest and ,christian life3 7my recommendation that peasants should learn ,latin having been1 some four or five years ago1 the subject of much merriment in the pages of ,judy and other such nurses of divine wisdom in the public mind47 ,it however having been determined by the boy's father that he should be a painter1 and that art being unknown to the ,abb ,charles and the village ,cur 7in which manner of ignorance1 if the infallible ,pope did but know it1 he and his now artless shepherds stand at a fatal disadvantage in the world as compared with monks who could illuminate with color as well as word7--the simple young soul is sent for the exalting and finishing of its artistic faculties to ,paris4 #ajf4 ,wherein1 observers my prefatory author1 the romantic movement was in the full tide of prosperity4 ,hugo had written ,notre ,dame1 and ,musset had published ,rolla and the ,nuits2 ,balzac the ,lys dans la ,valle2 ,gautier the ,comdie de la ,mort2 ,georges ,sand ,lone ,lonie2 and a score of wild and eloquent novels more2 and under the instruction of these romantic authors1 his landlady1 to whom he had intrusted the few francs he possessed1 to dole out to him as he needed1 fell in love with him1 and finding he could not1 or would not1 respond to her advances1 confiscated the whole deposit1 and left him penniless4 ,the preface goes on to tell us how1 not feeling himself in harmony with these forms of ,romanticism1 he takes to the study of the ,infinite1 and ,michael ,angelo2 how he learned to paint the ,heroic ,nude2 how he mixed up for imitation the manners of ,rubens1 ,ribera1 ,mantegna1 and ,correggio2 how he struggled all his life with neglect1 and endured with his family every agony of poverty2 owed his butcher and his grocer1 was exposed to endless worry and annoyance from writs and executions2 and when first his grandmother died1 and then his mother1 neither death-bed was able to raise the money that would have carried him from ,barbizon to ,gruchy4 ,the work now laid before the public by the ,fine ,art ,society is to be considered1 therefore--whatever its merits or defects may be--as an expression of the influence of the ,infinite and ,michael ,angelo on a mind innocently prepared for their reception4 ,and in another place ,i may take occasion to point out the peculiar adaptability of modern etching to the expression of the ,infinite1 by the multitude of scratches it can put on a surface without representing anything in particular2 and to illustration of the majesty of ,michael ,angelo by preference of the backs and legs of people to their faces4 #ajg4 ,but ,i refer to the book in this paper1 partly indeed because my mind is full of its sorrow1 and ,i may not be able to find another opportunity of saying so2 but chiefly1 because the author of the preface has summed the principal authors of depraved ,fiction in a single sentence2 and ,i want the reader to ask himself why1 among all the forms of the picturesque which were suggested by this body of literary leaders1 none were acceptable by1 none helpful to1 the mind of a youth trained in purity and faith4 ,he will find1 if he reflect1 that it is not in romantic1 or any other healthy aim1 that the school detaches itself from those called sometimes by recent writers classical2 but first by ,infidelity1 and an absence of the religious element so total that at last it passes into the hatred of priesthood which has become characteristic of ,republicanism2 and secondly1 by the taint and leprosy of animal passion idealized as a governing power of humanity1 or at least used as the chief element of interest in the conduct of its histories4 ,it is with the ,sin of ,master ,anthony that ,georges ,sand 7who is the best of them7 overshadows the entire course of a novel meant to recommend simplicity of life--and by the weakness of ,consuelo that the same authoress thinks it natural to set off the splendor of the most exalted musical genius4 ,i am not able to judge of the degree of moral purpose1 or conviction1 with which any of the novelists wrote4 ,but ,i am able to say with certainty that1 whatever their purpose1 their method is mistaken1 and that no good is ever done to society by the pictorial representation of its diseases4 #ajh4 ,all healthy and helpful literature sets simple bars between right and wrong2 assumes the possibility1 in men and women1 of having healthy minds in healthy bodies1 and loses no time in the diagnosis of fever or dyspepsia in either2 least of all in the particular kind of fever which signifies the ungoverned excess of any appetite or passion4 ,the dullness which many modern readers inevitably feel1 and some modern blockheads think it creditable to allege1 in ,scott1 consists not a little in his absolute purity from every loathsome element or excitement of the lower passions2 so that people who live habitually in ,satyric or hircine conditions of thought find him as insipid as they would a picture of ,angelico's4 ,the accurate and trenchant separation between him and the common railroad-station novelist is that1 in his total method of conception1 only lofty character is worth describing at all2 and it becomes interesting1 not by its faults1 but by the difficulties and accidents of the fortune through which it passes1 while1 in the railway novel1 interest is obtained with the vulgar reader for the vilest character1 because the author describes carefully to his recognition the blotches1 burrs and pimples in which the paltry nature resembles his own4 ,the ,mill on the ,floss is perhaps the most striking instance extant of this study of cutaneous disease4 ,there is not a single person in the book of the smallest importance to anybody in the world but themselves1 or whose qualities deserved so much as a line of printer's type in their description4 ,there is no girl alive1 fairly clever1 half educated1 and unluckily related1 whose life has not at least as much in it as ,maggie's1 to be described and to be pitied4 ,tom is a clumsy and cruel lout1 with the making of better things in him 7and the same may be said of nearly every ,englishman at present smoking and elbowing his way through the ugly world his blunders have contributed to the making of72 while the rest of the characters are simply the sweepings out of a ,pentonville omnibus4#ajj #aji4 ,and it is very necessary that we should distinguish this essentially ,cockney literature1 developed only in the ,london suburbs1 and feeding the demand of the rows of similar brick houses1 which branch in devouring cancer round every manufacturing town1--from the really romantic literature of ,france4 ,georges ,sand is often immoral2 but she is always beautiful1 and in the characteristic novel ,i have named1 ,le ,pch de ,mons4 ,antoine1 the five principal characters1 the old ,cavalier ,marquis1--the ,carpenter1--,m4 de ,chateaubrun1--,gilberte1--and the really passionate and generous lover1 are all as heroic and radiantly ideal as ,scott's ,colonel ,mannering1 ,catherine ,seyton1 and ,roland ,graeme2 while the landscape is rich and true with the emotion of years of life passed in glens of ,norman granite and beside bays of ,italian sea4 ,but in the ,english ,cockney school1 which consummates itself in ,george ,eliot1 the personages are picked up from behind the counter and out of the gutter2 and the landscape1 by excursion train to ,gravesend1 with return ticket for the ,city-road4 #aaj4 ,but the second reason for the dullness of ,scott to the uneducated or miseducated reader lies far deeper2 and its analysis is related to the most subtle questions in the ,arts of ,design4 ,the mixed gayety and gloom in the plan of any modern novel fairly clever in the make of it1 may be likened1 almost with precision1 to the patchwork of a ,harlequin's dress1 well spangled2 a pretty thing enough1 if the human form beneath it be graceful and active4 ,few personages on the stage are more delightful to me than a good ,harlequin2 also1 if ,i chance to have nothing better to do1 ,i can still read my ,georges ,sand or ,alfred de ,musset with much contentment1 if only the story end well4 ,but we must not dress ,cordelia or ,rosalind in robes of triangular patches1 covered with spangles1 by way of making the coup d'oeil of them less dull2 and so the story-telling of ,scott is like the robe of the ,sistine ,zipporah--embroidered only on the edges with gold and blue1 and the embroidery involving a legend written in mystic letters4 ,and the interest and joy which he intends his reader to find in his tale1 are in taking up the golden thread here and there in its intended recurrence--and following1 as it rises again and again1 his melody through the disciplined and unaccented march of the fugue4 #aaa4 ,thus the entire charm and meaning of the story of the ,monastery depend on the degree of sympathy with which we compare the first and last incidents of the appearance of a character1 whom perhaps not one in twenty readers would remember as belonging to the dramatis person--,stawarth ,bolton4 ,childless1 he assures safety in the first scene of the opening tale to the widow of ,glendinning and her two children--the elder boy challenging him at the moment1 ,i will war on thee to the death1 when ,i can draw my father's sword4 ,in virtually the last scene1 the grown youth1 now in command of a small company of spearmen in the ,regent ,murray's service1 is on foot1 in the first pause after the battle at ,kennaquhair1 beside the dead bodies of ,julian ,avenel and ,christie1 and the dying ,catherine4#aja ,glendinning forgot for a moment his own situation and duties1 and was first recalled to them by a trampling of horse1 and the cry of ,st4 ,george for ,england1 which the ,english soldiers still continued to use4 ,his handful of men1 for most of the stragglers had waited for ,murray's coming up1 remained on horseback1 holding their lances upright1 having no command either to submit or resist4 ,there stands our captain1 said one of them1 as a strong party of ,english came up1 the vanguard of ,foster's troop4 ,your captain6 with his sword sheathed1 and on foot in the presence of his enemy8 a raw soldier1 ,i warrant him1 said the ,english leader4 ,so6 ho6 young man1 is your dream out1 and will you now answer me if you will fight or fly8 ,neither1 answered ,halbert ,glendinning1 with great tranquillity4 ,then throw down thy sword and yield thee1 answered the ,englishman4 ,not till ,i can help myself no otherwise1 said ,halbert1 with the same moderation of tone and manner4 ,art thou for thine own hand1 friend1 or to whom dost thou owe service8 demanded the ,english captain4 ,to the noble ,earl of ,murray4 ,then thou servest1 said the ,southron1 the most disloyal nobleman who breathes--false both to ,england and ,scotland4 ,thou liest1 said ,glendinning1 regardless of all consequences4 ,ha6 art thou so hot now1 and wert so cold but a minute since8 ,i lie1 do ,i8 ,wilt thou do battle with me on that quarrel8 ,with one to one1 one to two1 or two to five1 as you list1 said ,halbert ,glendinning2 grant me but a fair field4 ,that thou shalt have4 ,stand back1 my mates1 said the brave ,englishman4 ,if ,i fall1 give him fair play1 and let him go off free with his people4 ,long life to the noble captain6 cried the soldiers1 as impatient to see the duel as if it had been a bull4 ,he will have a short life of it1 though1 said the sergeant1 if he1 an old man of sixty1 is to fight for any reason1 or for no reason1 with every man he meets1 and especially the young fellows he might be father to4 ,and here comes the warden1 besides1 to see the sword-play4 ,in fact1 ,sir ,john ,foster came up with a considerable body of his horsemen1 just as his captain1 whose age rendered him unequal to the combat with so strong and active a youth as ,glendinning1 lost his sword4#ajb ,take it up for shame1 old ,stawarth ,bolton1 said the ,english warden2 and thou1 young man1 get you gone to your own friends1 and loiter not here4 ,notwithstanding this peremptory order1 ,halbert ,glendinning could not help stopping to cast a look upon the unfortunate ,catherine1 who lay insensible of the danger and of the trampling of so many horses around her--insensible1 as the second glance assured him1 of all and forever4 ,glendinning almost rejoiced when he saw that the last misery of life was over1 and that the hoofs of the war-horses1 amongst which he was compelled to leave her1 could only injure and deface a senseless corpse4 ,he caught the infant from her arms1 half ashamed of the shout of laughter which rose on all sides1 at seeing an armed man in such a situation assume such an unwonted and inconvenient burden4 ,shoulder your infant6 cried a harquebusier4 ,port your infant6 said a pikeman4 ,peace1 ye brutes6 said ,stawarth ,bolton1 and respect humanity in others1 if you have none yourselves4 ,i pardon the lad having done some discredit to my gray hairs1 when ,i see him take care of that helpless creature1 which ye would have trampled upon as if ye had been littered of bitch-wolves1 not born of women4 ,the infant thus saved is the heir of ,avenel1 and the intricacy and fateful bearing of every incident and word in the scene1 knitting into one central moment all the clews to the plot of two romances1 as the rich boss of a ,gothic vault gathers the shaft moldings of it1 can only be felt by an entirely attentive reader2 just as 7to follow out the likeness on ,scott's own ground7 the willow-wreaths changed to stone of ,melrose tracery can only be caught in their plighting by the keenest eyes4 ,the meshes are again gathered by the master's own hand when the child now in ,halbert's arms1 twenty years hence1 stoops over him to unlace his helmet1 as the fallen knight lies senseless on the field of ,carberry ,hill4#ajc #aab4 ,but there is another1 and a still more hidden method in ,scott's designing of story1 in which1 taking extreme pains1 he counts on much sympathy from the reader1 and can assuredly find none in a modern student4 ,the moral purpose of the whole1 which he asserted in the preface to the first edition of ,waverley1 was involved always with the minutest study of the effects of true and false religion on the conduct2--which subject being always touched with his utmost lightness of hand and stealthiness of art1 and founded on a knowledge of the ,scotch character and the human heart1 such as no other living man possessed1 his purpose often escapes first observation as completely as the inner feelings of living people do2 and ,i am myself amazed1 as ,i take any single piece of his work up for examination1 to find how many of its points ,i had before missed or disregarded4 #aac4 ,the groups of personages whose conduct in the ,scott romance is definitely affected by religious conviction1 may be arranged broadly1 as those of the actual world1 under these following heads3 #a4 ,the lowest group consists of persons who1 believing in the general truths of ,evangelical religion1 accommodate them to their passions1 and are capable1 by gradual increase in depravity1 of any crime or violence4 ,i am not going to include these in our present study4 ,trumbull 7,red ,gauntlet71 ,trusty ,tomkyns 7,woodstock71 ,burley 7,old ,mortality71 are three of the principal types4 #b4 ,the next rank above these consists of men who believe firmly and truly enough to be restrained from any conduct which they clearly recognize as criminal1 but whose natural selfishness renders them incapable of understanding the morality of the ,bible above a certain point2 and whose imperfect powers of thought leave them liable in many directions to the warping of self-interest or of small temptations4 ,fairservice4 ,blattergowl4 ,kettledrummle4 ,gifted ,gilfillan4 #c4 ,the third order consists of men naturally just and honest1 but with little sympathy and much pride1 in whom their religion1 while in the depth of it supporting their best virtues1 brings out on the surface all their worst faults1 and makes them censorious1 tiresome1 and often fearfully mischievous4 ,richie ,moniplies4 ,davie ,deans4 ,mause ,hedrigg4 #d4 ,the enthusiastic type1 leading to missionary effort1 often to martyrdom4 ,warden1 in ,monastery4 ,colonel ,gardiner4 ,ephraim ,macbriar4 ,joshua ,geddes4 #e4 ,highest type1 fulfilling daily duty2 always gentle1 entirely firm1 the comfort and strength of all around them2 merciful to every human fault1 and submissive without anger to every human oppression4 ,rachel ,geddes4 ,jeanie ,deans4 ,bessie ,maclure1 in ,old ,mortality--the ,queen of all4 #aad4 ,in the present paper1 ,i ask the reader's patience only with my fulfillment of a promise long since made1 to mark the opposition of the effects of an entirely similar religious faith in two men of inferior position1 representing in perfectness the commonest types in ,scotland of the second and third order of religionists here distinguished1 ,andrew ,fairservice 7,rob ,roy71 and ,richie ,moniplies 7,nigel74 ,the names of both the men imply deceitfulness of one kind or another--,fairservice1 as serving fairly only in pretense2 ,moniplies1 as having many windings1 turns1 and ways of escape4 ,scott's names are themselves so ,moniplied that they need as much following out as ,shakespeare's2 and as their roots are pure ,scotch1 and few people have a good ,scottish glossary beside them1 or would use it if they had1 the novels are usually read without any turning of the first keys to them4 ,i did not myself know till very lately the root of ,dandie ,dinmont's name--,dinmont1 a two-year-old sheep2 still less that of ,moniplies1 which ,i had been always content to take ,master ,george ,heriot's rendering of3 ,this fellow is not ill-named--he has more plies than one in his cloak4 7,nigel1 i4 #gb47 ,in its first sense1 it is the ,scotch word for tripe1 ,moniplies being a butcher's son4 #aae4 ,cunning1 then1 they both are1 in a high degree--but ,fairservice only for himself1 ,moniplies for himself and his friend2 or1 in grave business1 even for his friend first4 ,but it is one of ,scott's first principles of moral law that cunning never shall succeed1 unless definitely employed against an enemy by a person whose essential character is wholly frank and true2 as by ,roland against ,lady ,lochleven1 or ,mysie ,happer against ,dan of the ,howlet-hirst2 but consistent cunning in the character always fails3 ,scott allows no ,ulyssean hero4 ,therefore the cunning of ,fairservice fails always1 and totally2 but that of ,moniplies precisely according to the degree of its selfishness3 wholly1 in the affair of the petition--7,i am sure ,i had a' the right and a' the risk1 i4 #gc7--partially1 in that of the carcanet4 ,this he himself at last recognizes with complacency3-- ,i think you might have left me1 says ,nigel in their parting scene 7i4 #bhf71 to act according to my own judgment4 ,mickle better not1 answered ,richie2 mickle better not4 ,we are a' frail creatures1 and can judge better for ilk ither than in our own cases4 ,and for me--even myself--,i have always observed myself to be much more prudential in what ,i have done in your lordship's behalf1 than even in what ,i have been able to transact for my own interest--whilk last1 ,i have1 indeed1 always postponed1 as in duty ,i ought4 ,i do believe thou hast1 answered ,lord ,nigel1 having ever found thee true and faithful4 ,and his final success is entirely owing to his courage and fidelity1 not to his cunning4 ,to this subtlety both the men join considerable power of penetration into the weaknesses of character2 but ,fairservice only sees the surface-failings1 and has no respect for any kind of nobleness2 while ,richie watches the gradual lowering of his master's character and reputation with earnest sorrow4 ,my lord1 said ,richie1 to be round with you1 the grace of ,god is better than gold pieces1 and1 if they were my last words1 he said1 raising his voice1 ,i would say you are misled1 and are forsaking the paths your honorable father trode in2 and what is more1 you are going--still under correction--to the devil with a dishclout1 for ye are laughed at by them that lead you into these disordered bypaths 7i4 #bhb74 #aaf4 ,in the third place1 note that the penetration of ,moniplies1--though1 as aforesaid1 more into faults than virtues1--being yet founded on the truth of his own nature1 is undeceivable4 ,no rogue can escape him for an instant2 and he sees through all the machinations of ,lord ,glenvarloch's enemies from the first2 while ,fairservice1 shrewd enough in detecting the follies of good people1 is quite helpless before knaves1 and is deceived three times over by his own chosen friends--first by the lawyer's clerk1 ,touthope 7ii4 #ba71 then by the hypocrite ,mac,vittie1 and finally by his true blue ,presbyterian friend ,laurie4 ,in these first elements of character the men are thus broadly distinguished2 but in the next1 requiring analysis1 the differences are much more subtle4 ,both of them have1 in nearly equal degree1 the peculiar love of doing or saying what is provoking1 by an exact contrariety to the wishes of the person they are dealing with1 which is a fault inherent in the rough side of uneducated ,scottish character2 but in ,andrew1 the habit is checked by his self-interest1 so that it is only behind his master's back that we hear his opinion of him2 and only when he has lost his temper that the inherent provocativeness comes out--7see the dark ride into ,scotland74 ,on the contrary1 ,moniplies never speaks but in praise of his absent master2 but exults in mortifying him in direct colloquy3 yet never indulges this amiable disposition except with a really kind purpose1 and entirely knowing what he is about4 ,fairservice1 on the other hand1 gradually falls into an unconscious fatality of varied blunder and provocation2 and at last causes the entire catastrophe of the story by bringing in the candles when he has been ordered to stay downstairs4 #aag4 ,we have next to remember that with ,scott1 ,truth and ,courage are one4 ,he somewhat overvalued animal courage--holding it the basis of all other virtue--in his own words1 ,without courage there can be no truth1 and without truth no virtue4 ,he would1 however1 sometimes allow his villains to possess the basis1 without the super-structure1 and thus ,rashleigh1 ,dalgarno1 ,balfour1 ,varney1 and other men of that stamp are to be carefully distinguished from his erring heroes1 ,marmion1 ,bertram1 ,christie of the ,clinthill1 or ,nanty ,ewart1 in whom loyalty is always the real strength of the character1 and the faults of life are owing to temporary passion or evil fate4 ,scott differs in this standard of heroism materially from ,byron1#ajd in whose eyes mere courage1 with strong affections1 are enough for admiration3 while ,bertram1 and even ,marmion1 though loyal to his country1 are meant only to be pitied--not honored4 ,but neither ,scott nor ,byron will ever allow any grain of mercy to a coward2 and the final difference1 therefore1 between ,fairservice and ,moniplies1 which decides their fate in ,scott's hands1 is that between their courage and cowardice4 ,fairservice is driven out at the kitchen door1 never to be heard of more1 while ,richie rises into ,sir ,richie of ,castle-,collop--the reader may perhaps at the moment think by too careless grace on the ,king's part2 which1 indeed1 ,scott in some measure meant2--but the grotesqueness and often evasiveness of ,richie's common manner make us forget how surely his bitter word is backed by his ready blow1 when need is4 ,his first introduction to us 7i4 #cc71 is because his quick temper overcomes his caution1-- ,i thought to mysel'1 ',ye are owre mony for me to mell with2 but let me catch ye in ,barford's ,park1 or at the fit of the vennel1 ,i could gar some of ye sing another sang4' ,sae1 ae auld hirpling deevil of a potter behoved just to step in my way and offer me a pig1 as he said1 just to pit my ,scotch ointment in1 and ,i gave him a push1 as but natural1 and the tottering deevil couped owre amang his ain pigs1 and damaged a score of them4 ,and then the reird#aje raise-- while in the close of the events 7ii4 #cfe71 he wins his wife by a piece of hand-to-hand fighting1 of the value of which his cool and stern estimate1 in answer to the gay ,templar1 is one of the great sentences marking ,scott's undercurrent of two feelings about war1 in spite of his love of its heroism4 ,bravo1 ,richie1 cried ,lowestoffe1 why1 man1 there lies ,sin struck down like an ox1 and ,iniquity's throat cut like a calf4 ,i know not why you should upbraid me with my upbringing1 ,master ,lowestoffe1 answered ,richie1 with great composure2 but ,i can tell you1 the shambles is not a bad place for training one to this work4 #aah4 ,these then being the radical conditions of native character in the two men1 wholly irrespective of their religious persuasion1 we have to note what form their ,presbyterian faith takes in each1 and what effect it has on their consciences4 ,in ,richie1 it has little to do2 his conscience being1 in the deep of it1 frank and clear4 ,his religion commands him nothing which he is not at once ready to do1 or has not habitually done2 and it forbids him nothing which he is unwilling to forego4 ,he pleads no pardon from it for known faults2 he seeks no evasions in the letter of it for violations of its spirit4 ,we are scarcely therefore aware of its vital power in him1 unless at moments of very grave feeling and its necessary expression4 ,wherefore1 as the letter will not avail you with him to whom it is directed1 you may believe that ,heaven hath sent it to me1 who have a special regard for the writer--have besides1 as much mercy and honesty within me as man can weel mak' his bread with1 and am willing to aid any distressed creature1 that is my friend's friend4 ,so1 again1 in the deep feeling which rebukes his master's careless ruin of the poor apprentice-- ,i say1 then1 as ,i am a true man1 when ,i saw that puir creature come through the ha' at that ordinary1 whilk is accurst 7,heaven forgive me for swearing7 of ,god and man1 with his teeth set1 and his hands clenched1 and his bonnet drawn over his brows4444 ,he stopped a moment1 and looked fixedly in his master's face4 --and again in saving the poor lad himself when he takes the street to his last destruction with burning heart and bloodshot eye3 ,why do you stop my way8 he said fiercely4 ,because it is a bad one1 ,master ,jenkin1 said ,richie4 ,nay1 never start about it1 man2 you see you are known4 ,alack-a-day6 that an honest man's son should live to start at hearing himself called by his own name4 ,i pray you in good fashion to let me go1 said ,jenkin4 ,i am in the humor to be dangerous to myself1 or to anyone4 ,i will abide the risk1 said the ,scot1 if you will but come with me4 ,you are the very lad in the world whom ,i most wish to meet4#ajf ,and you1 answered ,vincent1 or any of your beggarly countrymen1 are the last sight ,i should ever wish to see4 ,you ,scots are ever fair and false4 ,as to our poverty1 friend1 replied ,richie1 that is as ,heaven pleases2 but touching our falsity1 ,i'll prove to you that a ,scotsman bears as leal and true a heart to his friend as ever beat in an ,english doublet4 #aai4 ,in these1 and other such passages1 it will be felt that ,i have done ,richie some injustice in classing him among the religionists who have little sympathy6 ,for all real distress1 his compassion is instant2 but his doctrinal religion becomes immediately to him a cause of failure in charity4 ,yon divine has another air from powerful ,master ,rollock1 and ,mess ,david ,black of ,north ,leith1 and sic like4 ,alack-a-day1 wha can ken1 if it please your lordship1 whether sic prayers as the ,southrons read out of their auld blethering black mess-book there1 may not be as powerful to invite fiends1 as a right red-het prayer warm from the heart may be powerful to drive them away2 even as the evil spirit was driven by the smell of the fish's liver from the bridal chamber of ,sara1 the daughter of ,raguel6 ,the scene in which this speech occurs is one of ,scott's most finished pieces1 showing with supreme art how far the weakness of ,richie's superstitious formality is increased by his being at the time partially drunk6 ,it is on the other hand to be noted to his credit1 for an earnest and searching ,bible-reader1 that he quotes the ,apocrypha4 ,not so gifted ,gilfillan1-- ,but if your honor wad consider the case of ,tobit--6 ,tobit6 exclaimed ,gilfillan with great heat2 ,tobit and his dog baith are altogether heathenish and apocryphal1 and none but a prelatist or a papist would draw them into question4 ,i doubt ,i hae been mista'en in you1 friend4 ,gilfillan and ,fairservice are exactly alike1 and both are distinguished from ,moniplies in their scornfully exclusive dogmatism1 which is indeed the distinctive plague-spot of the lower evangelical sect everywhere1 and the worst blight of the narrow natures1 capable of its zealous profession4 ,in ,blattergowl1 on the contrary1 as his name implies1 the doctrinal teaching has become mere ,blather1 ,blatter1 or patter--a string of commonplaces spoken habitually in performance of his clerical function1 but with no personal or sectarian interest in them on his part4 ,he said fine things on the duty o' resignation to the will of ,god--that did he2 but his own mind is fixed under ordinary circumstances only on the income and privilege of his position4 ,scott however indicates this without severity as one of the weaknesses of an established church1 to the general principle of which1 as to all other established and monarchic law1 he is wholly submissive1 and usually affectionate 7see the description of ,colonel ,mannering's ,edinburgh ,sunday71 so that ,blattergowl1 out of the pulpit1 does not fail in his serious pastoral duty1 but gives real comfort by his presence and exhortation in the cottage of the ,mucklebackits4 ,on the other hand1 to all kinds of ,independents and ,nonconformists 7unless of ,roderick ,dhu type7 ,scott is adverse with all his powers2 and accordingly1 ,andrew and ,gilfillan are much more sternly and scornfully drawn than ,blattergowl4 #abj4 ,in all the three1 however1 the reader must not for an instant suspect what is commonly called hypocrisy4 ,their religion is no assumed mask or advanced pretense4 ,it is in all a confirmed and intimate faith1 mischievous by its error1 in proportion to its sincerity 7compare ,ariadne ,florentina1 paragraph #hg71 and although by his cowardice1 petty larceny1#ajg and low cunning1 ,fairservice is absolutely separated into a different class of men from ,moniplies--in his fixed religious principle and primary conception of moral conduct1 he is exactly like him4 ,thus when1 in an agony of terror1 he speaks for once to his master with entire sincerity1 one might for a moment think it was a lecture by ,moniplies to ,nigel4 ,o1 ,maister ,frank1 a' your uncle's follies and your cousin's fliskies1 were nothing to this6 ,drink clean cap-out1 like ,sir ,hildebrand2 begin the blessed morning with brandy-taps like ,squire ,percy2 rin wud among the lasses like ,squire ,john2 gamble like ,richard2 win souls to the ,pope and the deevil1 like ,rashleigh2 rive1 rant1 break the ,sabbath1 and do the ,pope's bidding1 like them a' put thegither--but merciful ,providence6 tak' care o' your young bluid1 and gang na near ,rob ,roy4 ,i said1 one might for a moment think it was a ,moniplies' lecture to ,nigel4 ,but not for two moments1 if we indeed can think at all4 ,we could not find a passage more concentrated in expression of ,andrew's total character2 nor more characteristic of ,scott in the calculated precision and deliberate appliance of every word4 #aba4 ,observe first1 ,richie's rebuke1 quoted above1 fastens ,nigel's mind instantly on the nobleness of his father4 ,but ,andrew's to ,frank fastens as instantly on the follies of his uncle and cousins4 ,secondly1 the sum of ,andrew's lesson is--do anything that is rascally1 if only you save your skin4 ,but ,richie's is summed in the grace of ,god is better than gold pieces4 ,thirdly1 ,richie takes little note of creeds1 except when he is drunk1 but looks to conduct always2 while ,andrew clinches his catalogue of wrong with doing the ,pope's bidding and ,sabbath-breaking2 these definitions of the unpardonable being the worst absurdity of all ,scotch wickedness to this hour--everything being forgiven to people who go to church on ,sunday1 and curse the ,pope4 ,scott never loses sight of this marvelous plague-spot of ,presbyterian religion1 and the last words of ,andrew ,fairservice are3-- ,the villain ,laurie6 to betray an auld friend that sang aff the same psalm-book wi' him every ,sabbath for twenty years1 and the tragedy of these last words of his1 and of his expulsion from his former happy home--a jargonelle pear-tree at one end of the cottage1 a rivulet and flower plot of a rood in extent in front1 a kitchen garden behind1 and a paddock for a cow 7viii4 #f1 of the #ahcj edition7 can only be understood by the reading of the chapter he quotes on that last ,sabbath evening he passes in it--the #eth of ,nehemiah4 #abb4 ,for--and ,i must again and again point out this to the modern reader1 who1 living in a world of affectation1 suspects hypocrisy in every creature he sees--the very plague of this lower evangelical piety is that it is not hypocrisy2 that ,andrew and ,laurie do both expect to get the grace of ,god by singing psalms on ,sunday1 whatever rascality they practice during the week4 ,in the modern popular drama of ,school1#ajh the only religious figure is a dirty and malicious usher who appears first reading ,hervey's ,meditations1 and throws away the book as soon as he is out of sight of the company4 ,but when ,andrew is found by ,frank perched up like a statue by a range of beehives in an attitude of devout contemplation1 with one eye watching the motions of the little irritable citizens1 and the other fixed on a book of devotion1 you will please observe1 suspicious reader1 that the devout gardener has no expectation whatever of ,frank's approach1 nor has he any design upon him1 nor is he reading or attitudinizing for effect of any kind on any person4 ,he is following his own ordinary customs1 and his book of devotion has been already so well used that much attrition had deprived it of its corners1 and worn it into an oval shape2 its attractiveness to ,andrew being twofold--the first1 that it contains doctrine to his mind2 the second1 that such sound doctrine is set forth under figures properly belonging to his craft4 ,i was e'en taking a spell o' worthy ,mess ,john ,quackleben's ',flower of a ,sweet ,savour sown on the ,middenstead of this ,world' 7note in passing ,scott's easy1 instant1 exquisite invention of the name of author and title of book72 and it is a question of very curious interest how far these sweet spells in ,quackleben1 and the like religious exercises of a nature compatible with worldly business 7compare ,luckie ,macleary1 with eyes employed on ,boston's ',crook in the ,lot1' while her ideas were engaged in summing up the reckoning--,waverley1 i4 #aab7--;do indeed modify in ,scotland the national character for the better or the worse2 or1 not materially altering1 do at least solemnize and confirm it in what good it may be capable of4 ,my own ,scottish nurse described in ,fors ,clavigera for ,april1 #ahgc1 would1 ,i doubt not1 have been as faithful and affectionate without her little library of ,puritan theology2 nor were her minor faults1 so far as ,i could see1 abated by its exhortations2 but ,i cannot but believe that her uncomplaining endurance of most painful disease1 and steadiness of temper under not unfrequent misapprehension by those whom she best loved and served1 were in great degree aided by so much of ,christian faith and hope as she had succeeded in obtaining1 with little talk about it4 #abc4 ,i knew however in my earlier days a right old ,covenanter in my ,scottish aunt's house1 of whom1 with ,mause ,hedrigg and ,david ,deans1 ,i may be able perhaps to speak further in my next paper4#aji ,but ,i can only now write carefully of what bears on my immediate work3 and must ask the reader's indulgence for the hasty throwing together of materials intended1 before my illness last spring1 to have been far more thoroughly handled4 ,the friends who are fearful for my reputation as an crivain will perhaps kindly recollect that a sentence of ,modern ,painters was often written four or five times over in my own hand1 and tried in every word for perhaps an hour--perhaps a forenoon--before it was passed for the printer4 ,i rarely now fix my mind on a sentence1 or a thought1 for five minutes in the quiet of morning1 but a telegram comes announcing that somebody or other will do themselves the pleasure of calling at eleven o'clock1 and that there's two shillings to pay4 ,,footnotes3 ,footnote #ih3 ,october #ahha4 ,footnote #ii3 ,jean ,franois ,millet4 ,twenty ,etching's and ,woodcuts reproduced in ,facsimile1 and ,biographical ,notice by ,william ,ernest ,henley4 ,london1 #ahha4 ,footnote #ajj3 ,i am sorry to find that my former allusion to the boating expedition in this novel has been misconstrued by a young authoress of promise into disparagement of her own work2 not supposing it possible that ,i could only have been forced to look at ,george ,eliot's by a friend's imperfect account of it4 ,footnote #aja3 ,i am ashamed to exemplify the miserable work of review by mangling and mumbling this noble closing chapter of the ,monastery1 but ,i cannot show the web of work without unweaving it4 ,footnote #ajb3 ,with ludicrously fatal retouch in the later edition was deprived of his sword4 ,footnote #ajc3 ,again ,i am obliged1 by review necessity1 to omit half the points of the scene4 ,footnote #ajd3 ,i must deeply and earnestly express my thanks to my friend ,mr4 ,hale ,white for his vindication of ,goethe's real opinion of ,byron from the mangled representation of it by ,mr4 ,matthew ,arnold 7,contemporary ,review1 ,august1 #ahha74 ,footnote #aje3 ,reirde1 rerde1 ,anglo-,saxon reord1 lingua1 sermo1 clamor1 shouting 7,douglas glossary74 ,no ,scottish sentence in the ,scott novels should be passed without examining every word in it1 his dialect1 as already noticed1 being always pure and classic in the highest degree1 and his meaning always the fuller1 the further it is traced4 ,footnote #ajf3 ,the reader must observe that in quoting ,scott for illustration of particular points ,i am obliged sometimes to alter the succession and omit much of the context of the pieces ,i want1 for ,scott never lets you see his hand1 nor get at his points without remembering and comparing far-away pieces carefully4 ,to collect the evidence of any one phase of character1 is like pulling up the detached roots of a creeper4 ,footnote #ajg3 ,note the wee business of my ain1 i4 #bac4 ,footnote #ajh3 ,its hero is a tall youth with handsome calves to his legs1 who shoots a bull with a fowling-piece1 eats a large lunch1 thinks it witty to call ,othello a nigger1 and1 having nothing to live on1 and being capable of doing nothing for his living1 establishes himself in lunches and cigars forever1 by marrying a girl with a fortune4 ,the heroine is an amiable governess1 who1 for the general encouragement of virtue in governesses1 is rewarded by marrying a lord4 ,footnote #aji3 ,the present paper was1 however1 the last4--,,ed4 ,,fairy ,,stories4#aaj #abd4 ,long since1 longer ago than the opening of some fairy tales1 ,i was asked by the publisher who has been rash enough1 at my request1 to reprint these my favorite old stories in their earliest ,english form1 to set down for him my reasons for preferring them to the more polished legends1 moral and satiric1 which are now1 with rich adornment of every page by very admirable art1 presented to the acceptance of the ,nursery4 ,but it seemed to me to matter so little to the majestic independence of the child-public1 who1 beside themselves1 liked1 or who disliked1 what they pronounced entertaining1 that it is only on strict claims of a promise unwarily given that ,i venture on the impertinence of eulogy2 and my reluctance is the greater1 because there is in fact nothing very notable in these tales1 unless it be their freedom from faults which for some time have been held to be quite the reverse of faults by the majority of readers4 #abe4 ,in the best stories recently written for the young1 there is a taint which it is not easy to define1 but which inevitably follows on the author's addressing himself to children bred in schoolrooms and drawing-rooms1 instead of fields and woods--children whose favorite amusements are premature imitations of the vanities of elder people1 and whose conceptions of beauty are dependent partly on costliness of dress4 ,the fairies who interfere in the fortunes of these little ones are apt to be resplendent chiefly in millinery and satin slippers1 and appalling more by their airs than their enchantments4 ,the fine satire which1 gleaming through every playful word1 renders some of these recent stories as attractive to the old as to the young1 seems to me no less to unfit them for their proper function4 ,children should laugh1 but not mock2 and when they laugh1 it should not be at the weaknesses and the faults of others4 ,they should be taught1 as far as they are permitted to concern themselves with the characters of those around them1 to seek faithfully for good1 not to lie in wait maliciously to make themselves merry with evil3 they should be too painfully sensitive to wrong to smile at it2 and too modest to constitute themselves its judges4 #abf4 ,with these minor errors a far graver one is involved4 ,as the simplicity of the sense of beauty has been lost in recent tales for children1 so also the simplicity of their conception of love4 ,that word which1 in the heart of a child1 should represent the most constant and vital part of its being2 which ought to be the sign of the most solemn thoughts that inform its awakening soul and1 in one wide mystery of pure sunrise1 should flood the zenith of its heaven1 and gleam on the dew at its feet2 this word1 which should be consecrated on its lips1 together with the ,name which it may not take in vain1 and whose meaning should soften and animate every emotion through which the inferior things and the feeble creatures1 set beneath it in its narrow world1 are revealed to its curiosity or companionship2 this word1 in modern child-story1 is too often restrained and darkened into the hieroglyph of an evil mystery1 troubling the sweet peace of youth with premature gleams of uncomprehended passion1 and flitting shadows of unrecognized sin4 ,these great faults in the spirit of recent child-fiction are connected with a parallel folly of purpose4 ,parents who are too indolent and self-indulgent to form their children's characters by wholesome discipline1 or in their own habits and principles of life are conscious of setting before them no faultless example1 vainly endeavor to substitute the persuasive influence of moral precept1 intruded in the guise of amusement1 for the strength of moral habit compelled by righteous authority3--vainly think to inform the heart of infancy with deliberative wisdom1 while they abdicate the guardianship of its unquestioning innocence2 and warp into the agonies of an immature philosophy of conscience the once fearless strength of its unsullied and unhesitating virtue4 #abg4 ,a child should not need to choose between right and wrong4 ,it should not be capable of wrong2 it should not conceive of wrong4 ,obedient1 as bark to helm1 not by sudden strain or effort1 but in the freedom of its bright course of constant life2 true1 with an undistinguished1 praiseless1 unboastful truth1 in a crystalline household world of truth2 gentle1 through daily entreatings of gentleness1 and honorable trusts1 and pretty prides of child-fellowship in offices of good2 strong1 not in bitter and doubtful contest with temptation1 but in peace of heart1 and armor of habitual right1 from which temptation falls like thawing hail2 self-commanding1 not in sick restraint of mean appetites and covetous thoughts1 but in vital joy of unluxurious life1 and contentment in narrow possession1 wisely esteemed4 ,children so trained have no need of moral fairy tales2 but they will find in the apparently vain and fitful courses of any tradition of old time1 honestly delivered to them1 a teaching for which no other can be substituted1 and of which the power cannot be measured2 animating for them the material world with inextinguishable life1 fortifying them against the glacial cold of selfish science1 and preparing them submissively1 and with no bitterness of astonishment1 to behold1 in later years1 the mystery--divinely appointed to remain such to all human thought--of the fates that happen alike to the evil and the good4 #abh4 ,and the effect of the endeavor to make stories moral upon the literary merit of the work itself1 is as harmful as the motive of the effort is false4 ,for every fairy tale worth recording at all is the remnant of a tradition possessing true historical value2--historical1 at least in so far as it has naturally arisen out of the mind of a people under special circumstances1 and risen not without meaning1 nor removed altogether from their sphere of religious faith4 ,it sustains afterwards natural changes from the sincere action of the fear or fancy of successive generations2 it takes new color from their manner of life1 and new form from their changing moral tempers4 ,as long as these changes are natural and effortless1 accidental and inevitable1 the story remains essentially true1 altering its form1 indeed1 like a flying cloud1 but remaining a sign of the sky2 a shadowy image1 as truly a part of the great firmament of the human mind as the light of reason which it seems to interrupt4 ,but the fair deceit and innocent error of it cannot be interpreted nor restrained by a willful purpose1 and all additions to it by act do but defile1 as the shepherd disturbs the flakes of morning mist with smoke from his fire of dead leaves4 #abi4 ,there is also a deeper collateral mischief in this indulgence of licentious change and retouching of stories to suit particular tastes1 or inculcate favorite doctrines4 ,it directly destroys the child's power of rendering any such belief as it would otherwise have been in his nature to give to an imaginative vision4 ,how far it is expedient to occupy his mind with ideal forms at all may be questionable to many1 though not to me2 but it is quite beyond question that if we do allow of the fictitious representation1 that representation should be calm and complete1 possessed to the full1 and read down its utmost depth4 ,the little reader's attention should never be confused or disturbed1 whether he is possessing himself of fairy tale or history4 ,let him know his fairy tale accurately1 and have perfect joy or awe in the conception of it as if it were real2 thus he will always be exercising his power of grasping realities3 but a confused1 careless1 or discrediting tenure of the fiction will lead to as confused and careless reading of fact4 ,let the circumstances of both be strictly perceived and long dwelt upon1 and let the child's own mind develop fruit of thought from both4 ,it is of the greatest importance early to secure this habit of contemplation1 and therefore it is a grave error1 either to multiply unnecessarily1 or to illustrate with extravagant richness1 the incidents presented to the imagination4 ,it should multiply and illustrate them for itself2 and1 if the intellect is of any real value1 there will be a mystery and wonderfulness in its own dreams which would only be thwarted by external illustration4 ,yet ,i do not bring forward the text or the etchings in this volume as examples of what either ought to be in works of the kind3 they are in many respects common1 imperfect1 vulgar2 but their vulgarity is of a wholesome and harmless kind4 ,it is not1 for instance1 graceful ,english1 to say that a thought popped into ,catherine's head2 but it nevertheless is far better1 as an initiation into literary style1 that a child should be told this than that a subject attracted ,catherine's attention4 ,and in genuine forms of minor tradition1 a rude and more or less illiterate tone will always be discernible2 for all the best fairy tales have owed their birth1 and the greater part of their power1 to narrowness of social circumstances2 they belonged properly to districts in which walled cities are surrounded by bright and unblemished country1 and in which a healthy and bustling town life1 not highly refined1 is relieved by1 and contrasted with1 the calm enchantment of pastoral and woodland scenery1 either under humble cultivation by peasant masters1 or left in its natural solitude4 ,under conditions of this kind the imagination is enough excited to invent instinctively 7and rejoice in the invention of7 spiritual forms of wildness and beauty1 while yet it is restrained and made cheerful by the familiar accidents and relations of town life1 mingling always in its fancy humorous and vulgar circumstances with pathetic ones1 and never so much impressed with its supernatural fantasies as to be in danger of retaining them as any part of its religious faith4 ,the good spirit descends gradually from an angel into a fairy1 and the demon shrinks into a playful grotesque of diminutive malevolence1 while yet both keep an accredited and vital influence upon the character and mind4 ,but the language in which such ideas will be usually clothed1 must necessarily partake of their narrowness2 and art is systematically incognizant of them1 having only strength under the conditions which awake them to express itself in an irregular and gross grotesque1 fit only for external architectural decoration4 #acj4 ,the illustrations of this volume are almost the only exceptions ,i know to the general rule4 ,they are of quite sterling and admirable art1 in a class precisely parallel in elevation to the character of the tales which they illustrate2 and the original etchings1 as ,i have before said in the ,appendix to my ,elements of ,drawing1 were quite unrivaled in masterfulness of touch since ,rembrandt 7in some qualities of delineation unrivaled even by him74 ,these copies have been so carefully executed1 that at first ,i was deceived by them1 and supposed them to be late impressions from the plates 7and what is more1 ,i believe the master himself was deceived by them1 and supposed them to be his own72 and although on careful comparison with the first proofs they will be found no exception to the terrible law that literal repetition of entirely fine work shall be1 even to the hand that produced it1--much more to any other1--forever impossible1 they still represent1 with sufficient fidelity to be in the highest degree instructive1 the harmonious light and shade1 the manly simplicity of execution1 and the easy1 unincumbered fancy1 of designs which belonged to the best period of ,cruikshank's genius4 ,to make somewhat enlarged copies of them1 looking at them through a magnifying glass1 and never putting two lines where ,cruikshank has put only one1 would be an exercise in decision and severe drawing which would leave afterwards little to be learnt in schools1 ,i would gladly also say much in their praise as imaginative designs2 but the power of genuine imaginative work1 and its difference from that which is compounded and patched together from borrowed sources1 is of all qualities of art the most difficult to explain2 and ,i must be content with the simple assertions of it4 ,and so ,i trust the good old book1 and the honest work that adorns it1 to such favor as they may find with children of open hearts and lowly lives4 ,,denmark ,,hill1 ,easter1 #ahfh4 ,,footnotes3 ,footnote #aaj3 ,this paper forms the introduction to a volume entitled ,german ,popular ,stories1 with ,illustrations after the original designs of ,george ,cruikshank1 edited by ,edgar ,taylor1 with ,introduction by ,john ,ruskin1 ,m4,a4 ,london3 ,chatto and ,windus1 #ahfh4 ,the book is a reprint of ,mr4 ,edgar ,taylor's original 7#ahbc7 selections of the ,hausmrchen1 or ,german ,popular ,stories of the ,brothers ,grimm4 ,the original selections were in two octavo volumes2 the reprint in one of smaller size1 it being 7the publisher states in his preface7 ,mr4 ,ruskin's wish that the new edition should appeal to young readers rather than to adults4--,,ed4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,economy4 ,,home1 ,,and ,,its ,,economies4 7,contemporary ,review1 ,may #ahgc47 ,,usury4 ,a ,,reply ,,and ,a ,,rejoinder4 7,contemporary ,review1 ,february #ahhj47 ,,usury4 ,a ,,preface4 7,pamphlet1 #ahhe47 99 99 99 99 99 ,,home1 ,,and ,,its ,,economies4#aaa #aca4 ,in the ,march number of the ,contemporary ,review appeared two papers1#aab by writers of reputation1 which ,i cannot but hope their authors will perceive upon reflection to have involved errors only the more grave in that they have become1 of late1 in the minds of nearly all public men1 facile and familiar4 ,i have1 therefore1 requested the editor's permission to offer some reply to both of these essays1 their subjects being intimately connected4 ,the first of which ,i speak was ,mr4 ,herbert ,spencer's1 which appeared under the title of ,the ,bias of ,patriotism4 ,but the real subject of the paper 7discussed in its special extent1 with singular care and equity7 was only the bias of ,national vanity2 and the debate was opened by this very curious sentence1--,patriotism is nationally1 that which ,egoism is individually4 ,mr4 ,spencer would not1 ,i think1 himself accept this statement1 if put into the clear form1 ,what is ,egoism in one man1 is ,patriotism in two or more1 and the vice of an individual1 the virtue of a multitude4#aac ,but it is strange1--however strictly ,mr4 ,spencer may of late have confined his attention to metaphysical or scientific subjects1 disregarding the language of historical or imaginative literature--it is strange1 ,i repeat1 that so careful a student should be unaware that the term patriotism cannot1 in classical usage1 be extended to the action of a multitude4 ,no writer of authority ever speaks of a nation as having felt1 or acted1 patriotically4 ,patriotism is1 by definition1 a virtue of individuals2 and so far from being in those individuals a mode of egoism1 it is precisely in the sacrifice of their egoism that it consists4 ,it is the temper of mind which determines them to defer their own interests to those of their country4 #acb4 ,supposing it possible for any parallel sentiment to animate a nation as one body1 it could have reference only to the position it held among other families of the world4 ,the name of the emotion would then be properly ,cosmism1 and would signify the resolution of such a people to sacrifice its own special interests to those of ,mankind4 ,cosmism hitherto has indeed generally asserted itself only in the desire of the ,cosmic nation that all others should adopt its theological opinions1 and permit it to adopt their personal property2 but ,patriotism has truly existed1 and even as a dominant feeling1 in the minds of many persons who have been greatly influential on the fates of their races1 and that one of our leading philosophers should be unconscious of the nature of this sentiment1 and ignorant of its political power1 is to be noted as painfully characteristic of the present state of ,england itself4 ,it does not indeed follow that a feeling of which we are unaware is necessarily extinguished in us2 and the faculties of perception and analysis are always so paralyzed by the lingual ingenuities of logic that it is impossible to say1 of any professed logician1 whether he may not yet be acting under the real force of ideas of which he has lost both the consciousness and conception4 ,no man who has once entangled himself in what ,mr4 ,spencer defines1 farther on1 as the science of the relations implied by the conclusions1 exclusions1 and overlappings of classes1 can be expected during the rest of his life to perceive more of any one thing than that it is included1 excluded1 or overlapped by something else2 which is in itself a sufficiently confused state of mind1 and especially harmful in that it permits us to avoid considering whether our intellectual linen is itself clean1 while we concern ourselves only to ascertain whether it is included1 excluded1 or overlapped by our coat collar4 ,but it is a grave phenomenon of the time that patriotism--of all others--should be the sentiment which an ,english logician is not only unable to define1 but attempts to define as its precise contrary4 ,in every epoch of decline1 men even of high intellectual energy have been swept down in the diluvium of public life1 and the crystalline edges of their minds worn away by friction with blunted ones2 but ,i had not believed that the whole weight of the depraved mob of modern ,england1 though they have become incapable alike of fidelity to their own country1 and alliance with any other1 could so far have perplexed one of our exactest students as to make him confuse heroism with conceit1 and the loves of country and of home with the iniquities of selfishness4 ,can it be only a quarter of a century since the ,last ,minstrel died--and have we already answered his ,lives there a man8 with the calm assertion that there live no other than such2 and that the wretch concentered all in self is the ,patriot of our generation8 #acc4 ,be it so4 ,let it even be admitted that egoism is the only power conceivable by a modern metaphysician to be the spring of mental energy2 just as chemical excitement may be the only power traceable by the modern physician as the source of muscular energy4 ,and still ,mr4 ,spencer's subsequent analysis is inaccurate1 and unscholarly4 ,for egoism does not necessarily imply either misapprehension or mismeasurement4 ,there are modes of the love of our country which are definitely selfish1 as a cat's of the hearthrug1 yet entirely balanced and calm in judicial faculty2 passions which determine conduct1 but have no influence on opinion4 ,for instance1 ,i have bought for my own exclusive gratification1 the cottage in which ,i am writing1 near the lake-beach on which ,i used to play when ,i was seven years old4 ,were ,i a public-spirited scientific person1 or a benevolently pious one1 ,i should doubtless1 instead1 be surveying the geographical relations of the ,mountains of the ,moon1 or translating the ,athanasian ,creed into ,tartar-,chinese4 ,but ,i hate the very name of the public1 and labor under no oppressive anxiety either for the advancement of science1 or the salvation of mankind4 ,i therefore prefer amusing myself with the lake-pebbles1 of which ,i know nothing but that they are pretty2 and conversing with people whom ,i can understand without pains1 and who1 so far from needing to be converted1 seem to me on the whole better than myself4 ,this is moral egoism1 but it is not intellectual error4 ,i never form1 much less express1 any opinion as to the relative beauties of ,yewdale crag and the ,mountains of the ,moon2 nor do ,i please myself by contemplating1 in any exaggerated light1 the spiritual advantages which ,i possess in my familiarity with the ,thirty-nine ,articles4 ,i know the height of my neighboring mountains to a foot2 and the extent of my real possessions1 theological and material1 to an article4 ,patriotic egoism attaches me to the one2 personal egoism satisfies me in the other2 and the calm selfishness with which ,nature has blessed all her unphilosophical creatures1 blinds me to the attractions--as to the faults--of things with which ,i have no concern1 and saves me at once from the folly of contempt1 and the discomfort of envy4 ,i might have written1 as accurately1 ,the discomfort of contempt2 for indeed the forms of petulant rivalry and self-assertion which ,mr4 ,spencer assumes to be developments of egoism1 are merely its diseases2 7taking the word disease in its most literal meaning74 ,a man of sense is more an egoist in modesty than a blockhead is in boasting2 and it is neither pride nor self-respect1 but only ignorance and ill-breeding1 that either disguise the facts of life1 or violate its courtesies4 #acd4 ,it will not1 ,i trust1 be thought violation of courtesy to a writer of ,mr4 ,spencer's extending influence1 if ,i urge on his attention the danger under which metaphysicians are always placed of supposing that the investigation of the processes of thought will enable them to distinguish its forms4 ',as well might the chemist1 who had exhaustively examined the conditions of vitreous fusion1 imagine himself therefore qualified to number or class the vases bent by the breath of ,venice4 ,mr4 ,spencer has determined1 ,i believe1 to the satisfaction of his readers1 in what manner thoughts and feelings are constructed2 it is time for him now to observe the results of the construction1 whether native to his own mind1 or discoverable in other intellectual territories4 ,patriotism is1 however1 perhaps the last emotion he can now conveniently study in ,england1 for the temper which crowns the joy of life with the sweetness and decorum of death can scarcely be manifested clearly in a country which is fast rendering herself one whose peace is pollution1 and whose battle1 crime2 within whose confines it is loathsome to live1 and in whose cause it is disgraceful to die4 #ace4 ,the chief causes of her degradation were defended1 with delicate apology1 in the second paper to which ,i have above referred2 the modification by ,mr4 ,w4 ,r4 ,greg of a letter which he had addressed1 on the subject of luxurious expenditure and its economical results1 to the ,pall ,mall ,gazette2 and which ,mr4 ,greg states to have given rise in that journal to a controversy in which four or five combatants took part1 the looseness of whose notions induced him to express his own more coherent ones in the ,contemporary ,review4#aad ,i am sorry to find that ,mr4 ,greg looked upon my own poor part in that correspondence as controversial4 ,i merely asked him a question which he declared to be insidious and irrelevant 7not considering that if it were the one1 it could not be the other71 and ,i stated a few facts respecting which no controversy was possible1 and which ,mr4 ,greg1 in his own terms1 sedulously abstained from noticing4 ,but ,mr4 ,greg felt my question to be insidious because it made him partly conscious that he had only examined one half of the subject he was discussing1 and even that half without precision4 ,mr4 ,goldwin ,smith had spoken of a rich man as consuming the means of living of the poor4 ,mr4 ,greg1 in reply1 pointed out how beneficially the rich man spent what he had got4 ,upon which ,i ventured to inquire how he got it2 which is indeed precisely the first of all questions to be asked when the economical relations of any man with his neighbor are to be examined4 ,dick ,turpin is blamed--suppose--by some plain-minded person for consuming the means of other people's living4 ,nay1 says ,dick to the plain-minded person1 observe how beneficently and pleasantly ,i spend whatever ,i get6 ,yes1 ,dick1 persists the plain-minded person2 but how do you get it8 ,the question1 says ,dick1 is insidious and irrelevant4 ,do not let it be supposed that ,i mean to assert any irregularity or impropriety in ,dick's profession--,i merely assert the necessity for ,mr4 ,greg's examination1 if he would be master of his subject1 of the manner of ,gain in every case1 as well as the manner of ,expenditure4 ,such accounts must always be accurately rendered in a well-regulated society4 #acf4 ,le lieutenant adressa la parole au capitaine1 et lui dit qu'il venait d'enlever ces mannequins1 remplis de sucre1 de cannelle1 d'amandes1 et de raisins sees1 un picier de ,bnavente4 ,aprs qu'il eut rendu compte de son expdition au bureau1 les dpouilles de l'picier furent portes dans l'office4 ,alors il ne fut plus question que de se rjouir2 je dbutai par le buffet1 que je parai de plusieurs bouteilles de ce bon vin que le ,seigneur ,rolando m'avoit vant4 ,mr4 ,greg strictly confines himself to an examination of the benefits conferred on the public by this so agreeable festivity2 but he must not be surprised or indignant that some inquiry should be made as to the resulting condition of the picier de ,bnavente4 ,and it is all the more necessary that such inquiry be instituted when the captain of the expedition is a minion1 not of the moon1 but of the sun2 and dazzling1 therefore1 to all beholders4 ,it is heaven which dictates what ,i ought to do upon this occasion1#aae says ,henry of ,navarre2 my retreat out of this city1#aaf before ,i have made myself master of it1 will be the retreat of my soul out of my body4 ,accordingly all the quarter which still held out1 we forced1 says ,m4 de ,rosny1 after which the inhabitants1 finding themselves no longer able to resist1 laid down their arms1 and the city was given up to plunder4 ,my good fortune threw a small iron chest in my way1 in which ,i found about four thousand gold crowns4 ,i cannot doubt that the ,baron's expenditure of this sum would be in the highest degree advantageous to ,france and to the ,protestant religion4 ,but complete economical science must study the effect of its abstraction on the immediate prosperity of the town of ,cahors2 and even beyond this--the mode of its former acquisition by the town itself1 which perhaps1 in the economies of the nether world1 may have delegated some of its citizens to the seventh circle4#aag #acg4 ,and the most curious points in the partiality of modern economical science are that while it always waives this question of ways and means with respect to rich persons1 it studiously pushes it in the case of poor ones2 and while it asserts the consumption of such an article of luxury as wine 7to take that which ,mr4 ,greg himself instances7 to be economically expedient1 when the wine is drunk by persons who are not thirsty1 it asserts the same consumption to be altogether inexpedient1 when the privilege is extended to those who are4 ,thus ,mr4 ,greg dismisses1 in one place1 with compassionate disdain1 the extremely vulgar notion that a man who drinks a bottle of champagne worth five shillings1 while his neighbor is in want of actual food1 is in some way wronging his neighbor2 and yet ,mr4 ,greg himself1 elsewhere1#aah evidently remains under the equally vulgar impression that the twenty-four millions of such thirstier persons who spend fifteen per cent of their incomes in drink and tobacco1 are wronging their neighbors by that expenditure4 #ach4 ,it cannot1 surely1 be the difference in degree of refinement between malt liquor and champagne which causes ,mr4 ,greg's undefined sensation of moral delinquency and economical error in the one case1 and of none in the other2 if that be all1 ,i can relieve him from his embarrassment by putting the cases in more parallel form4 ,a clergyman writes to me1 in distress of mind1 because the able-bodied laborers who come begging to him in winter1 drink port wine out of buckets in summer4 ,of course ,mr4 ,greg's logical mind will at once admit 7as a consequence of his own very just argumentum ad hominem in a previous page#aai7 that the consumption of port wine out of buckets must be as much a benefit to society in general as the consumption of champagne out of bottles2 and yet1 curiously enough1 ,i am certain he will feel my question1 ,where does the drinker get the means for his drinking8 more relevant in the case of the imbibers of port than in that of the imbibers of champagne4 ,and although ,mr4 ,greg proceeds1 with that lofty contempt for the dictates of nature and ,christianity which radical economists cannot but feel1 to observe that while the natural man and the ,christian would have the champagne drinker forego his bottle1 and give the value of it to the famishing wretch beside him1 the radical economist would condemn such behavior as distinctly criminal and pernicious1 he would scarcely1 ,i think1 carry out with the same triumphant confidence the conclusions of the unnatural man and the anti-christian1 with respect to the laborer as well as the idler2 and declare that while the extremely simple persons who still believe in the laws of nature1 and the mercy of ,god1 would have the port-drinker forego his bucket1 and give the value of it to the famishing wife and child beside him1 the radical economist would condemn such behavior as distinctly criminal and pernicious4 ,mr4 ,greg has it indeed in his power to reply that it is proper to economize for the sake of one's own wife and children1 but not for the sake of anybody else's4 ,but since1 according to another exponent of the principles of ,radical ,economy1 in the ,cornhill ,magazine1#abj a well-conducted agricultural laborer must not marry till he is forty-five1 his economies1 if any1 in early life1 must be as offensive to ,mr4 ,greg on the score of their abstract humanity1 as those of the richest bachelor about town4 #aci4 ,there is another short sentence in this same page1 of which it is difficult to overrate the accidental significance4 ,the superficial observer1 says ,mr4 ,greg1 recollects a text which he heard in his youth1 but of which he never considered the precise applicability--',he that hath two coats1 let him impart to him that hath none4' ,the assumptions that no educated ,englishman can ever have heard that text except in his youth1 and that those who are old enough to remember having heard it1 never considered its precise applicability1 are surely rash1 in the treatment of a scientific subject4 ,i can assure ,mr4 ,greg that a few gray-headed votaries of the creed of ,christendom still read--though perhaps under their breath--the words which early associations have made precious to them2 and that in the bygone days1 when that ,sermon on the ,mount was still listened to with respect by many not illiterate persons1 its meaning was not only considered1 but very deliberately acted upon4 ,even the readers of the ,contemporary ,review may perhaps have some pleasure in retreating from the sunshine of contemporary science1 for a few quiet moments1 into the shadows of that of the past1 and hearing in the following extracts from two letters of ,scott's 7the first describing the manner of life of his mother1 whose death it announces to a friend1 the second1 anticipating the verdict of the future on the management of his estate by a ,scottish nobleman7 what relations between rich and poor were possible1 when philosophers had not yet even lisped in the sweet numbers of ,radical ,sociology4 99 99 99 99 99 #adj4 ,she was a strict economist1 which she said1 enabled her to be liberal2 out of her little income of about #cjj a year she bestowed at least a third in well-chosen charities1 and with the rest1 lived like a gentlewoman1 and even with hospitality more general than seemed to suit her age2 yet ,i could never prevail on her to accept of any assistance4 ,you cannot conceive how affecting it was to me to see the little preparations of presents which she had assorted for the ,new ,year1 for she was a great observer of the old fashions of her period--and to think that the kind heart was cold which delighted in all these arts of kindly affection4 #ada4 ,the ,duke is one of those retired and high-spirited men who will never be known until the world asks what became of the huge oak that grew on the brow of the hill1 and sheltered such an extent of ground4 ,during the late distress1 though his own immense rents remained in arrears1 and though ,i know he was pinched for money1 as all men were1 but more especially the possessors of entailed estates1 he absented himself from ,london in order to pay1 with ease to himself1 the laborers employed on his various estates4 ,these amounted 7for ,i have often seen the roll and helped to check it7 to nine hundred and fifty men1 working at day wages1 each of whom on a moderate average might maintain three persons1 since the single men have mothers1 sisters1 and aged or very young relations to protect and assist4 ,indeed it is wonderful how much even a small sum1 comparatively1 will do in supporting the ,scottish laborer1 who in his natural state is perhaps one of the best1 most intelligent1 and kind-hearted of human beings2 and in truth ,i have limited my other habits of expense very much since ,i fell into the habit of employing mine honest people4 ,i wish you could have seen about a hundred children1 being almost entirely supported by their fathers' or brothers' labor1 come down yesterday to dance to the pipes1 and get a piece of cake and bannock1 and pence apiece 7no very deadly largess7 in honor of hogmanay4 ,i declare to you1 my dear friend1 that when ,i thought the poor fellows1 who kept these children so neat1 and well taught1 and well behaved1 were slaving the whole day for eighteen pence or twenty pence at most1 ,i was ashamed of their gratitude1 and of their becks and bows4 ,but after all1 one does what one can1 and it is better twenty families should be comfortable according to their wishes and habits1 than that half that number should be raised above their situation4 99 99 99 99 99 #adb4 ,i must pray ,mr4 ,greg farther to observe1 if he has condescended to glance at these remains of almost prehistoric thought1 that although the modern philosopher will never have reason to blush for any man's gratitude1 and has totally abandoned the romantic idea of making even so much as one family comfortable according to their wishes and habits1 the alternative suggested by ,scott1 that half the number should be raised above their situation may become a very inconvenient one if the doctrines of ,modern ,equality and competition should render the other half desirous of parallel promotion4 #adc4 ,it is now just sixteen years since ,mr4 ,greg's present philosophy of ,expenditure was expressed with great precision by the ,common ,councilmen of ,new ,york1 in their report on the commercial crisis of #aheg1 in the following terms3--#aba ,another erroneous idea is that luxurious living1 extravagant dressing1 splendid turn-outs and fine houses1 are the cause of distress to a nation1 ,no more erroneous impression could exist4 ,every extravagance that the man of #ajj4jjj or #a1jjj1jjj dollars indulges in1 adds to the means1 the support1 the wealth of ten or a hundred who had little or nothing else but their labor1 their intellect1 or their taste4 ,if a man of #a1jjj1jjj dollars spends principal and interest in ten years1 and finds himself beggared at the end of that time1 he has actually made a hundred who have catered to his extravagance1 employers or employed1 so much richer by the division of his wealth4 ,he may be ruined1 but the nation is better off and richer1 for one hundred minds and hands1 with #aj1jjj dollars apiece1 are far more productive than one with the whole4 ,now that is precisely the view also taken of the matter by a large number of ,radical ,economists in ,england as well as ,america2 only they feel that the time1 however short1 which the rich gentleman takes to divide his property among them in his own way1 is practically wasted2 and even worse1 because the methods which the gentleman himself is likely to adopt for the depression of his fortune will not1 in all probability1 be conducive to the elevation of his character4 ,it appears1 therefore1 on moral as well as economical grounds1 desirable that the division and distribution should at once be summarily effected2 and the only point still open to discussion in the views of the ,common ,councilmen is to what degree of minuteness they would think it advisable to carry the subsequent subdivision4 #add4 ,i do not suppose1 however1 that this is the conclusion which ,mr4 ,greg is desirous that the general ,anti-,christian public should adopt2 and in that case1 as ,i see by his paper in the last number of the ,contemporary1#abb that he considers the ,christian life itself virtually impossible1 may ,i recommend his examination of the manners of the ,pre-,christian8 ,for ,i can certify him that this important subject1 of which he has only himself imperfectly investigated one side1 had been thoroughly investigated on all sides1 at least seven hundred years before ,christ2 and from that day to this1 all men of wit1 sense1 and feeling have held precisely the same views on the subjects of economy and charity1 in all nations under the sun4 ,it is of no consequence whether ,mr4 ,greg chooses the experience of ,boeotia1 ,lombardy1 or ,yorkshire1 nor whether he studies the relation of work to-day or under ,hesiod1 ,virgil1 or ,sydney ,smith4 ,but it is desirable that at least he should acquaint himself with the opinions of some such persons1 as well as with those of the ,common ,councilmen of ,new ,york2 for though a man of superior sagacity may be pardoned for thinking1 with the friends of ,job1 that ,wisdom will die with him1 it can only be through neglect of the existing opportunities of general culture that he remains distinctly under the impression that she was born with him4 #ade4 ,it may perhaps be well that in conclusion1 ,i should state briefly the causes and terms of the economical crisis of our own day1 which has been the subject of the debate between ,mr4 ,goldwin ,smith and ,mr4 ,greg4 ,no man ever became1 or can become1 largely rich merely by labor and economy4#abc ,all large fortunes 7putting treasure-trove and gambling out of consideration7 are founded either on occupation of land1 usury1 or taxation of labor4 ,whether openly or occultly1 the landlord1 money-lender1 and capitalist employer1 gather into their possession a certain quantity of the means of existence which other people produce by the labor of their hands4 ,the effect of this impost upon the condition of life of the tenant1 borrower1 and workman1 is the first point to be studied2--the results1 that is to say1 of the mode in which ,captain ,roland fills his purse4 ,secondly1 we have to study the effects of the mode in which ,captain ,roland empties his purse4 ,the landlord1 usurer1 or labor-master1 does not1 and cannot1 himself consume all the means of life he collects4 ,he gives them to other persons1 whom he employs for his own behoof--growers of champagne1 jockeys1 footmen1 jewelers1 builders1 painters1 musicians1 and the like4 ,the division of the labor of these persons from the production of food to the production of articles of luxury is very frequently1 and at the present day1 very grievously the cause of famine4 ,but when the luxuries are produced1 it becomes a quite separate question who is to have them1 and whether the landlord and capitalist are entirely to monopolize the music1 the painting1 the architecture1 the hand-service1 the horse-service1 and the sparkling champagne of the world4 #adf4 ,and it is gradually1 in these days1 becoming manifest to the tenants1 borrowers1 and laborers1 that instead of paying these large sums into the hands of the landlords1 lenders1 and employers1 for them to purchase music1 painting1 etc41 with1 the tenants1 borrowers1 and workers had better buy a little music and painting for themselves4 ,that1 for instance1 instead of the capitalist-employer paying three hundred pounds for a full-length portrait of himself1 in the attitude of investing his capital1 the united workmen had better themselves pay the three hundred pounds into the hands of the ingenious artist1 for a painting in the antiquated manner of ,leonardo or ,raphael1 of some subject more religiously or historically interesting to them2 and placed where they can always see it4 ,and again instead of paying three hundred pounds to the obliging landlord1 for him to buy a box at the opera with1 whence to study the refinements of music and dancing1 the tenants are beginning to think that they may as well keep their rents to themselves1 and therewith pay some ,wandering ,willie to fiddle at their own doors1 or bid some gray-haired minstrel ,tune1 to please a peasant's ear1 ,the harp a king had loved to hear4 ,and similarly the dwellers in the hut of the field and garret of the city are beginning to think that instead of paying half a crown for the loan of half a fire-place1 they had better keep their half-crown in their pockets till they can buy for themselves a whole one4 #adg4 ,these are the views which are gaining ground among the poor2 and it is entirely vain to endeavor to repress them by equivocations4 ,they are founded on eternal laws2 and although their recognition will long be refused1 and their promulgation1 resisted as it will be1 partly by force1 partly by falsehood1 can only be through incalculable confusion and misery1 recognized they must be eventually2 and with these three ultimate results3--that the usurer's trade will be abolished utterly1--that the employer will be paid justly for his superintendence of labor1 but not for his capital1 and the landlord paid for his superintendence of the cultivation of land1 when he is able to direct it wisely3 that both he1 and the employer of mechanical labor1 will be recognized as beloved masters1 if they deserve love1 and as noble guides when they are capable of giving discreet guidance2 but neither will be permitted to establish themselves any more as senseless conduits through which the strength and riches of their native land are to be poured into the cup of the fornication of its capital4 ,,footnotes3 ,footnote #aaa3 ,contemporary ,review1 ,may #ahgc4 ,footnote #aab3 ,these were1 first1 ,mr4 ,herbert ,spencer's ,bias of ,patriotism1 being the ninth chapter of his ,study of ,sociology1 first published in the ,contemporary ,review2 and1 secondly1 ,mr4 ,w4 ,r4 ,greg's ,what is culpable luxury8 ,see below1 p4 #cjc1 #ace4--;,,ed4 ,footnote #aac3 ,i take due note that ,mr4 ,spencer partly means by his adverbial sentence that ,patriotism is individual ,egoism1 expecting its own central benefit through the ,nation's circumferent benefit1 as through a funnel3 but1 throughout1 ,mr4 ,spencer confuses this sentiment1 which he calls reflex egoism1 with the action of corporate conscience4 ,footnote #aad3 ,see the letters on ,how the ,rich ,spend their ,money 7reprinted from the ,pall ,mall7 in ,arrows of the ,chace1 vol4 ii41 where the origin of the discussion is explained4--,,ed4 ,footnote #aae3 ,i use the current ,english of ,mrs4 ,lennox's translation1 but ,henry's real saying was 7see the first--green leaf--edition of ,sully71 ,it is written above what is to happen to me on every occasion4 ,toute occasion becomes cette occasion in the subsequent editions1 and finally what is to happen to me 7ce que doit tre fait de moi7 becomes what ,i ought to do in the ,english4 ,footnote #aaf3 ,cahors4 ,see the ,memoirs of the ,duke of ,sully1 ,book #a4 7,bohn's #ahef ,edition1 vol4 i41 pp4 #aah-i47--;,,ed4 ,footnote #aag3 ,where violence and brutality are punished4 ,see ,dante's ,inferno1 ,canto xii4--,,ed4 ,footnote #aah3 ,see the ,contemporary ,review at pp4 #fah and #fbd4--;,,ed4 ,footnote #aai3 ,viz43--,that if the expenditure of an income of #cj1jjj a year upon luxuries is to rob the poor1 so pro tanto is the expenditure of so much of an income of #cjj as is spent on anything beyond the simplest necessaries of life4--,,ed4 ,footnote #abj3 ,referring to two anonymous articles on ,the ,agricultural ,laborer1 in the ,cornhill ,magazine1 vol4 #bg1 ,jan4 and ,june #ahgc1 pp4 #bae and #cjg4--;,,ed4 ,footnote #aba3 ,see the ,times of ,november #bcrd of that year4 ,footnote #abb3 ,is a ,christian life feasible in these days8--,,ed4 ,footnote #abc3 ,see ,munera ,pulveris1 #aci3 ,no man can become largely rich by his personal will4444 ,it is only by the discovery of some method of taxing the labor of others that he can become opulent4 ,and see also ,time and ,tide1 #ha4--;,,ed4 ,,usury4#abd ,a ,,reply ,,and ,a ,,rejoinder4 #adh4 ,i have been honored by the receipt of a letter from the ,bishop of ,manchester1 which1 with his ,lordship's permission1 ,i have requested the editor of the ,contemporary ,review to place before the large circle of his readers1 with a brief accompanying statement of the circumstances by which the letter has been called forth1 and such imperfect reply as it is in my power without delay to render4 ,j4 ,,ruskin4 ,,manchester1 ,december #h1 #ahgi4 ,,dear ,,sir1--,in a letter from yourself to the ,rev4 ,f4 ,a4 ,malleson1#abe published in the ,contemporary ,review of the current month1 ,i observe the following passage3--,i have never yet heard so much as one 7preacher7 heartily proclaiming against all those 'deceivers with vain words1' that no 'covetous person1 which is an idolater1 hath any inheritance in the ,kingdom of ,christ and of ,god2' and on myself personally and publicly challenging the ,bishops of ,england generally1 and by name the ,bishop of ,manchester1 to say whether usury was1 or was not1 according to the will of ,god1 ,i have received no answer from any one of them4 ,i confess1 for myself1 that until ,i saw this passage in print a few days ago1 ,i was unaware of the existence of such challenge1 and therefore ,i could not answer it4 ,it appears to have been delivered 7,a7 in ,no4 #hb of a series of letters which1 under the title of ,fors ,clavigera1 you have for some time been addressing to the working classes of ,england1 but which1 from the peculiar mode of their publication1 are not easily accessible to the general reader and which ,i have only caught a glimpse of1 on the library-table of the ,athenum ,club1 on the rare occasions when ,i am able to use my privileges as a member of that ,society4 ,i have no idea why ,i had the honor of being specially mentioned by name 7,b72 but ,i beg to assure you that my silence did not arise from any discourtesy towards my challenger1 nor from that discretion which1 some people may think1 is usually the better part of episcopal valor1 and which consists in ignoring inconvenient questions from a sense of inability to answer them2 but simply from the fact that ,i was not conscious that your lance had touched my shield4 #adi4 ,the question you have asked is just one of those to which ,aristotle's wise caution applies3 ,we must distinguish and define such words1 if we would know how far1 and in what sense1 the opposite views are true 7,eth4 ,nic41 ix1 c4 viii4 #c74 ,what do you mean by usury8 7,c7 ,do you comprehend under it any payment of money as interest for the use of borrowed capital8 or only exorbitant1 inequitable1 grinding interest1 such as the money-lender1 ,fufidius1 extorted8 ,quinas hic capiti mercedes exsecat1 atque ,quanto perditior quisque est1 tanto acrius urget3 ,nomina sectatur modo sumta veste virili ,sub patribus duris tironum4 ,maxime1 quis non1 ,jupiter1 exclamat1 simul atque audivit8 --,hor4 ,sat4 i4 #b1 #ad-ah4 ,usury1 in itself1 is a purely neutral word1 carrying with it1 in its primary meaning1 neither praise nor blame2 and a usurer is defined in our dictionaries as a person accustomed to lend money and take interest for it--which is the ordinary function of a banker1 without whose help great commercial undertakings could not be carried out2 though it is obvious how easily the word may pass into a term of reproach1 so that to have been called a usurer was one of the bitter memories that rankled most in ,shylock's catalogue of his wrongs4 #aej4 ,i do not believe that anything has done more harm to the practical efficacy of religions sanctions than the extravagant attempts that are frequently made to impose them in cases which they never originally contemplated1 or to read into ordinances1 evidently imposed for a time--,greek3 dikaimata mechri kairou 7,heb4 ix4 #aj7--;a law of eternal and immutable obligation4 ,just as we are told 7,d7 not to expect to find in the ,bible a scheme of physical science1 so ,i do not expect to find there a scheme of political economy4 ,what ,i do expect to find1 in relation to my duty to my neighbor1 are those unalterable principles of equity1 fairness1 truthfulness1 honesty 7,e71 which are the indispensable bases of civil society4 ,i am sure ,i have no need to remind you that1 while a ,jew was forbidden by his law to take usury--i4e41 interest for the loan of money--from his brother1 if he were waxen poor and fallen into decay with him1 and this generous provision was extended even to strangers and sojourners in the land 7,lev4 xxv4 #ce-ch71 and the interesting story in ,nehemiah 7v4 #a-ac71 tells us how this principle was recognized in the latest days of the commonwealth--still in that old law there is no denunciation of usury in general1 and it was expressly permitted in the case of ordinary strangers#abf 7,deut4 xxiii4 #bj74 ,it seems to me plain also that our ,blessed ,lord's precept about lending1 hoping for nothing again 7,luke vi4 #ce71 has the same1 or a similar1 class of circumstances in view1 and was intended simply to govern a ,christian man's conduct to the poor and needy1 and such as have no helper1 and cannot1 without a violent twist 7,f71 be construed into a general law determining forever and in all cases the legitimate use of capital4 ,indeed1 on another occasion1 and in a very memorable parable1 the great ,founder of ,christianity recognizes1 and impliedly sanctions1 the practice of lending money at interest4 ,thou oughtest1 says the master1 addressing his unprofitable servant1 thou oughtest--,greek3 edei se--to have put my money to the exchangers2 and then1 at my coming1 ,i should have received mine own with usury4 #aea4 ,st4 ,paul1 no doubt1 denounces the covetous4 7,g7 ,but who is the ,greek3 pleonekts8 ,not the man who may happen to have money out on loan at a fair rate of interest2 but1 as ,liddell and ,scott give the meaning of the word1 one who has or claims more than his share2 hence1 greedy1 grasping1 selfish4 ,of such men1 whose affections are wholly set on things of the earth1 and who are not very scrupulous how they gratify them1 it may1 perhaps1 not improperly be said 7,h7 that they have no inheritance in the kingdom of ,christ and of ,god4 ,but here1 again1 it would be a manifest wresting of the words to make them apply to a case which we have no proof that the ,apostle had in contemplation when he uttered them4 ,rapacity1 greed of gain1 harsh and oppressive dealing1 taking unfair advantage of our own superior knowledge and another's ignorance1 shutting up the bowels of compassion towards a brother who we see has need--all these and the like things are forbidden by the very spirit of ,christianity1 and are manifestly not according to the will of ,god1 for they are all of them forms of injustice or wrong4 ,but money may be lent at interest without one of these bad passions being brought in to play1 and in these cases ,i confess my inability to see where1 either in terms or in spirit1 such use of money is condemned either by the ,christian code of charity1 or by that natural law of conscience which we are told 7,i7 is written on the hearts of men4 #aeb4 ,let me take two or three simple instances by way of illustration4 ,the following has happened to myself4 ,all my life through--from the time when my income was not a tenth part of what it is now--,i have felt it a duty1 while endeavoring to discharge all proper claims1 to live within that income1 so to adjust my expenditure to it that there should be a margin on the right side4 ,this margin1 of course1 accumulated1 and reached in time1 say1 #ajjj4 ,just then1 say1 the ,london and ,north-,western ,railway ,company proposed to issue ,debenture ,stock1 bearing four per cent4 interest1 for the purpose of extending the communications1 and so increasing the wealth1 of the country4 ,whom in the world am ,i injuring--what conceivable wrong am ,i doing--where or how am ,i thwarting the ,will of ,god--if ,i let the ,company have my #ajjj1 and have been receiving from them #dj a year for the use of it ever since8 ,unless the money had been forthcoming from some quarter or other1 a work which was absolutely necessary for the prosperity of the nation1 and which finds remunerative employment 7,k7 for an immense number of ,englishmen1 enabling them to bring up their families in respectability and comfort1 would never have been accomplished4 ,will you tell me that this method of carrying out great commercial enterprises1 sanctioned by experience 7,l7 as the most1 if not the only1 practicable one1 is not according to the ,will of ,god8 #aec4 ,take another instance4 ,in ,lancashire a large number of cotton mills have been erected on the joint-stock principle with limited liability4 ,the thing has been pushed too far probably1 and at one time there was a good deal of unwholesome speculation in floating companies4 ,but that is not the question before us2 and the enterprises gave working men an opportunity of investing their savings1 which was a great stimulus to thrift1 and1 so far1 an advantage to the country4 ,in a mill1 which it would perhaps cost #ej1jjj to build and fit with machinery1 the subscribed capital1 which would be entitled to a division of profits after all other demands had been satisfied1 would not amount probably to more than #bj1jjj4 ,the rest would be borrowed at rates of interest varying according to the conditions of the market4 ,you surely would not maintain that those who lent their money for such a purpose1 and were content with #e or #f per cent1 for the use of it1 thus enabling1 in good times1 the shareholders to realize #bj or #be per cent1 on their subscribed capital1 were doing wrong either to the shareholders or anyone else1 or could in any sense be charged with acting not according to the will of ,god8 #aed4 ,take yet one case more4 ,a farmer asks his landlord to drain his land4 ,gladly1 says his squire1 if you will pay me five per cent on the outlay4 ,in other words1 if you will let me share the increased profits to this extent4 ,the bargain is agreeable to both sides2 the productiveness of the land is largely increased2 who is wronged8 ,surely such a transaction could not fairly be described as not according to the will of ,god2 surely1 unless the commerce and productive industries of the country are to be destroyed1 and1 with the destruction1 its population is to be reduced to what it was in the days of ,elizabeth1 these and similar transactions--which can be kept entirely clear of the sin of covetousness1 and rest upon the well-understood basis of mutual advantage1 each and all being gainers by them--are not only legitimate1 but inevitable 7,m74 ,and now that ,i have taken up your challenge1 and1 so far as my ability goes1 answered it1 may ,i1 without staying to inquire how far your charge against the clergy can be substantiated1 that they generally patronize and encourage all the iniquity of the world by steadily preaching away the penalties of it 7,n71 be at least allowed to demur to your wholesale denunciation of the great cities of the earth1 which you say have become loathsome centers of fornication and covetousness1 the smoke of their sin going up into the face of ,heaven1 like the furnace of ,sodom1 and the pollution of it rotting and raging through the bones and souls of the peasant people round them1 as if they were each a volcano1 whose ashes brake out in blains upon man and beast4#abg ,surely1 ,sir1 your righteous indignation at evil has caused you to overcharge your language4 ,no one can have lived in a great city1 as ,i have for the last ten years1 without being aware of its sins and its pollutions4 ,but unless you can prevent the aggregation of human beings into great cities1 these are evils which must necessarily exist2 at any rate1 which always have existed4 ,the great cities of to-day are not worse than great cities always have been 7,o74 ,in one capital respect1 ,i believe they are better4 ,there is an increasing number of their citizens who are aware of these evils1 and who are trying their best1 with the help of ,god1 to remedy them4 ,in ,sodom there was but one righteous man who vexed his soul at the unlawful deeds that he witnessed day by day1 on every side2 and he1 apparently1 did no more than vex his soul4 ,in ,manchester1 the men and women1 of all ranks and persuasions1 who are actively engaging in some ,christian or philanthropic work1 to battle against these gigantic evils1 are to be reckoned by hundreds4 ,nowhere have ,i seen more conspicuous instances of ,christian effort1 and of single-hearted devotion to the highest interests of mankind4 ,and though1 no doubt1 if these efforts were better organized1 more might be achieved1 and elements1 which one could wish absent1 sometimes mingle with and mar the work1 still a great city1 even with the smoke of its sin going up into the face of ,heaven1 is the noblest field of the noblest virtues1 because it gives the amplest scope for the most varied exercise of them4 ,if you will teach us clergy how better to discharge our office as ministers of a ,kingdom of ,truth and ,righteousness1 we shall all owe you a deep debt of gratitude2 which no one will be more forward to acknowledge than1 my dear ,sir1 yours faithfully and with much respect1 ,j4 ,,manchester4 ,,john ,,ruskin1 ,esq4 #aee4 ,the foregoing letter1 to which ,i would fain have given my undivided and unwearied attention1 reached my hands1 as will be seen by its date1 only in the close of the year1 when my general correspondence always far overpasses my powers of dealing with it1 and my strength--such as now is left me--had been spent1 nearly to lowest ebb1 in totally unexpected business arising out of the threatened mischief at ,venice4 ,but ,i am content that such fragmentary reply as1 under this pressure1 has been possible to me1 should close the debate as far as ,i am myself concerned4 ,the question at issue is not one of private interpretation2 and the interests concerned are too vast to allow its decision to be long delayed4 ,the ,bishop will1 ,i trust1 not attribute to disrespect the mode of reply in the form of notes attached to special passages1 indicated by inserted letters1 which was adopted in ,fors ,clavigera in all cases of important correspondence1 as more clearly defining the several points under debate4 #aef4 7,a7 ,the challenge appears to have been delivered4 ,may ,i respectfully express my regret that your lordship should not have read the letter you have honored me by answering4 ,the number of ,fors referred to does not deliver--it only reiterates--the challenge given in the ,fors for ,january #ast1 #ahge1 with reference to the prayer ,have mercy upon all ,jews1 ,turks1 infidels1 and heretics1 and so fetch them home1 blessed ,lord1 to ,thy flock1 that they may be saved among the remnant of the true ,israelites1 in these following terms3 ,who are the true ,israelites1 my ,lord of ,manchester1 on your ,exchange8 ,do they stretch their cloth1 like other people8--have they any underhand dealings with the liable-to-be-damned false ,israelites--,rothschilds and the like8 or are they duly solicitous about those wanderers' souls8 and how often1 on the average1 do your ,manchester clergy preach from the delicious parable1 savoriest of all ,scripture to rogues 7at least since the eleventh century1 when ,i find it to have been specially headed with golden title in my best ,greek ,,ms47 of the ,pharisee and ,publican1--and how often1 on the average1 from those objectionable ,first and ,fifteenth ,psalms8 7,b7 ,i have no idea why ,i had the honor of being specially mentioned by name4 ,by diocese1 my ,lord2 not name1 please observe2 and for this very simple reason3 that ,i have already fairly accurate knowledge of the divinity of the old schools of ,canterbury1 ,york1 and ,oxford2 but ,i looked to your ,lordship as the authoritative exponent of the more advanced divinity of the school of ,manchester1 with which ,i am not yet familiar4 #aeg4 7,c7 ,what do you mean by usury8 ,what ,i mean by that word1 my ,lord1 is surely of no consequence to anyone but my few readers1 and fewer disciples4 ,what ,david and his ,son meant by it ,i have prayed your ,lordship to tell your flock1 in the name of the ,church which dictates daily to them the songs of the one1 and professes to interpret to them the commands of the other4 ,and although ,i can easily conceive that a ,bishop at the court of the ,third ,richard might have paused in reply to a too curious layman's question of what was meant by ,murder2 and can also conceive a ,bishop at the court of the ,second ,charles hesitating as to the significance of the word ,adultery2 and farther1 in the present climacteric of the ,british ,constitution1 an elder of the ,church of ,glasgow debating within himself whether the ,commandment which was severely prohibitory of ,theft might not be mildly permissive of ,misappropriation2--at no time1 nor under any conditions1 can ,i conceive any question existing as to the meaning of the words ,greek3 tokos1 foenus2 usura1 or usury3 and ,i trust that your ,lordship will at once acquit me of wishing to attach any other significance to the word than that which it was to the full intended to convey on every occasion of its use by ,moses1 by ,david1 by ,christ1 and by the ,doctors of the ,christian ,church1 down to the seventeenth century4 ,nor1 even since that date1 although the commercial phrase interest has been adopted in order to distinguish an open and unoppressive rate of usury from a surreptitious and tyrannical one1 has the debate of lawfulness or unlawfulness ever turned seriously on that distinction4 ,it is neither justified by its defenders only in its mildness1 nor condemned by its accusers only in its severity4 ,usury in any degree is asserted by the ,doctors of the early ,church to be sinful1 just as theft and adultery are asserted to be sinful1 though neither may have been accompanied with violence2 and although the theft may have been on the most splendid scale1 and the fornication of the most courtly refinement4 ,so also1 in modern days1 though the voice of the ,bank of ,england in ,parliament declares a loan without interest to be a monster1#abh and a loan made below the current rate of interest1 a monster in its degree1 the increase of dividends above that current rate is not1 as far as ,i am aware1 shunned by shareholders with an equally religious horror4 #aeh4 ,but--this strange question being asked--,i give its simple and broad answer in the words of ,christ3 ,the taking up that thou layedst not down2--or1 in explained and literal terms1 usury is any money paid1 or other advantage given1 for the loan of anything which is restored to its possessor uninjured and undiminished4 ,for simplest instance1 taking a cabman the other day on a long drive1 ,i lent him a shilling to get his dinner4 ,if ,i had kept thirteen pence out of his fare1 the odd penny would have been usury4 ,or again4 ,i lent one of my servants1 a few years ago1 eleven hundred pounds1 to build a house with1 and stock its ground4 ,after some years he paid me the eleven hundred pounds back4 ,if ,i had taken eleven hundred pounds and a penny1 the extra penny would have been usury4 ,i do not know whether by the phrase1 presently after used by your ,lordship1 religious sanctions1 ,i am to understand the ,law of ,god which ,david loved1 and ,christ fulfilled1 or whether the splendor1 the commercial prosperity1 and the familiar acquaintance with all the secrets of science and treasures of art1 which we admire in the ,city of ,manchester1 must in your ,lordship's view be considered as cases which the intelligence of the ,divine ,lawgiver could not have originally contemplated4 ,without attempting to disguise the narrowness of the horizon grasped by the glance of the ,lord from ,sinai1 nor the inconvenience of the commandments which ,christ has directed those who love ,him to keep1 am ,i too troublesome or too exigent in asking from one of those whom the ,holy ,ghost has made our overseers1 at least a distinct chart of the ,old ,world as contemplated by the ,almighty2 and a clear definition of even the inappropriate tenor of the orders of ,christ3 if only that the modern scientific ,churchman may triumph more securely in the circumference of his heavenly vision1 and accept more gratefully the glorious liberty of the free-thinking children of ,god8 #aei4 ,to take a definite1 and not impertinent1 instance1 ,i observe in the continuing portion of your letter that your ,lordship recognizes in ,christ ,himself1 as doubtless all other human perfections1 so also the perfection of an usurer2 and that1 confidently expecting one day to hear from ,his lips the convicting sentence1 ,thou knewest that ,i was an austere man1 your ,lordship prepares for yourself1 by the disposition of your capital no less than of your talents1 a better answer than the barren1 ,behold1 there thou hast that is thine6 ,i would only observe in reply1 that although the conception of the ,good ,shepherd1 which in your ,lordship's language is implied in this parable1 may indeed be less that of one who lays down his life for his sheep1 than of one who takes up his money for them1 the passages of our ,master's instruction1 of which the meaning is not implicit1 but explicit1 are perhaps those which ,his simpler disciples will be safer in following4 ,of which ,i find1 early in ,his teaching1 this1 almost1 as it were1 in words of one syllable3 ,give to him that asketh thee1 and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away4 ,there is nothing more implied in this sentence than the probable disposition to turn away1 which might be the first impulse in the mind of a ,christian asked to lend for nothing1 as distinguished from the disciple of the ,manchester school1 whose principal care is rather to find1 than to avoid1 the enthusiastic and enterprising him that would borrow of thee4 ,we of the older tradition1 my ,lord1 think that prudence1 no less than charity1 forbids the provocation or temptation of others into the state of debt1 which some time or other we might be called upon1 not only to allow the payment of without usury1 but even altogether to forgive4 #afj4 7,d7 ,just as we are told4 ,where1 my ,lord1 and by whom8 ,it is possible that some of the schemers in physical science1 of whom1 only a few days since1 ,i heard one of the leading doctors explain to a pleased audience that serpents once had legs1 and had dropped them off in the process of development1 may have advised the modern disciple of progress of a new meaning in the simple phrase1 upon thy belly shalt thou go2 and that the wisdom of the serpent may henceforth consist1 for true believers of the scientific ,gospel1 in the providing of meats for that spiritual organ of motion4 ,it is doubtless also true that we shall look vainly among the sayings of ,solomon for any expression of the opinions of ,mr4 ,john ,stuart ,mill2 but at least this much of ,natural science1 enough for our highest need1 we may find in the ,scriptures--that by the ,word of the ,lord were the heavens made1 and all the host of them by the breath of ,his mouth2--and this much of ,political1 that the ,blessing of the ,lord1 it maketh rich--and ,he addeth no sorrow with it4 7,e7 ,what ,i do expect to find4 ,has your ,lordship no expectations loftier than these1 from severer scrutiny of the ,gospel8 ,as for instance1 of some ordinance of ,love1 built on the foundation of ,honesty8 #afa4 7,f7 ,cannot without a violent twist4 ,i have never myself found any person sincerely desirous of obeying the ,word of the ,lord1 who had the least wish1 or occasion1 to twist it2 nay1 even those who study it only that they may discover methods of pardonable disobedience1 recognize the unturnable edge of its sword--and in the worst extremity of their need1 strive not to avert1 but to evade4 ,the utmost deceivableness of unrighteousness cannot deceive itself into satisfactory misinterpretation2 it is reduced always to a tremulous omission of the texts it is resolved to disobey4 ,but a little while since1 ,i heard an entirely well-meaning clergyman1 taken by surprise in the course of family worship in the house of a wealthy friend1 and finding himself under the painful necessity of reading the fifteenth ,psalm1 omit the first sentence of the closing verse4 ,i chanced afterwards to have an opportunity of asking him why he had done so1 and received for answer1 that the lowliness of ,christian attainment was not yet up to that verse4 ,the harmonies of iniquity are thus curiously perfect3--the economies of spiritual nourishment approve the same methods of adulteration which are found profitable in the carnal2 until the prudent pastor follows the example of the well-instructed dairyman2 and provides for his new-born babes the insincere ,milk of the ,word1 that they may not grow thereby4 #afb4 7,g7 ,st4 ,paul1 no doubt1 denounces the covetous4 ,am ,i to understand your ,lordship as considering this undeniable denunciation an original and peculiar view taken by the least of the ,apostles--perhaps1 in this particular opinion1 not worthy to be called an ,apostle8 ,the traditions of my earlier days were wont to refer me to an earlier source of the idea2 which does not1 however1 appear to have occurred to your ,lordship's mind--else the reference to the authority of ,liddell and ,scott1 for the significance of the noun ,greek3 pleonekts1 ought to have been made also for that of the verb ,greek3 epithume ,and your ,lordship's frankness in referring me to the instances of your own practice in the disposal of your income1 must plead my excuse for what might have otherwise seemed impertinent--in noting that the blamelessness of episcopal character1 even by that least of the ,apostles1 required in his first ,epistle to ,timothy1 consists not merely in contentment with an episcopal share of ,church property1 but in being in no respect either ,greek3 aischrokords--a taker of gain in a base or vulgar manner1 or ,greek3 philarguros--a lover of silver1 this latter word being the common and proper word for covetous1 in the ,gospels and ,epistles2 as of the ,pharisees in ,luke xvi4 #ad2 and associated with the other characters of men in perilous times1 #b ,timothy iii4 #b1 and its relative noun ,greek3 philarguria1 given in sum for the root of all evil in #b ,timothy vi4 #aj1 while even the authority of ,liddell and ,scott in the interpretation of ,greek3 pleonexia itself as only the desire of getting more than our share1 may perhaps be bettered by the authority of the teacher1 who1 declining the appeal made to him as an equitable ,greek3 merists 7,luke xii4 #ad-df71 tells his disciples to beware of coveteousness1 simply as the desire of getting more than we have got4 ,for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth4 #afc4 ,believe me1 my ,lord1 it is not without some difficulty that ,i check my natural impulse to follow you1 as a scholar1 into the interesting analysis of the distinctions which may be drawn between ,rapacity and ,acquisitiveness2 between the ,avarice1 or the prudent care1 of possession2 between the greed1 and the modest expectation1 of gain2 between the love of money1 which is the root of all evil2 and the commercial spirit1 which is in ,england held to be the fountain of all good4 ,these delicate adjustments of the balance1 by which we strive to weigh to a grain the relative quantities of devotion which we may render in the service of ,mammon and of ,god1 are wholly of recent invention and application2 nor have they the slightest bearing1 either on the spiritual purport of the final commandment of the ,decalogue1 or on the distinctness of the subsequent prohibition of practical usury4 ,it must be remembered1 also1 how difficult it has become to define the term filthy with precision1 in the present state1 moral and physical1 of the ,english atmosphere2 and still more so1 to judge how far1 in that healthy element1 a moderate and delicately sanctified appetite for gold may be developed into livelier qualms of hunger for righteousness4 ,it may be matter of private opinion how far the lucre derived by your ,lordship from commission on the fares and refreshments of the passengers by the ,north-,western may be odoriferous or precious1 in the same sense as the ointment on the head of ,aaron2 or how far that received by the ,primate of ,england in royalties on the circulation of improving literature#abi may enrich--as with perfumes out of broken alabaster--the empyreal air of ,addington4 ,but the higher class of laborers in the ,lord's vineyard might surely1 with true grace1 receive1 from the last unto the first1 the reflected instruction so often given by the first unto the last1 ,be content with your wages4 7,h7 ,it may1 perhaps1 not improperly be said1 ,the ,bible ,society will doubtless in future gratefully prefix this guarantee to their publications4 7,i7 ,which we are told4 ,can we then no more find for ourselves this writing on our hearts--or has it ceased to be legible8 #afd4 7,k7 ,remunerative employment4 ,i cannot easily express the astonishment with which ,i find a man of your ,lordship's intelligence taking up the common phrase of giving employment1 as if1 indeed1 labor were the best gift which the rich could bestow on the poor4 ,of course1 every idle vagabond1 be he rich or poor1 gives employment to some otherwise enough burdened wretch1 to provide his dinner and clothes for him2 and every vicious vagabond1 in the destructive power of his vice1 gives sorrowful occupation to the energies of resisting and renovating virtue4 ,the idle child who litters its nursery and tears its frock1 gives employment to the housemaid and seamstress2 the idle woman1 who litters her drawing-room with trinkets1 and is ashamed to be seen twice in the same dress1 is1 in your ,lordship's view1 the enlightened supporter of the arts and manufactures of her country4 ,at the close of your letter1 my ,lord1 you1 though in measured terms1 indignantly dissent from my statement of the power of great cities for evil1 and indeed ,i have perhaps been led1 by my prolonged study of the causes of the ,fall of ,venice1 into clearer recognition of some of these urban influences than may have been possible to your ,lordship in the center of the virtues and proprieties which have been blessed by ,providence in the rise of ,manchester4 ,but the ,scriptural symbol of the power of temptation in the hand of the spiritual ,babylon--all kings have been drunk with the wine of her ,fornication--is perfectly literal in its exposition of the special influence of cities over a vicious1 that is to say1 a declining1 people4 ,they are the foci of its fornication1 and the practical meaning is that the lords of the soil take the food and labor of the peasants1 who are their slaves1 and spend them especially in forms of luxury perfected by the definitely so-called women of the town who1 whether ,east-cheap ,doll1 or ,west--much the reverse of cheap--,nell1 are1 both in the color which they give to the ,arts1 and in the tone which they give to the ,manners1 of the ,state1 a literal plague1 pestilence and burden to it1 quite otherwise malignant and maleficent than the poor country lassie who loses her snood among the heather4 ,and when1 at last1 real political economy shall exhibit the exact sources and consequences of the expenditure of the great capitals of civilization on their own indulgences1 your ,lordship will be furnished1 in the statistics of their most splendid and most impious pleasure1 with record of precisely the largest existing source of remunerative employment--7if that were all the poor had to ask for71 next after the preparation and practice of war4 ,i believe it is1 indeed1 probable that facility of intercourse gives the next largest quantity of occupation2 and1 as your ,lordship rightly observes1 to most respectable persons4 ,and if the entire population of ,manchester lost the use of its legs1 your ,lordship would similarly have the satisfaction of observing1 and might share in the profits of providing1 the needful machinery of porterage and stretchers4 ,but observe1 my ,lord--and observe as a final and inevitable truth--that whether you lend your money to provide an invalided population with crutches1 stretchers1 hearses1 or the railroad accommodation which is so often synonymous with the three1 the tax on the use of these1 which constitutes the shareholder's dividend1 is a permanent burden upon them1 exacted by avarice1 and by no means an aid granted by benevolence4 #afe4 7,l7 ,sanctioned by experience4 ,the experience of twenty-three years1 my ,lord1 and with the following result3-- ,we have now had an opportunity of practically testing the theory4 ,not more than seventeen 7now twenty-three--,i quote from a letter dated #ahge7 years have passed since 7by the final abolition of the ,usury laws7 all restraint was removed from the growth of what ,lord ,coke calls 'this pestilent weed1' and we see ,bacon's words verified--the rich becoming richer1 and the poor poorer1 throughout the civilized world4 ,letter from ,mr4 ,r4 ,sillar1 quoted in ,fors ,clavigera1 ,no4 #dc4 7,m7 ,inevitable4 ,neither impossible nor inevitable were words of old ,christian ,faith4 ,but see the closing paragraph of my letter4 7,n7 ,before you call on me to substantiate this charge1 my ,lord1 ,i should like to insert after the words1 steadily preaching1 the phrase1 and politely explaining--with the ,pauline qualification1 whether by word1 or our epistle4 #aff4 7,o7 ,the great cities of to-day are not worse than great cities always have been1 ,i do not remember having said that they were1 my ,lord2 ,i have never anticipated for ,manchester a worse fate than that of ,sardis or ,sodom2 nor have ,i yet observed any so mighty works shown forth in her by her ministers1 as to make her impenitence less pardonable than that of ,sidon or ,tyre4 ,but ,i used the particular expression which your ,lordship supposes me to have overcharged in righteous indignation1 a boil breaking forth with blains on man and beast1 because that particular plague was the one which ,moses was ordered1 in the ,eternal ,wisdom1 to connect with the ashes of the ,furnace--literally1 no less than spiritually1 when he brought the ,israelites forth out of ,egypt1 from the midst of the ,furnace of ,iron4 ,how literally1 no less than in faith and hope1 the smoke of the great city1 which spiritually is called ,sodom and ,egypt1 has poisoned the earth1 the waters1 and the living creatures1 flocks and herds1 and the babes that know not their right hand from their left--neither ,memphis1 ,gomorrah1 nor ,cahors are themselves likely to recognize3 but1 as ,i pause in front of the infinitude of the evil that ,i cannot find so much as thought to follow--how much less words to speak6--a letter is brought to me which gives what perhaps may be more impressive in its single and historical example1 than all the general evidence gathered already in the pages of ,fors ,clavigera4 99 99 99 99 99 #afg4 ,i could never understand formerly what you meant about usury1 and about its being wrong to take interest4 ,i said1 truly1 then that ,i 'trusted you1' meaning ,i knew that in such matters you did not 'opine'--and that innumerable things were within your horizon which had no place within mine4 ,but as ,i did not understand ,i could only watch and ponder4 ,gradually ,i came to see a little--as when ,i read current facts about ,india--about almost every country1 and about our own trade1 etc4 ,then 7one of several circumstances that could be seen more closely7 among my mother's kindred in the north1 ,i watched the ruin of two lives4 ,they began married life together1 with good prospects and sufficient means1 in a lovely little nest among the hills1 beyond the ,rochdale smoke4 ,soon this became too narrow4 ',a splendid trade1' more mills1 frequent changes into even finer dwellings1 luxurious living1 ostentation1 extravagance1 increasing year by year1 all1 as now appears1 made possible by usury--borrowed capital4 ,the wife was laid in her grave lately1 and her friends are thankful4 ,the husband1 with ruin threatening his affairs1 is in a worse1 and living1 grave of evil habits4 ,these are some of the loopholes through which light has fallen upon your words1 giving them a new meaning1 and making me wonder how ,i could have missed seeing it from the first4 ,once alive to it1 ,i recognize the evil on all sides1 and how we are entangled by it2 and though ,i am still puzzled at one or two points1 ,i am very clear about the principle--that usury is a deadly thing1 ,yes2 and deadly always with the vilest forms of destruction both to soul and body4 #afh4 ,it happens strangely1 my ,lord1 that although throughout the seven volumes of ,fors ,clavigera1 ,i never have set down a sentence without chastising it first into terms which could be literally as well as in their widest bearing justified against all controversy1 you could perhaps not have found in the whole book1 had your ,lordship read it for the purpose1 any saying quite so literally and terrifically demonstrable as this which you have chanced to select for attack4 ,for1 in the first place1 of all the calamities which in their apparently merciless infliction paralyzed the wavering faith of medival ,christendom1 the boil breaking forth into blains1 in the black plagues of ,florence and ,london1 was the fatalest messenger of the fiends3 and1 in the second place1 the broad result of the ,missionary labors of the cities of ,madrid1 ,paris1 and ,london1 for the salvation of the wild tribes of the ,new ,world1 since the vaunted discovery of it1 may be summed in the stem sentence--,death1 by drunkenness and smallpox4 ,the beneficent influence of recent commercial enterprise in the communication of such divine grace1 and divine blessing 7not to speak of other more dreadful and shameful conditions of disease71 may be studied to best advantage in the history of the two great ,french and ,english ,companies1 who have enjoyed the monopoly of clothing the nakedness of the ,old ,world with coats of skins from the ,new4 ,the charter of the ,english one1 obtained from the ,crown in #afgj1 was in the language of modern ,liberalism-- wonderfully liberal1#acj comprising not only the grant of the exclusive trade1 but also of full territorial possession1 to all perpetuity1 of the vast lands within the watershed of ,hudson's ,bay4 ,the ,company at once established some forts along the shores of the great inland sea from which it derived its name1 and opened a very lucrative trade with the ,indians1 so that it never ceased paying rich dividends to the fortunate shareholders1 until towards the close of the last century4 ,up to this time1 with the exception of the voyage of discovery which ,herne 7#aggj-ga7 made under its auspices to the mouth of the ,coppermine ,river1 it had done but little for the promotion of geographical discovery in its vast territory4 #afi4 ,meanwhile1 the ,canadian 7,french7 fur traders had become so hateful to the ,indians1 that these savages formed a conspiracy for their total extirpation4 ,fortunately for the white men1 the smallpox broke out about this time among the redskins1 and swept them away as the fire consumes the parched grass of the prairies4 ,their unburied corpses were torn by the wolves and wild dogs1 and the survivors were too weak and dispirited to be able to undertake anything against the foreign intruders4 ,the ,canadian fur traders now also saw the necessity of combining their efforts for their mutual benefit1 instead of ruining each other by an insane competition2 and consequently formed in #aghc a society which1 under the name of the ,north-,west ,company of ,canada1 ruled over the whole continent from the ,canadian lakes to the ,rocky ,mountains1 and in #ahjf it even crossed the barrier and established its forts on the northern tributaries of the ,columbia river4 ,to the north it likewise extended its operations1 encroaching more and more upon the privileges of the ,hudson's ,bay ,company1 which1 roused to energy1 now also pushed on its posts further and further into the interior1 and established1 in #ahab1 a colony on the ,red ,river to the south of ,winnipeg ,lake1 thus driving1 as it were1 a sharp thorn into the side of its rival4 ,but a power like the ,north-,west ,company1 which had no less than #ej agents1 #gj interpreters1 and #aabj voyageurs in its pay1 and whose chief managers used to appear at their annual meetings at ,fort ,william1 on the banks of ,lake ,superior1 with all the pomp and pride of feudal barons1 was not inclined to tolerate this encroachment2 and thus1 after many quarrels1 a regular war broke out between the two parties1 which1 after two years' duration1 led to the expulsion of the ,red ,river colonists1 and the murder of their governor ,semple4 ,this event took place in the year #ahaf1 and is but one episode of the bloody feuds which continued to reign between the two rival ,companies until #ahba4 #agj4 ,the dissension's of the fur traders had most deplorable consequences for the redskins2 for both ,companies1 to swell the number of their adherents1 lavishly distributed spirituous liquors--a temptation which no ,indian can resist4 ,the whole of the meeting-grounds of the ,saskatchewan and ,athabasca were but one scene of revelry and bloodshed4 ,already decimated by the smallpox1 the ,indians now became the victims of drunkenness and discord1 and it was to be feared that if the war and its consequent demoralization continued1 the most important tribes would soon be utterly swept away4 ,at length wisdom prevailed over passion1 and the enemies came to a resolution which1 if taken from the very beginning1 would have saved them both a great deal of treasure and many crimes4 ,instead of continuing to swing the tomahawk1 they now smoked the calumet1 and amalgamated in #ahba1 under the name of ,hudson's ,bay ,company1 and under the wing of the ,charter4 ,the ,british ,government1 as a dowry to the impoverished couple1 presented them with a license of exclusive trade throughout the whole of that territory which1 under the name of the ,hudson's ,bay and ,north-,west territories1 extends from ,labrador to the ,pacific1 and from the ,red ,river to the ,polar ,ocean4 #aga4 ,such1 my ,lord1 have been the triumphs of the modern ,evangel of ,usury1 ,competition1 and ,private ,enterprise1 in a perfectly clear instance of their action1 chosen ,i hope with sufficient candor1 since ,history1 says ,professor ,hind1 does not furnish another example of an association of private individuals exerting a powerful influence over so large an extent of the earth's surface and administering their affairs with such consummate skill1 and unwavering devotion to the original objects of their incorporation4 ,that original object being1 of course1 that poor naked ,america1 having yet in a manner two coats1 might be induced by these ,christian merchants to give to him that had none8 ,in like manner1 may any ,christian householder1 who has two houses or perchance two parks1 ever be induced to give to him that hath none8 ,my temper and my courtesy scarcely serve me1 my ,lord1 to reply to your assertion of the inevitableness that1 while half of ,great ,britain is laid out in hunting-grounds for sport more savage than the ,indians1 the poor of our cities must be swept into incestuous heaps2 or into dens and caves which are only tombs disquieted1 so changing the whiteness of ,jewish sepulchers into the blackness of ,christian ones1 in which the hearts of the rich and the homes of the poor are alike as graves that appear not2--only their murmur1 that sayeth it is not enough1 sounds deeper beneath us every hour2 nay1 the whole earth1 and not only the cities of it1 sends forth that ghastly cry2 and her fruitful plains have become slime-pits1 and her fair estuaries1 gulfs of death2 for us1 the ,mountain of the ,lord has become only ,golgotha1 and the sound of the new song before the ,throne is drowned in the rolling death-rattle of the nations1 ,oh ,christ2 where is thy victory8 ,these are thy glorious works1 ,mammon parent of ,good1--and this the true debate1 my ,lord of ,manchester1 between the two ,angels of your ,church1--whether the ,dreamland of its souls be now1 or hereafter1--now1 the firelight in the cave1 or hereafter1 the sunlight of ,heaven4 #agb4 ,how1 my ,lord1 am ,i to receive1 or reply to1 the narrow concessions of your closing sentence8 ,the ,spirit of ,truth was breathed even from the ,athenian ,acropolis1 and the ,law of ,justice thundered even from the ,cretan ,sinai2 but for us1 ,he who said1 ,i am the ,truth1 said also1 ,i am the ,way1 and the ,life2 and for us1 ,he who reasoned of ,righteousness1 reasoned also of ,temperance and ,judgment to come4 ,is this the sincere milk of the ,word1 which takes the hope from the ,person of ,christ1 and the fear from the charge of ,his apostle1 and forbids to ,english heroism the perilous vision of ,immortality8 ,god be with you1 my ,lord1 and exalt your teaching to that quality of ,mercy which1 distilling as the rain from ,heaven--not strained as through channels from a sullen reservoir-may soften the hearts of your people to receive the ,new ,commandment1 that they ,love one another4 ,so1 round the cathedral of your city1 shall the merchant's law be just1 and his weights true2 the table of the money-changer not overthrown1 and the bench of the money-lender unbroken4 ,and to as many as walk according to this rule1 ,peace shall be on them1 and ,mercy1 and upon the ,israel of ,god4 99 99 99 99 99 #agc4 ,with the preceding letter must assuredly end--for the present1 if not forever--my own notes on a subject of which my strength no longer serves me to endure the stress and sorrow2 but ,i may possibly be able to collect1 eventually1 into more close form1 the already manifold and sufficient references scattered through ,fors ,clavigera3 and perhaps to reprint for the ,st4 ,george's ,guild the admirable compendium of ,british ecclesiastical and lay authority on the subject1 collected by ,john ,blaxton1 preacher of ,god's ,word at ,osmington in ,dorsetshire1 printed by ,john ,norton under the title of ,the ,english ,usurer1 and sold by ,francis ,bowman1 in ,oxford1 #afca4 ,a still more precious record of the fierce struggle of usury into life among ,christians1 and of the resistance to it by ,venice and her ,anthony1#aca will be found in the dialogue della ,usura1 of ,messer ,speron ,sperone 7,aldus1 in ,vinegia1 ,,mdxiii471 followed by the dialogue del ,cathaio1 between ,portia1 sola1 e fanciulla1 fame1 e cibo1 vita1 e morte1 di ciascuno che la conosce1 and her lover ,moresini1 which is the source of all that is loveliest in the ,merchant of ,venice4 ,readers who seek more modern and more scientific instruction may consult the able abstract of the triumph of usury1 drawn up by ,dr4 ,andrew ,dickson ,white1 ,president of ,cornell ,university 7,the ,warfare of ,science1 ,h4 ,s4 ,king ,co41 #ahgg71 in which the victory of the great modern scientific principle1 that two and two make five1 is traced exultingly to the final overthrow of ,st4 ,chrysostom1 ,st4 ,jerome1 ,st4 ,bernard1 ,st4 ,thomas ,aquinas1 ,luther1 and ,bossuet1 by the establishment of the ,torlonia family in ,rome4 ,a better collection of the most crushing evidence cannot be found than this1 furnished by an adversary2 a less petulant and pompous1 but more earnest voice from ,america1 ,usury the ,giant ,sin of the ,age1 by ,edward ,palmer 7,perth ,amboys1 #ahfe71 should be read together with it4 ,in the meantime1 the substance of the teaching of the former ,church of ,england1 in the great sermon against usury of ,bishop ,jewell1 may perhaps not uselessly occupy one additional page of the ,contemporary ,review3-- #agd4 ,usury is a kind of lending of money1 or corne1 or oyle1 or wine1 or of any other thing1 wherein1 upon covenant and bargaine1 we receive againe the whole principall which we delivered1 and somewhat more1 for the use and occupying of the same2 as if ,i lend #ajj pound1 and for it covenant to receive #aje pound1 or any other summe1 greater then was the summe which ,i did lend3 this is that which we call usury3 such a kind of bargaining as no good man1 or godly man ever used4 ,such a kind of bargaining as all men that ever feared ,god's judgments have alwaies abhorred and condemned4 ,it is filthy gaines1 and a worke of darkenesse1 it is a monster in nature3 the overthrow of mighty kingdoms1 the destruction of flourishing ,states1 the decay of wealthy cities1 the plagues of the world1 and the misery of the people3 it is theft1 it is the murthering of our brethren1 its the curse of ,god1 and the curse of the people4 ,this is ,usury4 ,by these signes and tokens you may know it4 ,for wheresoever it raigneth all those mischiefes ensue4 ,whence springeth usury8 ,soone shewed4 ,even thence whence theft1 murder1 adultery1 the plagues1 and destruction of the people doe spring4 ,all these are the workes of the divell1 and the workes of the flesh4 ,christ telleth the ,pharisees1 ,you are of your father the divell1 and the lusts of your father you will doe4 ,even so may it truely be sayd to the usurer1 ,thou art of thy father the divell1 and the lusts of thy father thou wilt doe1 and therefore thou hast pleasure in his workes4 ,the divell entered into the heart of ,judas1 and put in him this greedinesse1 and covetousnesse of game1 for which he was content to sell his master4 ,judas's heart was the shop1 the divell was the foreman to worke in it4 ,they that will be rich fall into tentation and snares1 and into many foolish and noysome lusts1 which drowne men in perdition and destruction4 ,for the desire of money is the roote of all evil4 ,and ,st4 ,john saith1 ,whosoever committeth sinne is of the ,divell1 #a ,joh4 #c-h4 ,thus we see that the divell is the planter1 and the father of usury4 ,what are the fruits of usury8 ,a4 #a4 ,it dissolveth the knot and fellowship of mankind4 #b4 ,it hardeneth man's heart4 #c4 ,it maketh men unnaturall1 and bereaveth them of charity1 and love to their dearest friends4 #d4 ,it breedeth misery and provoketh the wrath of ,god from heaven4 #e4 ,it consumeth rich men1 it eateth up the poore1 it maketh bankrupts1 and undoeth many householders4 #f4 ,the poore occupiers are driven to flee1 their wives are left alone1 their children are hopelesse1 and driven to beg their bread1 through the unmercifull dealing of the covetous usurer4 #age4 ,he that is an usurer1 wisheth that all others may lacke and come to him and borrow of him2 that all others may lose1 so that he may have gaine4 ,therefore our old forefathers so much abhorred this trade1 that they thought an usurer unworthy to live in the company of ,christian men4 ,they suffered not an usurer to be witnesse in matters of ,law4 ,they suffer him not to make a ,testament1 and to bestow his goods by will4 ,when an usurer dyed1 they would not suffer him to be buried in places appointed for the buriall of ,christians4 ,so highly did they mislike this unmercifull spoyling and deceiving our brethren4 ,but what speak ,i of the ancient ,fathers of the ,church8 ,there was never any religion1 nor sect1 nor state1 nor degree1 nor profession of men1 but they have disliked it4 ,philosophers1 ,greekes1 ,latins1 lawyers1 divines1 ,catholikes1 heretics2 all tongues and nations have ever thought an usurer as dangerous as a theefe4 ,the very sense of nature proves it to be so4 ,if the stones could speak they would say as much4 ,but some will say all kindes of usury are not forbidden4 ,there may be cases where usury may stand with reason and equity1 and herein they say so much as by wit may be devised to paint out a foule and ugly idoll1 and to shadow themselves in manifest and open wickednesse4 ,whatsoever ,god sayeth1 yet this or this kind of usury1 say they1 which is done in this or this sort1 is not forbidden4 ,it proffiteth the ,commonwealth1 it relieveth great numbers1 the poore should otherwise perish1 none would lend them4 ,by like good reason1 there are some that defend theft and murder2 they say1 there may be some case where it is lawful to kill or to steale2 for ,god willed the ,hebrews to rob the gyptians1 and ,abraham to kill his owne sonne ,isaac4 ,in these cases the robbery and the killing of his sonne were lawfull4 ,so say they4 ,even so by the like reason doe some of our countrymen maintayne concubines1 curtizans1 and brothel-houses1 and stand in defence of open stewes4 ,they are 7say they7 for the benefit of the country1 they keepe men from more dangerous inconveniences2 take them away1 it will be worse4 ,although ,god say1 there shall be no whore of the daughters of ,israel1 neither shall there be a whorekeeper of the sonnes of ,israel3 yet these men say all manner of whoredom is not forbidden4 ,in these and these cases it is not amisse to alow it4 ,as ,samuel sayd to ,saul1 so may we say to the usurer1 ,thou hast devised cases and colours to hide thy shame1 but what regard hath ,god to thy cases8 ,what careth ,he for thy reasons8 the ,lord would have more pleasure1 if when thou heareth ,his voyce thou wouldest obey ,him4 ,for what is thy device against the counsell1 and ordinance of ,god8 ,what bold presumption is it for a mortall man to controule the commandments of immortall ,god8 ,and to weigh his heavenly wisdome in the ballance of humane foolishnesse8 ,when ,god sayth1 ,thou shalt not take usury1 what creature of ,god art thou which canst take usury8 ,when ,god maketh it unlawfull1 what art thou1 oh man1 that sayst1 it is lawfull8 ,this is a token of a desperate mind4 ,it is found true in thee1 that ,paul sayd1 the love of money is the root of all ill4 ,thou art so given over unto the wicked ,mammon1 that thou carest not to doe the will of ,god4 ,thus far1 the theology of ,old ,england4 ,let it close with the calm law1 spoken four hundred years before ,christ1 ,greek3 a m katethou1 m anel4 ,,footnotes3 ,footnote #abd3 ,contemporary ,review1 ,february #ahhj4 ,footnote #abe3 ,see below 7p4 #cic1 #bcf71 in the eighth letter on the ,lord's ,prayer4--,,ed4 ,footnote #abf3 ,in ,proverbs xxviii4 #h1 usury is coupled with unjust gain1 and a pitiless spirit towards the poor1 which shows in what sense the word is to be understood there1 and in such other passages as ,ps4 xv4 #e and ,ezek4 xviii4 #h1 #i4 ,footnote #abg3 ,see post1 p4 #cid1 #bcg4--;,,ed4 ,footnote #abh3 ,speech of ,mr4 ,j4 ,c4 ,hubbard1 ,m4,p4 for ,london1 reported in ,standard of #bfth ,july1 #ahgi4 ,footnote #abi3 ,see the ,articles of ,association of the ,east ,surrey ,hall1 ,museum1 and ,library ,company4 7,fors ,clavigera1 ,letter lxx47 ,footnote #acj3 ,the ,polar ,world1 p4 #cdb1 ,longmans1 #ahgd4 ,footnote #aca3 ,the dearest friend to me1 the kindest man1 ,the best conditioned and unwearied spirit1 ,in doing courtesies2 and one in whom ,the ancient ,roman honor more appears1 ,than any that draws breath in ,italy4 ,this is the ,shakespearian description of that ,anthony1 whom the modern ,british public1 with its new critical lights1 calls a sentimentalist and speculator6--holding ,shylock to be the real hero1 and innocent victim of the drama4 ,,usury4#acb ,a ,,preface4 #agf4 ,in the wise1 practical1 and affectionate sermon1 given from ,st4 ,mary's pulpit last autumn to the youth of ,oxford1 by the good ,bishop of ,carlisle1 his ,lordship took occasion to warn his eagerly attentive audience1 with deep earnestness1 against the crime of debt2 dwelling with powerful invective on the cruelty and selfishness with which1 too often1 the son wasted in his follies the fruits of his father's labor1 or the means of his family's subsistence2 and involved himself in embarrassments which1 said the ,bishop1 ,i have again and again known to cause the misery of all subsequent life4 ,the sin was charged1 the appeal pressed1 only on the preacher's undergraduate hearers4 ,beneath the gallery1 the ,heads of ,houses sate1 remorseless2 nor from the pulpit was a single hint permitted that any measures could be rationally taken for the protection1 no less than the warning1 of the youth under their care4 ,no such suggestion would have been received1 if even understood1 by any ,english congregation of this time2--a strange and perilous time1 in which the greatest commercial people of the world have been brought to think ,usury the most honorable and fruitful branch1 or rather perennial stem1 of commercial industry4 #agg4 ,but whose the fault that ,english congregations are in this temper1 and this ignorance8 ,the saying of mine1#acc which the author of this book quotes in the close of his introduction1 was written by me with a meaning altogether opposite1 and far more forcible1 than that which it might seem to bear to a careless interpreter4#acd ,in the present state of popular revolt against all conception and manner of authority1 but more especially spiritual authority1 the sentence reads as if it were written by an adversary of the ,church1--a hater of its ,prelacy1--an advocate of universal liberty of thought and license of crime3 whereas the sentence is really written in the conviction 7,i might say knowledge1 if ,i spoke without deference to the reader's incredulity7 that the ,pastoral ,office must forever be the highest1 for good or evil1 in every ,christian land2 and that when it fails in vigilance1 faith1 or courage1 the sheep must be scattered1 and neither ,king nor law avail any more to protect them against the fury of their own passions1 nor any human sagacity against the deception of their own hearts4 #agh4 ,since1 however1 these things are instantly so1 and the ,bishops of ,england have now with one accord consented to become merely the highly salaried vergers of her ,cathedrals1 taking care that the choristers do not play at leapfrog in the ,churchyard1 that the ,precincts are elegantly iron-railed from the profane parts of the town1 and that the doors of the building be duly locked1 so that nobody may pray in it at improper times1--these things being so1 may we not turn to the every-man-his-own-,bishop party1 with its ,bible ,society1 ,missionary zeal1 and right of infallible private interpretation1 to ask at least for some small exposition to the inhabitants of their own country1 of those ,scriptures which they are so fain to put in the possession of others2 and this the rather1 because the popular familiar version of the ,new ,testament among us1 unwritten1 seems to be now the exact contrary of that which we were once taught to be of ,divine authority4 #agi4 ,i place1 side by side1 the ancient and modern versions of the seven verses of the ,new ,testament which were the beginning1 and are indeed the heads1 of all the teaching of ,christ3-- ,ancient4 ,blessed are the ,poor in ,spirit1 for their's is the kingdom of ,heaven4 ,blessed are they that mourn1 for they shall be comforted4 ,blessed are the meek1 for they shall inherit the earth4 ,blessed are they which do hunger for righteousness1 for they shall be filled4 ,blessed are the merciful1 for they shall obtain mercy4 ,blessed are the pure in heart1 for they shall see ,god4 ,blessed are the ,peacemakers1 for they shall be called the children of ,god4 ,modern4 ,blessed are the ,rich in ,flesh1 for their's is the kingdom of ,earth4 ,blessed are they that are merry1 and laugh the last4 ,blessed are the proud1 in that they have inherited the earth4 ,blessed are they which hunger for unrighteousness1 in that they shall divide its mammon4 ,blessed are the merciless1 for they shall obtain money4 ,blessed are the foul in heart1 for they shall see no ,god4 ,blessed are the ,war-makers1 for they shall be adored by the children of men4 #ahj4 ,who are the true ,makers of ,war1 the promoters and supports of it1 ,i showed long since in the note to the brief sentence of ,unto this last4 ,it is entirely capitalists' 7i4e41 ,usurers'7 wealth#ace which supports unjust ,wars4 ,but to what extent the adoration of the ,usurer1 and the slavery consequent upon it1 has perverted the soul or bound the hands of every man in ,europe1 ,i will let the reader hear1 from authority he will less doubt than mine3-- ,financiers are the mischievous feudalism of the #aith century4 ,a handful of men have invented distant1 seductive loans1 have introduced national debts in countries happily ignorant of them1 have advanced money to unsophisticated ,powers on ruinous terms1 and then1 by appealing to small investors all over the world1 got rid of the bonds4 ,furthermore1 with the difference between the advances and the sale of bonds1 they caused a fall in the securities which they had issued1 and1 having sold at #hj1 they bought back at #aj1 taking advantage of the public panic4 ,again1 with the money thus obtained1 they bought up consciences1 where consciences are marketable1 and under the pretense of providing the country thus traded upon with new means of communication1 they passed money into their own coffers4 ,they have had pupils1 imitators1 and plagiarists2 and at the present moment1 under different names1 the financiers rule the world1 are a sore of society1 and form one of the chief causes of modern crises4 ,unlike the ,nile1 wherever they pass they render the soil dry and barren4 ,the treasures of the world flow into their cellars1 and there remain4 ,they spend one-tenth of their revenues2 the remaining nine-tenths they hoard and divert from circulation4 ,they distribute favors1 and are great political leaders4 ,they have not assumed the place of the old nobility1 but have taken the latter into their service4 ,princes are their chamberlains1 dukes open their doors1 and marquises act as their equerries when they deign to ride4 ,these new grandees canter on their splendid ,arabs along ,rotten ,ron1 the ,bois de ,boulogne1 the ,prospect1 the ,prater1 or ,unter den ,linden4 ,the shopkeepers1 and all who save money1 bow low to these men1 who represent their savings1 which they will never again see under any other form4 ,proof against sarcasms1 sure of the respect of the ,continental ,press1 protecting each other with a sort of freemasonry1 the financiers dictate laws1 determine the fate of nations1 and render the cleverest political combinations abortive4 ,they are everywhere received and listened to1 and all the ,cabinets feel their influence4 ,governments watch them with uneasiness1 and even the ,iron ,chancellor has his gilded ,egeria1 who reports to him the wishes of this the sole modern ,autocrat--,letter from ,paris ,correspondent1 ,times1 #cjth ,january1 #ahhe4 99 99 99 99 99 #aha4 ,but to this statement1 ,i must add the one made to #adi 7see note7 of ,munera ,pulveris1 that if we could trace the innermost of all causes of modern war1 they would be found1 not in the avarice or ambition1 but the idleness of the upper classes4 ,they have nothing to do but to teach the peasantry to kill each other--while that the peasantry are thus teachable1 is further again dependent on their not having been educated primarily in the common law of justice4 ,see again ,munera ,pulveris1 ,appendix ,i43 ,precisely according to the number of just men in a nation is their power of avoiding either intestine or foreign war4 ,i rejoice to see my old friend ,mr4 ,sillar gathering finally together the evidence he has so industriously collected on the guilt of usury1 and supporting it by the always impressive language of symbolical art2#acf for indeed ,i had myself no idea1 till ,i read the connected statement which these pictures illustrate1 how steadily the system of money-lending had gained on the nation1 and how fatally every hand and foot was now entangled by it4 ,yet in commending the study of this book to every virtuous and patriotic ,englishman1 ,i must firmly remind the reader1 that all these sins and errors are only the branches from one root of bitterness--mortal ,pride4 ,for this we gather1 for this we war1 for this we die--here and hereafter2 while all the while the ,wisdom which is from above stands vainly teaching us the way to ,earthly ,riches and to ,heavenly ,peace1 ,what doth the ,lord thy ,god require of thee1 but to do justice1 to love mercy1 and to walk humbly with thy ,god8 ,,brantwood1 #gth ,march1 #ahhe4 ,,footnotes3 ,footnote #acb3 ,introduction to a pamphlet entitled ,usury and the ,english ,bishops1 or more fully1 ,usury1 its pernicious effects on ,english agriculture and commerce3 ,an allegory dedicated without permission to the ,bishops of ,manchester1 ,peterborough and ,rochester 7,london3 ,a4 ,southey1 #adf1 ,fenchurch ,street1 #ahhe74 ,by ,r4 ,j4 ,sillar4 7,see ,fors ,clavigera1 vol4 v4 ,letter #ef47--;,,ed4 ,footnote #acc3 ,everything evil in ,europe is primarily the fault of her ,bishops4 ,footnote #acd3 ,i knew1 in using it1 perfectly well what you meant4 7,note by ,mr4 ,sillar47 ,footnote #ace3 ,cash1 ,i should have said1 in accuracy--not wealth4 ,footnote #acf3 ,mr4 ,sillar's pamphlet consists of a collection of paragraphs1 all condemnatory of usury1 from the writings of the ,english bishops1 from the sixteenth century down to the present time2 and is illustrated by five emblematic woodcuts representing an oak tree 7,english commerce7 gradually overgrown and destroyed by an ivy-plant 7usury74--,,ed4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,theology4 ,,notes ,,on ,,the ,,construction ,,of ,,sheepfolds4 7,pamphlet1 #ahea47 ,,the ,,lord',s ,,prayer ,,and ,,the ,,church4 7,letters and ,epilogue1 #ahgi-ahha47 ,,the ,,nature ,,and ,,authority ,,of ,,miracle4 7,contemporary ,review1 ,march #ahgc47 99 99 99 99 99 ,,notes ,,on ,,the ,,construction ,,of ,,sheepfolds4#acg ,,preface 7,,called ,,advertisement7 ,,to ,,the ,,first ,,edition4 ,many persons will probably find fault with me for publishing opinions which are not new3 but ,i shall bear this blame contentedly1 believing that opinions on this subject could hardly be just if they were not #ahjj years old4 ,others will blame me for making proposals which are altogether new3 to whom ,i would answer1 that things in these days seem not so far right but that they may be mended4 ,and others will simply call the opinions false and the proposals foolish--to whose goodwill1 if they take it in hand to contradict me1 ,i must leave what ,i have written--having no purpose of being drawn1 at present1 into religious controversy4 ,if1 however1 any should admit the truth1 but regret the tone of what ,i have said1 lean only pray them to consider how much less harm is done in the world by ungraceful boldness1 than by untimely fear4 ,,denmark ,,hill1 ,february1 #ahea4 ,,preface ,,to ,,the ,,second 7#ahea7 ,,edition4 ,since the publication of these ,notes1 ,i have received many letters upon the affairs of the ,church1 from persons of nearly every denomination of ,christians2 for all these letters ,i am grateful1 and in many of them ,i have found valuable information1 or suggestion3 but ,i have not leisure at present to follow out the subject farther2 and no reason has been shown me for modifying or altering any part of the text as it stands4 ,it is republished1 therefore1 without change or addition4 ,i must1 however1 especially thank one of my correspondents for sending me a pamphlet1 called ,sectarianism1 the ,bane of ,religion and the ,church1#ach which ,i would recommend1 in the strongest terms1 to the reading of all who regard the cause of ,christ2 and1 for help in reading the ,scriptures1 ,i would name also the short and admirable arrangement of parallel passages relating to the offices of the clergy1 called ,the ,testimony of ,scripture concerning the ,christian ,ministry4#aci ,,preface ,,to ,,third 7,,called ,,second7 ,,edition4 ,i have only to add to this first preface1 that the boldness of the pamphlet1--ungraceful enough1 it must be admitted1--has done no one any harm1 that ,i know of2 but on the contrary1 some definite good1 as far as ,i can judge2 and that ,i republish the whole now1 letter for letter1 as originally printed1 believing it likely to be still serviceable1 and1 on the ground it takes for argument1 7,scriptural authority17 incontrovertible as far as it reaches2 though it amazes me to find on re-reading it1 that1 so late as #ahea1 ,i had only got the length of perceiving the schism between sects of ,protestants to be criminal1 and ridiculous1 while ,i still supposed the schism between ,protestants and ,catholics to be virtuous and sublime4 ,the most valuable part of the whole is the analysis of governments1 #bac-ae2 the passages on ,church discipline1 #bjd-e1 being also anticipatory of much that ,i have to say in ,fors1 where ,i hope to re-assert the substance of this pamphlet on wider grounds1 and with more modesty4 ,,brantwood1 #crd ,august1 #ahge4 ,,footnotes3 ,footnote #acg3 ,this pamphlet was originally published in #ahea1 under the title of ,notes on the ,construction of ,sheepfolds1 by ,john ,ruskin1 ,m4,a41 author of the ,seven ,lamps of ,architecture1 etc4 7,smith1 ,elder1 ,co474 ,a second edition1 with an additional preface1 followed in the same year1 after which the pamphlet remained out of print till #ahge1 when it was reprinted in a third1 erroneously called a second1 edition 7,george ,allen1 ,sunnyside1 ,orpington1 ,kent74--,,ed4 ,footnote #ach3 ,london3 #ahdf4 ,nisbet ,co41 ,berners ,street4 ,footnote #aci3 ,london3 #ahdg4 ,t4 ,k4 ,campbell1 #a1 ,warwick ,square4 ,,notes1 ,,etc41 ,,etc4 #ahb4 ,the following remarks were intended to form part of the appendix to an essay on ,architecture3 but it seemed to me1 when ,i had put them into order1 that they might be useful to persons who would not care to possess the work to which ,i proposed to attach them3 ,i publish them1 therefore1 in a separate form2 but ,i have not time to give them more consistency than they would have had in the subordinate position originally intended for them4 ,i do not profess to teach ,divinity1 and ,i pray the reader to understand this1 and to pardon the slightness and insufficiency of notes set down with no more intention of connected treatment of their subject than might regulate an accidental conversation4 ,some of them are simply copied from my private diary2 others are detached statements of facts1 which seem to me significative or valuable1 without comment2 all are written in haste1 and in the intervals of occupation with an entirely different subject4 ,it may be asked of me1 whether ,i hold it right to speak thus hastily and insufficiently respecting the matter in question8 ,yes4 ,i hold it right to speak hastily2 not to think hastily4 ,i have not thought hastily of these things2 and1 besides1 the haste of speech is confessed1 that the reader may think of me only as talking to him1 and saying1 as shortly and simply as ,i can1 things which1 if he esteem them foolish or idle1 he is welcome to cast aside2 but which1 in very truth1 ,i cannot help saying at this time4 #ahc4 ,the passages in the essay which required notes1 described the repression of the political power of the ,venetian ,clergy by the ,venetian ,senate2 and it became necessary for me--in supporting an assertion made in the course of the inquiry1 that the idea of separation of ,church and ,state was both vain and impious--to limit the sense in which it seemed to me that the word ,church should be understood1 and to note one or two consequences which would result from the acceptance of such limitation4 ,this ,i may as well do in a separate paper1 readable by any person interested in the subject2 for it is high time that some definition of the word should be agreed upon4 ,i do not mean a definition involving the doctrine of this or that division of ,christians1 but limiting1 in a manner understood by all of them1 the sense in which the word should thenceforward be used4 ,there is grievous inconvenience in the present state of things4 ,for instance1 in a sermon lately published at ,oxford1 by an anti-,tractarian divine1 ,i find this sentence1--,it is clearly within the province of the ,state to establish a national church1 or external institution of certain forms of worship4 ,now suppose one were to take this interpretation of the word ,church1 given by an ,oxford divine1 and substitute it for the simple word in some ,bible texts1 as1 for instance1 ,unto the angel of the external institution of certain forms of worship of ,ephesus1 write1 etc4 ,or1 ,salute the brethren which are in ,laodicea1 and ,nymphas1 and the external institution of certain forms of worship which is in his house1--what awkward results we should have1 here and there6 ,now ,i do not say it is possible for men to agree with each other in their religious opinions1 but it is certainly possible for them to agree with each other upon their religious expressions2 and when a word occurs in the ,bible a hundred and fourteen times1 it is surely not asking too much of contending divines to let it stand in the sense in which it there occurs2 and when they want an expression of something for which it does not stand in the ,bible1 to use some other word4 ,there is no compromise of religious opinion in this2 it is simply proper respect for the ,queen's ,english4 #ahd4 ,the word occurs in the ,new ,testament1 as ,i said1 a hundred and fourteen times4#adj ,in every one of those occurrences1 it bears one and the same grand sense3 that of a congregation or assembly of men4 ,but it bears this sense under four different modifications1 giving four separate meanings to the word4 ,these are-- ,i4 ,the entire ,multitude of the ,elect2 otherwise called the ,body of ,christ2 and sometimes the ,bride1 the ,lamb's ,wife2 including the ,faithful in all ages2--,adam1 and the children of ,adam yet unborn4 ,in this sense it is used in ,ephesians v4 #be1 #bg1 #cb2 ,colossians i4 #ah2 and several other passages4 ,,ii4 ,the entire multitude of professing believers in ,christ1 existing on earth at a given moment2 including false brethren1 wolves in sheep's clothing1 goats and tares1 as well as sheep and wheat1 and other forms of bad fish with good in the net4 ,in this sense it is used in #a ,cor4 x4 #cb1 xv4 #i2 ,galatians i4 #ac2 #a ,tim4 iii4 #e1 etc4 ,,iii4 ,the multitude of professed believers1 living in a certain city1 place1 or house4 ,this is the most frequent sense in which the word occurs1 as in ,acts vii4 #ch1 xiii4 #a2 #a ,cor4 i4 #b1 xvi4 #ai1 etc4 ,,iv4 ,any assembly of men3 as in ,acts xix4 #cb1 #da4 #ahe4 ,that in a hundred and twelve out of the hundred and fourteen texts1 the word bears some one of these four meanings1 is indisputable4#ada ,but there are two texts in which1 if the word had alone occurred1 its meaning might have been doubtful4 ,these are ,matt4 xvi4 #ah1 and xviii4 #ag4 ,the absurdity of founding any doctrine upon the inexpressibly minute possibility that1 in these two texts1 the word might have been used with a different meaning from that which it bore in all the others1 coupled with the assumption that the meaning was this or that1 is self-evident3 it is not so much a religious error as a philological solecism2 unparalleled1 so far as ,i know1 in any other science but that of divinity4 ,nor is it ever1 ,i think1 committed with open front by ,protestants4 ,no ,english divine1 asked in a straightforward manner for a ,scriptural definition of the ,church1 would1 ,i suppose1 be bold enough to answer the ,clergy4 ,nor is there any harm in the common use of the word1 so only that it be distinctly understood to be not the ,scriptural one2 and therefore to be unfit for substitution in a ,scriptural text4 ,there is no harm in a man's talking of his son's going into the ,church2 meaning that he is going to take orders3 but there is much harm in his supposing this a ,scriptural use of the word1 and therefore1 that when ,christ said1 ,tell it to the ,church1 ,he might possibly have meant1 ,tell it to the ,clergy4 #ahf4 ,it is time to put an end to the chance of such misunderstanding4 ,let it but be declared plainly by all men1 when they begin to state their opinions on matters ecclesiastical1 that they will use the word ,church in one sense or the other2--that they will accept the sense in which it is used by the ,apostles1 or that they deny this sense1 and propose a new definition of their own4 ,we shall then know what we are about with them--we may perhaps grant them their new use of the term1 and argue with them on that understanding2 so only that they will not pretend to make use of ,scriptural authority1 while they refuse to employ ,scriptural language4 ,this1 however1 it is not my purpose to do at present4 ,i desire only to address those who are willing to accept the ,apostolic sense of the word ,church2 and with them1 ,i would endeavor shortly to ascertain what consequences must follow from an acceptance of that ,apostolic sense1 and what must be our first and most necessary conclusions from the common language of ,scripture#adb respecting these following points3-- 7#a7 ,the distinctive characters of the ,church1 7#b7 ,the ,authority of the ,church4 7#c7 ,the ,authority of the ,clergy over the ,church4 7#d7 ,the ,connection of the ,church with the ,state4 #ahg4 ,these are four separate subjects of question2 but we shall not have to put these questions in succession with each of the four ,scriptural meanings of the word ,church1 for evidently its second and third meaning may be considered together1 as merely expressing the general or particular conditions of the ,visible ,church1 and the fourth signification is entirely independent of all questions of a religious kind4 ,so that we shall only put the above inquiries successively respecting the ,invisible and ,visible ,church2 and as the two last--of authority of ,clergy1 and connection with ,state--can evidently only have reference to the ,visible ,church1 we shall have1 in all1 these six questions to consider3-- 7#a7 ,the distinctive characters of the ,invisible ,church4 7#b7 ,the distinctive characters of the ,visible ,church4 7#c7 ,the ,authority of the ,invisible ,church4 7#d7 ,the ,authority of the ,visible ,church1 7#e7 ,the ,authority of ,clergy over the ,visible ,church4 7#f7 ,the ,connection of the ,visible ,church with the ,state4 #ahh4 7#a7 ,what are the distinctive characters of the ,invisible ,church8 ,that is to say1 ,what is it which makes a person a member of this ,church1 and how is he to be known for such8 ,wide question--if we had to take cognizance of all that has been written respecting it1 remarkable as it has been always for quantity rather than carefulness1 and full of confusion between ,visible and ,invisible3 even the ,article of the ,church of ,england being ambiguous in its first clause3 ,the ,visible ,church is a congregation of ,faithful men4 ,as if ever it had been possible1 except for ,god1 to see ,faith1 or to know a ,faithful man by sight6 ,and there is little else written on this question1 without some such quick confusion of the ,visible and ,invisible ,church2--needless and unaccountable confusion4 ,for evidently1 the ,church which is composed of ,faithful men is the one true1 indivisible1 and indiscernible ,church1 built on the foundation of ,apostles and ,prophets1 ,jesus ,christ ,himself being the chief corner-stone4 ,it includes all who have ever fallen asleep in ,christ1 and all yet unborn1 who are to be saved in ,him3 its ,body is as yet imperfect2 it will not be perfected till the last saved human spirit is gathered to its ,god4 ,a man becomes a member of this ,church only by believing in ,christ with all his heart2 nor is he positively recognizable for a member of it1 when he has become so1 by any one but ,god1 not even by himself4 ,nevertheless1 there are certain signs by which ,christ's sheep may be guessed at4 ,not by their being in any definite ,fold--for many are lost sheep at times2 but by their sheeplike behavior2 and a great many are indeed sheep1 which1 on the far mountain side1 in their peacefulness1 we take for stones4 ,to themselves1 the best proof of their being ,christ's sheep is to find themselves on ,christ's shoulders2 and1 between them1 there are certain sympathies 7expressed in the ,apostles' ,creed by the term communion of ,saints71 by which they may in a sort recognize each other1 and so become verily visible to each other for mutual comfort4 #ahi4 7#b7 ,the ,limits of the ,visible ,church1 or of the ,church in the ,second ,scriptural ,sense1 are not so easy to define3 they are awkward questions1 these1 of stake-nets4 ,it has been ingeniously and plausibly endeavored to make ,baptism a sign of admission into the ,visible ,church3 but absurdly enough2 for we know that half the baptized people in the world are very visible rogues1 believing neither in ,god nor devil2 and it is flat blasphemy to call these ,visible ,christians2 we also know that the ,holy ,ghost was sometimes given before ,baptism1#adc and it would be absurdity to call a man1 on whom the ,holy ,ghost had fallen1 an ,invisible ,christian4 ,the only rational distinction is that which practically1 though not professedly1 we always assume4 ,if we hear a man profess himself a believer in ,god and in ,christ1 and detect him in no glaring and willful violation of ,god's law1 we speak of him as a ,christian2 and1 on the other hand1 if we hear him or see him denying ,christ1 either in his words or conduct1 we tacitly assume him not to be a ,christian4 ,a mawkish charity prevents us from outspeaking in this matter1 and from earnestly endeavoring to discern who are ,christians and who are not2 and this ,i hold#add to be one of the chief sins of the ,church in the present day2 for thus wicked men are put to no shame2 and better men are encouraged in their failings1 or caused to hesitate in their virtues1 by the example of those whom1 in false charity1 they choose to call ,christians4 ,now1 it being granted that it is impossible to know1 determinedly1 who are ,christians indeed1 that is no reason for utter negligence in separating the nominal1 apparent1 or possible ,christian1 from the professed ,pagan or enemy of ,god4 ,we spend much time in arguing about efficacy of sacraments and such other mysteries2 but we do not act upon the very certain tests which are clear and visible4 ,we know that ,christ's people are not thieves--not liars--not busybodies--not dishonest--not avaricious--not wasteful--not cruel4 ,let us then get ourselves well clear of thieves--liars--wasteful people--avaricious people--cheating people--people who do not pay their debts4 ,let us assure them that they1 at least1 do not belong to the ,visible ,church2 and having thus got that ,church into decent shape and cohesion1 it will be time to think of drawing the stake-nets closer4 ,i hold it for a law1 palpable to common sense1 and which nothing but the cowardice and faithlessness of the ,church prevents it from putting in practice1 that the conviction of any dishonorable conduct or willful crime1 of any fraud1 falsehood1 cruelty1 or violence1 should be ground for the excommunication of any man3--for his publicly declared separation from the acknowledged body of the ,visible ,church3 and that he should not be received again therein without public confession of his crime and declaration of his repentance4 ,if this were vigorously enforced1 we should soon have greater purity of life in the world1 and fewer discussions about high and low churches4 ,but before we can obtain any idea of the manner in which such law could be enforced1 we have to consider the second respecting the ,authority of the ,church4 ,now authority is twofold3 to declare doctrine1 and to enforce discipline2 and we have to inquire1 therefore1 in each kind1-- #aij4 7#c7 ,what is the authority of the ,invisible ,church8 ,evidently1 in matters of doctrine1 all members of the ,invisible ,church must have been1 and must ever be1 at the time of their deaths1 right in the points essential to ,salvation4 ,but1 7,a71 we cannot tell who are members of the ,invisible ,church4 7,b7 ,we cannot collect evidence from death-beds in a clearly stated form4 7,c7 ,we can collect evidence1 in any form1 only from some one or two out of every sealed thousand of the ,invisible ,church4 ,elijah thought he was alone in ,israel2 and yet there were seven thousand invisible ones around him4 ,grant that we had ,elijah's intelligence2 and we could only calculate on collecting one seven-thousandth part of the evidence or opinions of the part of the ,invisible ,church living on earth at a given moment3 that is to say1 the seven-millionth or trillionth of its collective evidence4 ,it is very clear1 therefore1 we cannot hope to get rid of the contradictory opinions1 and keep the consistent ones1 by a general equation4 ,but1 it has been said1 these are no contradictory opinions2 the ,church is infallible4 ,there was some talk about the infallibility of the ,church1 if ,i recollect right1 in that letter of ,mr4 ,bennett's to the ,bishop of ,london4 ,if any ,church is infallible1 it is assuredly the ,invisible ,church1 or ,body of ,christ3 and infallible in the main sense it must of course be by its definition4 ,an ,elect person must be saved1 and therefore cannot eventually be deceived on essential points3 so that ,christ says of the deception of such1 ,if it were possible implying it to be impossible4 ,therefore1 as we said1 if one could get rid of the variable opinions of the members of the ,invisible ,church1 the constant opinions would assuredly be authoritative3 but1 for the three reasons above stated1 we cannot get at their constant opinions3 and as for the feelings and thoughts which they daily experience or express1 the question of ,infallibility -which is practical only in this bearing--is soon settled4 ,observe1 ,st4 ,paul1 and the rest of the ,apostles1 write nearly all their epistles to the ,invisible ,church3--those epistles are headed1--,romans1 ,to the beloved of ,god1 called to be saints2 #a ,corinthians1 ,to them that are sanctified in ,christ ,jesus2 #b ,corinthians1 ,to the saints in all ,achaia2 ,ephesians1 ,to the saints which are at ,ephesus1 and to the faithful in ,christ ,jesus2 ,philippians1 ,to all the saints which are at ,philippi2 ,colossians1 ,to the saints and faithful brethren which are at ,colosse2 #a and #b ,thessalonians1 ,to the ,church of the ,thessalonians1 which is in ,god the ,father1 and the ,lord ,jesus2 #a and #b ,timothy1 ,to his own son in the faith2 ,titus1 to the same2 #a ,peter1 ,to the ,strangers1 ,elect according to the foreknowledge of ,god2 #b ,peter1 ,to them that have obtained like precious faith with us2 #b ,john1 ,to the ,elect lady2 ,jude1 ,to them that are sanctified by ,god the ,father1 and preserved in ,jesus ,christ1 and called4 #aia4 ,there are thus fifteen epistles1 expressly directed to the members of the ,invisible ,church4 ,philemon and ,hebrews1 and #a and #c ,john1 are evidently also so written1 though not so expressly inscribed4 ,that of ,james1 and that to the ,galatians1 are as evidently to the ,visible ,church3 the one being general1 and the other to persons removed from ,him that called them4 ,missing out1 therefore1 these two epistles1 but including ,christ's words to ,his disciples1 we find in the ,scriptural addresses to members of the ,invisible ,church1 fourteen1 if not more1 direct injunctions not to be deceived4#ade ,so much for the ,infallibility of the ,church4 ,now1 one could put up with ,puseyism more patiently1 if its fallacies arose merely from peculiar temperaments yielding to peculiar temptations4 ,but its bold refusals to read plain ,english2 its elaborate adjustments of tight bandages over its own eyes1 as wholesome preparation for a walk among traps and pitfalls2 its daring trustfulness in its own clairvoyance all the time1 and declarations that every pit it falls into is a seventh heaven2 and that it is pleasant and profitable to break its legs2--with all this it is difficult to have patience4 ,one thinks of the highwayman with his eyes shut in the ,arabian ,nights2 and wonders whether any kind of scourging would prevail upon the ,anglican highwayman to open first one and then the other4 #aib4 7#d7 ,so much1 then1 ,i repeat1 for the infallibility of the ,invisible ,church1 and for its consequent authority4 ,now1 if we want to ascertain what infallibility and authority there is in the ,visible ,church1 we have to alloy the small wisdom and the light weight of ,invisible ,christians1 with the large percentage of the false wisdom and contrary weight of ,undetected ,anti-,christians4 ,which alloy makes up the current coin of opinions in the ,visible ,church1 having such value as we may choose--its nature being properly assayed--to attach to it4 ,there is1 therefore1 in matters of doctrine1 no such thing as the ,authority of the ,church4 ,we might as well talk of the authority of a morning cloud4 ,there may be light in it1 but the light is not of it2 and it diminishes the light that it gets2 and lets less of it through than it receives1 ,christ being its sun4 ,or1 we might as well talk of the authority of a flock of sheep--for the ,church is a body to be taught and fed1 not to teach and feed3 and of all sheep that are fed on the earth1 ,christ's ,sheep are the most simple1 7the children of this generation are wiser73 always losing themselves2 doing little else in this world but lose themselves2--never finding themselves2 always found by ,some ,one else2 getting perpetually into sloughs1 and snows1 and bramble thickets1 like to die there1 but for their ,shepherd1 who is forever finding them and bearing them back1 with torn fleeces and eyes full of fear4 #aic4 ,this1 then1 being the ,no-,authority of the ,church in matter of ,doctrine1 what ,authority has it in matters of ,discipline8 ,much1 every way4 ,the sheep have natural and wholesome power 7however far scattered they may be from their proper fold7 of getting together in orderly knots2 following each other on trodden sheepwalks1 and holding their heads all one way when they see strange dogs coming2 as well as of casting out of their company any whom they see reason to suspect of not being right sheep1 and being among them for no good4 ,all which things must be done as the time and place require1 and by common consent4 ,a path may be good at one time of day which is bad at another1 or after a change of wind2 and a position may be very good for sudden defense1 which would be very stiff and awkward for feeding in4 ,and common consent must often be of such and such a company on this or that hillside1 in this or that particular danger1--not of all the sheep in the world3 and the consent may either be literally common1 and expressed in assembly1 or it may be to appoint officers over the rest1 with such and such trusts of the common authority1 to be used for the common advantage4 ,conviction of crimes1 and excommunication1 for instance1 could neither be effected except before1 or by means of1 officers of some appointed authority4 #aid4 7#e7 ,this then brings us to our fifth question4 ,what is the ,authority of the ,clergy over the ,church8 ,the first clause of the question must evidently be1--,who are the ,clergy8 ,and it is not easy to answer this without begging the rest of the question4 ,for instance1 ,i think ,i can hear certain people answering1 that the ,clergy are folk of three kinds2--,bishops1 who overlook the ,church2 ,priests1 who sacrifice for the ,church2 ,deacons1 who minister to the ,church3 thus assuming in their answer1 that the ,church is to be sacrificed for1 and that the people cannot overlook and minister to her at the same time2--which is going much too fast4 ,i think1 however1 if we define the ,clergy to be the ,spiritual ,officers of the ,church1--meaning1 by ,officers1 merely ,people in office1--we shall have a title safe enough and general enough to begin with1 and corresponding too1 pretty well1 with ,st4 ,paul's general expression ,greek3 proistamenoi1 in ,rom4 xii4 #h1 and #a ,thess4 v4 #ac4 ,now1 respecting these ,spiritual ,officers1 or office-bearers1 we have to inquire1 first1 ,what their ,office or ,authority is1 or should be8 secondly1 ,who gave1 or should give1 them that ,authority8 ,that is to say1 first1 ,what is1 or should be1 the nature of their office8 and secondly1 ,what the extent1 or force1 of their authority in it8 for this last depends mainly on its derivation4 #aie4 ,first1 then1 ,what should be the offices1 and of what kind should be the authority1 of the ,clergy8 ,i have hitherto referred to the ,bible for an answer to every question4 ,i do so again2 and1 behold1 the ,bible gives me no answer4 ,i defy you to answer me from the ,bible4 ,you can only guess1 and dimly conjecture1 what the offices of the ,clergy were in the first century4 ,you cannot show me a single command as to what they shall be4 ,strange1 this2 the ,bible gives no answer to so apparently important a question6 ,god surely would not have left ,his word without an answer to anything ,his children ought to ask4 ,surely it must be a ridiculous question--a question we ought never to have put1 or thought of putting4 ,let us think of it again a little4 ,to be sure1--,it is a ridiculous question1 and we should be ashamed of ourselves for having put it3--,what should be the offices of the ,clergy8 ,that is to say1 ,what are the possible spiritual necessities which at any time may arise in the ,church1 and by what means and men are they to be supplied8--evidently an infinite question4 ,different kinds of necessities must be met by different authorities1 constituted as the necessities arise4 ,robinson ,crusoe1 in his island1 wants no ,bishop1 and makes a thunderstorm do for an ,evangelist4 ,the ,university of ,oxford would be ill off without its ,bishop2 but wants an ,evangelist besides2 and that forthwith4 ,the authority which the ,vaudois shepherds need is of ,barnabas1 the ,son of ,consolation2 the authority which the city of ,london needs is of ,james1 the ,son of ,thunder4 ,let us then alter the form of our question1 and put it to the ,bible thus3 ,what are the necessities most likely to arise in the ,church8 and may they be best met by different men1 or in great part by the same men acting in different capacities8 and are the names attached to their offices of any consequence8 ,ah1 the ,bible answers now1 and that loudly4 ,the ,church is built on the ,foundation of the ,apostles and ,prophets1 ,jesus ,christ ,himself being the corner-stone4 ,well2 we cannot have two foundations1 so we can have no more ,apostles nor ,prophets3--then1 as for the other needs of the ,church in its edifying upon this foundation1 there are all manner of things to be done daily2--rebukes to be given2 comfort to be brought2 ,scripture to be explained2 warning to be enforced2 threatenings to be executed2 charities to be administered2 and the men who do these things are called1 and call themselves1 with absolute indifference1 ,deacons1 ,bishops1 ,elders1 ,evangelists1 according to what they are doing at the time of speaking4 ,st4 ,paul almost always calls himself a deacon1 ,st4 ,peter calls himself an elder1 #a ,peter v4 #a2 and ,timothy1 generally understood to be addressed as a bishop1 is called a deacon in #a ,tim4 iv4 #f--;forbidden to rebuke an elder1 in v4 #a1 and exhorted to do the work of an evangelist1 in #b ,tim4 iv4 #e4 ,but there is one thing which1 as officers1 or as separate from the rest of the flock1 they never call themselves1--which it would have been impossible1 as so separate1 they ever should have called themselves2 that is--,priests4 #aif4 ,it would have been just as possible for the ,clergy of the early ,church to call themselves ,levites1 as to call themselves 7ex-officio7 ,priests4 ,the whole function of ,priesthood was1 on ,christmas morning1 at once and forever gathered into ,his ,person who was born at ,bethlehem2 and thenceforward1 all who are united with ,him1 and who with ,him make sacrifice of themselves2 that is to say1 all members of the ,invisible ,church become1 at the instant of their conversion1 ,priests2 and are so called in #a ,peter ii4 #e1 and ,rev4 i4 #f1 and xx4 #f1 where1 observe1 there is no possibility of limiting the expression to the ,clergy2 the conditions of ,priesthood being simply having been loved by ,christ1 and washed in ,his blood4 ,the blasphemous claim on the part of the ,clergy of being more ,priests than the godly laity--that is to say1 of having a higher ,holiness than the ,holiness of being one with ,christ1--is altogether a ,romanist heresy1 dragging after it1 or having its origin in1 the other heresies respecting the sacrificial power of the ,church officer1 and his repeating the oblation of ,christ1 and so having power to absolve from sin3--with all the other endless and miserable falsehoods of the ,papal hierarchy2 falsehoods for which1 that there might be no shadow of excuse1 it has been ordained by the ,holy ,spirit that no ,christian minister shall once call himself a ,priest from one end of the ,new ,testament to the other1 except together with his flock2 and so far from the idea of any peculiar sanctification1 belonging to the ,clergy1 ever entering the ,apostles' minds1 we actually find ,st4 ,paul defending himself against the possible imputation of inferiority3 ,if any man trust to himself that he is ,christ's1 let him of himself think this again1 that1 as he is ,christ's1 even so are we ,christ's 7#b ,cor4 x4 #g74 ,as for the unhappy retention of the term ,priest in our ,english ,prayer-book1 so long as it was understood to mean nothing but an upper order of ,church officer1 licensed to tell the congregation from the reading-desk1 what 7for the rest7 they might1 one would think1 have known without being told1--that ,god pardoneth all them that truly repent1--there was little harm in it2 but1 now that this order of ,clergy begins to presume upon a title which1 if it mean anything at all1 is simply short for ,presbyter1 and has no more to do with the word ,hiereus than with the word ,levite1 it is time that some order should be taken both with the book and the ,clergy4 ,for instance1 in that dangerous compound of halting poetry with hollow ,divinity1 called the ,lyra ,apostolica1 we find much versification on the sin of ,korah and his company3 with suggested parallel between the ,christian and ,levitical ,churches1 and threatening that there are ,judgment ,fires1 for high-voiced ,korahs in their day4 ,there are indeed such fires4 ,but when ,moses said1 a ,prophet shall the ,lord raise up unto you1 like unto me1 did he mean the writer who signs ,greek3 g in the ,lyra ,apostolica8 ,the office of the ,lawgiver and ,priest is now forever gathered into ,one ,mediator between ,god and man2 and ,,they are guilty of the sin of ,korah who blasphemously would associate themselves in ,his ,mediatorship4 #aig4 ,as for the passages in the ,ordering of ,priests and ,visitation of the ,sick respecting ,absolution1 they are evidently pure ,romanism1 and might as well not be there1 for any practical effect which they have on the consciences of the ,laity2 and had much better not be there1 as regards their effect on the minds of the ,clergy4 ,it is indeed true that ,christ promised absolving powers to ,his ,apostles3 ,he also promised to those who believed1 that they should take up serpents2 and if they drank any deadly thing1 it should not hurt them4 ,his words were fulfilled literally2 but those who would extend their force to beyond the ,apostolic times1 must extend both promises or neither4 ,although1 however1 the ,protestant laity do not often admit the absolving power of their clergy1 they are but too apt to yield1 in some sort1 to the impression of their greater sanctification2 and from this instantly results the unhappy consequence that the sacred character of the ,layman himself is forgotten1 and his own ,ministerial duty is neglected4 ,men not in office in the ,church suppose themselves1 on that ground1 in a sort unholy2 and that1 therefore1 they may sin with more excuse1 and be idle or impious with less danger1 than the ,clergy3 especially they consider themselves relieved from all ministerial function1 and as permitted to devote their whole time and energy to the business of this world4 ,no mistake can possibly be greater4 ,every member of the ,church is equally bound to the service of the ,head of the ,church2 and that service is pre-eminently the saving of souls4 ,there is not a moment of a man's active life in which he may not be indirectly preaching2 and throughout a great part of his life he ought to be directly preaching1 and teaching both strangers and friends2 his children1 his servants1 and all who in any way are put under him1 being given to him as special objects of his ministration4 ,so that the only difference between a ,church officer and a lay member is either a wider degree of authority given to the former1 as apparently a wiser and better man1 or a special appointment to some office more easily discharged by one person than by many3 as1 for instance1 the serving of tables by the deacons2 the authority or appointment being1 in either case1 commonly signified by a marked separation from the rest of the ,church1 and the privilege or power#adf of being maintained by the rest of the ,church1 without being forced to labor with his hands1 or incumber himself with any temporal concerns4 #aih4 ,now1 putting out of the question the serving of tables1 and other such duties1 respecting which there is no debate1 we shall find the offices of the ,clergy1 whatever names we may choose to give to those who discharge them1 falling mainly into two great heads3--,teaching2 including doctrine1 warning1 and comfort3 ,discipline2 including reproof and direct administration of punishment4 ,either of which functions would naturally become vested in single persons1 to the exclusion of others1 as a mere matter of convenience3 whether those persons were wiser and better than others or not2 and respecting each of which1 and the authority required for its fitting discharge1 a short inquiry must be separately made4 #aii4 ,i4 ,teaching4--,it appears natural and wise that certain men should be set apart from the rest of the ,church that they may make ,theology the study of their lives3 and that they should be thereto instructed specially in the ,hebrew and ,greek tongues2 and have entire leisure granted them for the study of the ,scriptures1 and for obtaining general knowledge of the grounds of ,faith1 and best modes of its defense against all heretics3 and it seems evidently right1 also1 that with this ,scholastic duty should be joined the ,pastoral duty of constant visitation and exhortation to the people2 for1 clearly1 the ,bible1 and the truths of ,divinity in general1 can only be understood rightly in their practical application2 and clearly1 also1 a man spending his time constantly in spiritual ministrations1 must be better able1 on any given occasion1 to deal powerfully with the human heart than one unpracticed in such matters4 ,the unity of ,knowledge and ,love1 both devoted altogether to the service of ,christ and ,his ,church1 marks the true ,christian ,minister2 who1 ,i believe1 whenever he has existed1 has never failed to receive due and fitting reverence from all men1--of whatever character or opinion2 and ,i believe that if all those who profess to be such were such indeed1 there would never be question of their authority more4 #bjj4 ,but1 whatever influence they may have over the ,church1 their authority never supersedes that of either the intellect or the conscience of the simplest of its lay members4 ,they can assist those members in the search for truth1 or comfort their over-worn and doubtful minds2 they can even assure them that they are in the way of truth1 or that pardon is within their reach3 but they can neither manifest the truth1 nor grant the pardon4 ,truth is to be discovered1 and ,pardon to be won1 for every man by himself4 ,this is evident from innumerable texts of ,scripture1 but chiefly from those which exhort every man to seek after ,truth1 and which connect knowing with doing4 ,we are to seek after knowledge as silver1 and search for her as for hid treasures2 therefore1 from every man she must be naturally hid1 and the discovery of her is to be the reward only of personal search4 ,the kingdom of ,god is as treasure hid in a field2 and of those who profess to help us to seek for it1 we are not to put confidence in those who say1--,here is the treasure1 we have found it1 and have it1 and will give you some of it2 but in those who say1--,we think that is a good place to dig1 and you will dig most easily in such and such a way4 #bja4 ,farther1 it has been promised that if such earnest search be made1 ,truth shall be discovered3 as much truth1 that is1 as is necessary for the person seeking4 ,these1 therefore1 ,i hold1 for two fundamental principles of religion1--that1 without seeking1 truth cannot be known at all2 and that1 by seeking1 it may be discovered by the simplest4 ,i say1 without seeking it cannot be known at all4 ,it can neither be declared from pulpits1 nor set down in ,articles1 nor in anywise prepared and sold in packages1 ready for use4 ,truth must be ground for every man by himself out of its husk1 with such help as he can get1 indeed1 but not without stern labor of his own4 ,in what science is knowledge to be had cheap8 or truth to be told over a velvet cushion1 in half an hour's talk every seventh day8 ,can you learn chemistry so8--zoology8--anatomy8 and do you expect to penetrate the secret of all secrets1 and to know that whose price is above rubies2 and of which the depth saith1--,it is not in me1--in so easy fashion8 ,there are doubts in this matter which evil spirits darken with their wings1 and that is true of all such doubts which we were told long ago--they can be ended by action alone4#adg #bjb4 ,as surely as we live1 this truth of truths can only so be discerned3 to those who act on what they know1 more shall be revealed2 and thus1 if any man will do ,his will1 he shall know the doctrine whether it be of ,god4 ,any man1--not the man who has most means of knowing1 who has the subtlest brains1 or sits under the most orthodox preacher1 or has his library fullest of most orthodox books1--but the man who strives to know1 who takes ,god at ,his word1 and sets himself to dig up the heavenly mystery1 roots and all1 before sunset1 and the night come1 when no man can work4 ,beside such a man1 ,god stands in more and more visible presence as he toils1 and teaches him that which no preacher can teach--no earthly authority gainsay4 ,by such a man1 the preacher must himself be judged4 #bjc4 ,doubt you this8 ,there is nothing more certain nor clear throughout the ,bible3 the ,apostles themselves appeal constantly to their flocks1 and actually claim judgment from them1 as deserving it1 and having a right to it1 rather than discouraging it4 ,but1 first notice the way in which the discovery of truth is spoken of in the ,old ,testament3 ,evil men understand not judgment2 but they that seek the ,lord understand all things1 ,proverbs xxviii4 #e4 ,god overthroweth1 not merely the transgressor or the wicked1 but even the words of the transgressor1 ,proverbs xxii4 #ab1 and the counsel of the wicked1 ,job v4 #ac1 xxi4 #af2 observe again1 in ,proverbs xxiv4 #ad1 ,my son1 eat thou honey1 because it is good--so shall the knowledge of wisdom be unto thy soul1 when thou hast found it1 there shall be a reward2 and again1 ,what man is he that feareth the ,lord8 him shall ,he teach in the way that ,he shall choose2 so ,job xxxii4 #h1 and multitudes of places more2 and then1 with all these places1 which express the definite and personal operation of the ,spirit of ,god on every one of ,his people1 compare the place in ,isaiah1 which speaks of the contrary of this human teaching3 a passage which seems as if it had been written for this very day and hour4 ,because their fear towards me is taught by the precept of men2 therefore1 behold1 the wisdom of their wise men shall perish1 and the understanding of their prudent men shall be hid 7xxix4 #ac1ad74 ,then take the ,new ,testament1 and observe how ,st4 ,paul himself speaks of the ,romans1 even as hardly needing his epistle1 but able to admonish one another3 ,nevertheless1 brethren1 ,i have written the more boldly unto you in some sort1 as putting you in mind 7xv4 #ae74 ,anyone1 we should have thought1 might have done as much as this1 and yet ,st4 ,paul increases the modesty of it as he goes on2 for he claims the right of doing as much as this1 only because of the grace given to me of ,god1 that ,i should be the minister of ,jesus ,christ to the ,gentiles4 ,then compare #b ,cor4 v4 #aa1 where he appeals to the consciences of the people for the manifestation of his having done his duty2 and observe in verse #ba of that1 and ,i of the next chapter1 the pray and beseech1 not command2 and again in chapter vi4 verse #d1 approving ourselves as the ministers of ,god4 ,but the most remarkable passage of all is #b ,cor4 iii4 #a1 whence it appears that the churches were actually in the habit of giving letters of recommendation to their ministers2 and ,st4 ,paul dispenses with such letters1 not by virtue of his ,apostolic authority1 but because the power of his preaching was enough manifested in the ,corinthians themselves4 ,and these passages are all the more forcible1 because if in any of them ,st4 ,paul had claimed absolute authority over the ,church as a teacher1 it was no more than we should have expected him to claim1 nor could his doing so have in anywise justified a successor in the same claim4 ,but now that he has not claimed it1--who1 following him1 shall dare to claim it8 ,and the consideration of the necessity of joining expressions of the most exemplary humility1 which were to be the example of succeeding ministers1 with such assertion of ,divine authority as should secure acceptance for the epistle itself in the sacred canon1 sufficiently accounts for the apparent inconsistencies which occur in #b ,thess4 iii4 #ad1 and other such texts4 #bjd4 ,so much1 then1 for the authority of the ,clergy in matters of ,doctrine4 ,next1 what is their authority in matters of ,discipline8 ,it must evidently be very great1 even if it were derived from the people alone1 and merely vested in the clerical officers as the executors of their ecclesiastical judgments1 and general overseers of all the ,church4 ,but granting1 as we must presently1 the minister to hold office directly from ,god1 his authority of discipline becomes very great indeed2 how great1 it seems to me most difficult to determine1 because ,i do not understand what ,st4 ,paul means by delivering a man to ,satan for the destruction of the flesh4 ,leaving this question1 however1 as much too hard for casual examination1 it seems indisputable that the authority of the ,ministers or court of ,ministers should extend to the pronouncing a man ,excommunicate for certain crimes against the ,church1 as well as for all crimes punishable by ordinary law4 ,there ought1 ,i think1 to be an ecclesiastical code of laws2 and a man ought to have jury trial1 according to this code1 before an ecclesiastical judge2 in which1 if he were found guilty1 as of lying1 or dishonesty1 or cruelty1 much more of any actually committed violent crime1 he should be pronounced excommunicate2 refused the ,sacrament2 and have his name written in some public place as an excommunicate person until he had publicly confessed his sin and besought pardon of ,god for it4 ,the jury should always be of the laity1 and no penalty should be enforced in an ecclesiastical court except this of excommunication4 #bje4 ,this proposal may seem strange to many persons2 but assuredly this1 if not much more than this1 is commanded in ,scripture1 first in the 7much-abused7 text1 ,tell it unto the ,church2 and most clearly in #a ,cor4 v4 #aa-ac2 #b ,thess4 iii4 #f and #ad2 #a ,tim4 v4 #h and #bj2 and ,titus iii4 #aj2 from which passages we also know the two proper degrees of the penalty4 ,for ,christ says1 ,let him who refuses to hear the ,church1 be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican1 ,but ,christ ministered to the heathen1 and sat at meat with the publican2 only always with declared or implied expression of their inferiority2 here1 therefore1 is one degree of excommunication for persons who offend their brethren1 committing some minor fault against them2 and who1 having been pronounced in error by the body of the ,church1 refuse to confess their fault or repair it2 who are then to be no longer considered members of the ,church2 and their recovery to the body of it is to be sought exactly as it would be in the case of an heathen4 ,but covetous persons1 railers1 extortioners1 idolaters1 and those guilty of other gross crimes1 are to be entirely cut off from the company of the believers2 and we are not so much as to eat with them4 ,this last penalty1 however1 would require to be strictly guarded1 that it might not be abused in the infliction of it1 as it has been by the ,romanists4 ,we are not1 indeed1 to eat with them1 but we may exercise all ,christian charity towards them1 and give them to eat1 if we see them in hunger1 as we ought to all our enemies2 only we are to consider them distinctly as our enemies3 that is to say1 enemies of our ,master1 ,christ2 and servants of ,satan4 #bjf4 ,as for the rank or name of the officers in whom the authorities1 either of teaching or discipline1 are to be vested1 they are left undetermined by ,scripture4 ,i have heard it said by men who know their ,bible far better than ,i1 that careful examination may detect evidence of the existence of three orders of ,clergy in the ,church4 ,this may be2 but one thing is very clear1 without any laborious examination1 that bishop and elder sometimes mean the same thing2 as1 indisputably1 in ,titus i4 #e and #g1 and ,i ,peter v4 ,i and #b1 and that the office of the bishop or overseer was one of considerably less importance than it is with us4 ,this is palpably evident from ,i ,timothy iii41 for what divine among us1 writing of episcopal proprieties1 would think of saying that bishops must not be given to wine1 must be no strikers1 and must not be novices8 ,we are not in the habit of making bishops of novices in these days2 and it would be much better that1 like the early ,church1 we sometimes ran the risk of doing so2 for the fact is we have not bishops enough--by some hundreds4 ,the idea of overseership has been practically lost sight of1 its fulfillment having gradually become physically impossible1 for want of more bishops4 ,the duty of a bishop is1 without doubt1 to be accessible to the humblest clergymen of his diocese1 and to desire very earnestly that all of them should be in the habit of referring to him in all cases of difficulty2 if they do not do this of their own accord1 it is evidently his duty to visit them1 live with them sometimes1 and join in their ministrations to their flocks1 so as to know exactly the capacities and habits of life of each2 and if any of them complained of this or that difficulty with their congregations1 the bishop should be ready to go down to help them1 preach for them1 write general epistles to their people1 and so on3 besides this1 he should of course be watchful of their errors--ready to hear complaints from their congregations of inefficiency or aught else2 besides having general superintendence of all the charitable institutions and schools in his diocese1 and good knowledge of whatever was going on in theological matters1 both all over the kingdom and on the ,continent4 ,this is the work of a right overseer2 and ,i leave the reader to calculate how many additional bishops--and those hard-working men1 too--we should need to have it done1 even decently4 ,then our present bishops might all become archbishops with advantage1 and have general authority over the rest4#adh #bjg4 ,as to the mode in which the officers of the ,church should be elected or appointed1 ,i do not feel it my business to say anything at present1 nor much respecting the extent of their authority1 either over each other or over the congregation1 this being a most difficult question1 the right solution of which evidently lies between two most dangerous extremes--insubordination and radicalism on one hand1 and ecclesiastical tyranny and heresy on the other3 of the two1 insubordination is far the least to be dreaded--for this reason1 that nearly all real ,christians are more on the watch against their pride than their indolence1 and would sooner obey their clergyman1 if possible1 than contend with him2 while the very pride they suppose conquered often returns masked1 and causes them to make a merit of their humility and their abstract obedience1 however unreasonable3 but they cannot so easily persuade themselves there is a merit in abstract disobedience4 #bjh4 ,ecclesiastical tyranny has1 for the most part1 founded itself on the idea of ,vicarianism1 one of the most pestilent of the ,romanist theories1 and most plainly denounced in ,scripture4 ,of this ,i have a word or two to say to the modern ,vicarian4 ,all powers that be are unquestionably ordained of ,god2 so that they that resist the ,power1 resist the ordinance of ,god4 ,therefore1 say some in these offices1 ,we1 being ordained of ,god1 and having our credentials1 and being in the ,english ,bible called ambassadors for ,god1 do1 in a sort1 represent ,god4 ,we are ,vicars of ,christ1 and stand on earth in place of ,christ4 ,i have heard this said by ,protestant clergymen4 #bji4 ,now the word ambassador has a peculiar ambiguity about it1 owing to its use in modern political affairs2 and these clergymen assume that the word1 as used by ,st4 ,paul1 means an ,ambassador ,plenipotentiary2 representative of his ,king1 and capable of acting for his ,king4 ,what right have they to assume that ,st4 ,paul meant this8 ,st4 ,paul never uses the word ambassador at all4 ,he says1 simply1 ,we are in embassage from ,christ2 and ,christ beseeches you through us4 ,most true4 ,and let it further be granted1 that every word that the clergyman speaks is literally dictated to him by ,christ2 that he can make no mistake in delivering his message2 and that1 therefore1 it is indeed ,christ ,himself who speaks to us the word of life through the messenger's lips4 ,does1 therefore1 the messenger represent ,christ8 ,does the channel which conveys the waters of the ,fountain represent the ,fountain itself8 ,suppose1 when we went to draw water at a cistern1 that all at once the ,leaden ,spout should become animated1 and open its mouth and say to us1 ,see1 ,i am ,vicarious for the ,fountain4 ,whatever respect you show to the ,fountain1 show some part of it to me4 ,should we not answer the ,spout1 and say1 ,spout1 you were set there for our service1 and may be taken away and thrown aside#adi if anything goes wrong with you8 ,but the ,fountain will flow forever4 #baj4 ,observe1 ,i do not deny a most solemn authority vested in every ,christian messenger from ,god to men4 ,i am prepared to grant this to the uttermost2 and all that ,george ,herbert says1 in the end of ,the ,church-porch1 ,i would enforce1 at another time than this1 to the uttermost4 ,but the ,authority is simply that of a ,king's ,messenger2 not of a ,king's ,representative4 ,there is a wide difference2 all the difference between humble service and blasphemous usurpation4 ,well1 the congregation might ask1 grant him a ,king's messenger in cases of doctrine1--in cases of discipline1 an officer bearing the ,king's ,commission4 ,how far are we to obey him8 ,how far is it lawful to dispute his commands8 ,for1 in granting1 above1 that the ,messenger always gave his message faithfully1 ,i granted too much to my adversaries1 in order that their argument might have all the weight it possibly could4 ,the ,messengers rarely deliver their message faithfully2 and sometimes have declared1 as from the ,king1 messages of their own invention4 ,how far are we1 knowing them for ,king's messengers1 to believe or obey them8 #baa4 ,suppose1 for instance1 in our ,english army1 on the eve of some great battle1 one of the colonels were to give his order to his regiment3 ,my men1 tie your belts over your eyes1 throw down your muskets1 and follow me as steadily as you can1 through this marsh1 into the middle of the enemy's line1 7this being precisely the order issued by our ,puseyite ,church officers74 ,it might be questioned1 in the real battle1 whether it would be better that a regiment should show an example of insubordination1 or be cut to pieces4 ,but happily in the ,church there is no such difficulty2 for the ,king is always with ,his army3 not only with ,his army1 but at the right hand of every soldier of it4 ,therefore1 if any of their colonels give them a strange command1 all they have to do is to ask the ,king2 and never yet any ,christian asked guidance of his ,king1 in any difficulty whatsoever1 without mental reservation or secret resolution1 but he had it forthwith4 ,we conclude then1 finally1 that the authority of the ,clergy is1 in matters of discipline1 large 7being executive1 first1 of the written laws of ,god1 and secondly1 of those determined and agreed upon by the body of the ,church71 in matters of doctrine1 dependent on their recommending themselves to every man's conscience1 both as messengers of ,god1 and as themselves men of ,god1 perfect1 and instructed to good works4#aej #bab4 7#f7 ,the last subject which we had to investigate was1 it will be remembered1 what is usually called the connection of ,church and ,state4 ,but1 by our definition of the term ,church1 throughout the whole of ,christendom1 the ,church 7or society of professing ,christians7 is the ,state1 and our subject is therefore1 properly speaking1 the connection of lay and clerical officers of the ,church2 that is to say1 the degrees in which the civil and ecclesiastical governments ought to interfere with or influence each other4 ,it would of course be vain to attempt a formal inquiry into this intricate subject2--,i have only a few detached points to notice respecting it4 #bac4 ,there are three degrees or kinds of civil government4 ,the first and lowest1 executive merely2 the government in this sense being simply the ,national ,hand1 and composed of individuals who administer the laws of the nation1 and execute its established purposes4 ,the second kind of government is deliberative2 but in its deliberation1 representative only of the thoughts and will of the people or nation1 and liable to be deposed the instant it ceases to express those thoughts and that will4 ,this1 whatever its form1 whether centered in a king or in any number of men1 is properly to be called ,democratic4 ,the third and highest kind of government is deliberative1 not as representative of the people1 but as chosen to take separate counsel for them1 and having power committed to it1 to enforce upon them whatever resolution it may adopt1 whether consistent with their will or not4 ,this government is properly to be called ,monarchical1 whatever its form4 #bad4 ,i see that politicians and writers of history continually run into hopeless error1 because they confuse the ,form of a ,government with its ,nature4 ,a ,government may be nominally vested in an individual2 and yet if that individual be in such fear of those beneath him1 that he does nothing but what he supposes will be agreeable to them1 the ,government is ,democratic2 on the other hand1 the ,government may be vested in a deliberative assembly of a thousand men1 all having equal authority1 and all chosen from the lowest ranks of the people2 and yet if that assembly act independently of the will of the people1 and have no fear of them1 and enforce its determinations upon them1 the ,government is ,monarchical2 that is to say1 the ,assembly1 acting as ,one1 has power over the ,many1 while in the case of the weak king1 the ,many have power over the ,one4 ,a ,monarchical ,government1 acting for its own interest1 instead of the people's1 is a tyranny4 ,i said the ,executive ,government was the hand of the nation3--the ,republican ,government is in like manner its tongue4 ,the ,monarchical ,government is its head4 ,all true and right government is ,monarchical1 and of the head4 ,what is its best form1 is a totally different question2 but unless it act for the people1 and not as representative of the people1 it is no government at all2 and one of the grossest blockheadisms of the ,english in the present day1 is their idea of sending men to ,parliament to represent their opinions4 ,whereas their only true business is to find out the wisest men among them1 and send them to ,parliament to represent their own opinions1 and act upon them4 ,of all puppet-shows in the ,satanic ,carnival of the earth1 the most contemptible puppet-show is a ,parliament with a mob pulling the strings4 #bae4 ,now1 of these three states of ,government1 it is clear that the merely executive can have no proper influence over ecclesiastical affairs4 ,but of the other two1 the first1 being the voice of the people1 or voice of the ,church1 must have such influence over the ,clergy as is properly vested in the body of the ,church4 ,the second1 which stands in the same relation to the people as a father does to his family1 will have such farther influence over ecclesiastical matters1 as a father has over the consciences of his adult children4 ,no absolute authority1 therefore1 to enforce their attendance at any particular place of worship1 or subscription to any particular ,creed4 ,but indisputable authority to procure for them such religious instruction as he deems fittest1#aea and to recommend it to them by every means in his power2 he not only has authority1 but is under obligation to do this1 as well as to establish such disciplines and forms of worship in his house as he deems most convenient for his family3 with which they are indeed at liberty to refuse compliance1 if such disciplines appear to them clearly opposed to the law of ,god2 but not without most solemn conviction of their being so1 nor without deep sorrow to be compelled to such a course4 #baf4 ,but it may be said1 the ,government of a people never does stand to them in the relation of a father to his family4 ,if it do not1 it is no ,government4 ,however grossly it may fail in its duty1 and however little it may be fitted for its place1 if it be a ,government at all1 it has paternal office and relation to the people4 ,i find it written on the one hand1--,honor thy ,father2 on the other1--,honor the ,king3 on the one hand1--,whoso smiteth his ,father1 shall be put to death2#aeb on the other1--,they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation4 ,well1 but1 it may be farther argued1 the ,clergy are in a still more solemn sense the ,fathers of the ,people1 and the ,people are their beloved ,sons2 why should not1 therefore1 the ,clergy have the power to govern the civil officers8 #bag4 ,for two very clear reasons4 ,in all human institutions certain evils are granted1 as of necessity2 and1 in organizing such institutions1 we must allow for the consequences of such evils1 and make arrangements such as may best keep them in check4 ,now1 in both the civil and ecclesiastical governments there will of necessity be a certain number of bad men4 ,the wicked civilian has comparatively little interest in overthrowing ecclesiastical authority2 it is often a useful help to him1 and presents in itself little which seems covetable4 ,but the wicked ecclesiastical officer has much interest in overthrowing the civilian1 and getting the political power into his own hands4 ,as far as wicked men are concerned1 therefore1 it is better that the ,state should have power over the ,clergy1 than the ,clergy over the ,state4 ,secondly1 supposing both the ,civil and ,ecclesiastical officers to be ,christians2 there is no fear that the civil officer should underrate the dignity or shorten the serviceableness of the minister2 but there is considerable danger that the religious enthusiasm of the minister might diminish the serviceableness of the civilian4 7,the ,history of ,religious ,enthusiasm should be written by someone who had a life to give to its investigation2 it is one of the most melancholy pages in human records1 and one of the most necessary to be studied47 ,therefore1 as far as good men are concerned1 it is better the ,state should have power over the ,clergy than the ,clergy over the ,state4 #bah4 ,this we might1 it seems to me1 conclude by unassisted reason4 ,but surely the whole question is1 without any need of human reason1 decided by the history of ,israel4 ,if ever a body of ,clergy should have received independent authority1 the ,levitical ,priesthood should2 for they were indeed a ,priesthood1 and more holy than the rest of the nation4 ,but ,aaron is always subject to ,moses4 ,all solemn revelation is made to ,moses1 the civil magistrate1 and he actually commands ,aaron as to the fulfillment of his priestly office1 and that in a necessity of life and death3 ,go1 and make an atonement for the people4 ,nor is anything more remarkable throughout the whole of the ,jewish history than the perfect subjection of the ,priestly to the ,kingly ,authority4 ,thus ,solomon thrusts out ,abiathar from being priest1 ,i ,kings ii4 #bg2 and ,jehoahaz administers the funds of the ,lord's ,house1 #b ,kings xii4 #d1 though that money was actually the ,atonement ,money1 the ,hansom for ,souls 7,exod4 xxx4 #ab74 #bai4 ,we have1 however1 also the beautiful instance of ,samuel uniting in himself the offices of ,priest1 ,prophet1 and ,judge2 nor do ,i insist on any special manner of subjection of ,clergy to civil officers1 or vice vers2 but only on the necessity of their perfect unity and influence upon each other in every ,christian kingdom4 ,those who endeavor to effect the utter separation of ecclesiastical and civil officers1 are striving1 on the one hand1 to expose the ,clergy to the most grievous and most subtle of temptations from their own spiritual enthusiasm and spiritual pride2 on the other1 to deprive the civil officer of all sense of religious responsibility1 and to introduce the fearful1 godless1 conscienceless1 and soulless policy of the ,radical and the 7so-called7 ,socialist4 ,whereas1 the ideal of all government is the perfect unity of the two bodies of officers1 each supporting and correcting the other2 the ,clergy having due weight in all the national councils2 the civil officers having a solemn reverence for ,god in all their acts2 the ,clergy hallowing all worldly policy by their influence2 and the magistracy repressing all religious enthusiasm by their practical wisdom4 ,to separate the two is to endeavor to separate the daily life of the nation from ,god1 and to map out the dominion of the soul into two provinces--one of ,atheism1 the other of ,enthusiasm4 ,these1 then1 were the reasons which caused me to speak of the idea of separation of ,church and ,state as ,fatuity2 for what ,fatuity can be so great as the not having ,god in our thoughts2 and1 in any act or office of life1 saying in our hearts1 ,there is no ,god8 #bbj4 ,much more ,i would fain say of these things1 but not now3 this only ,i must emphatically assert1 in conclusion3--,that the schism between the so-called ,evangelical and ,high ,church ,parties in ,britain1 is enough to shake many men's faith in the truth or existence of ,religion at all4 ,it seems to me one of the most disgraceful scenes in ,ecclesiastical history1 that ,protestantism should be paralyzed at its very heart by jealousies1 based on little else than mere difference between high and low breeding4 ,for the essential differences in the religious opinions of the two parties are sufficiently marked in two men whom we may take as the highest representatives of each--,george ,herbert and ,john ,milton2 and ,i do not think there would have been much difficulty in atoning those two1 if one could have got them together4 ,but the real difficulty1 nowadays1 lies in the sin and folly of both parties2 in the superciliousness of the one1 and the rudeness of the other4 ,evidently1 however1 the sin lies most at the ,high ,church door1 for the ,evangelicals are much more ready to act with ,churchmen than they with the ,evangelicals2 and ,i believe that this state of things cannot continue much longer2 and that if the ,church of ,england does not forthwith unite with herself the entire ,evangelical body1 both of ,england and ,scotland1 and take her stand with them against the ,papacy1 her hour has struck4 ,she cannot any longer serve two masters2 nor make courtesies alternately to ,christ and ,antichrist4 ,that she has done this is visible enough by the state of ,europe at this instant4 ,three centuries since ,luther--three hundred years of ,protestant knowledge--and the ,papacy not yet overthrown6 ,christ's truth still restrained1 in narrow dawn1 to the white cliffs of ,england and white crests of the ,alps2--the morning star paused in its course in heaven2--the sun and moon stayed1 with ,satan for their ,joshua4 #bba4 ,but how to unite the two great sects of paralyzed ,protestants8 ,by keeping simply to ,scripture4 ,the members of the ,scottish ,church have not a shadow of excuse for refusing ,episcopacy2 it has indeed been abused among them1 grievously abused2 but it is in the ,bible2 and that is all they have a right to ask4 ,they have also no shadow of excuse for refusing to employ a written form of prayer4 ,it may not be to their taste--it may not be the way in which they like to pray2 but it is no question1 at present1 of likes or dislikes1 but of duties2 and the acceptance of such a form on their part would go half-way to reconcile them with their brethren4 ,let them allege such objections as they can reasonably advance against the ,english form1 and let these be carefully and humbly weighed by the pastors of both churches3 some of them ought to be at once forestalled4 ,for the ,english ,church1 on the other hand1 must cut the term ,priest entirely out of her ,prayer-book1 and substitute for it that of ,minister or ,elder2 the passages respecting ,absolution must be thrown out also1 except the doubtful one in the ,morning ,service1 in which there is no harm2 and then there would be only the ,baptismal question left1 which is one of words rather than of things1 and might easily be settled in ,synod1 turning the refractory ,clergy out of their offices1 to go to ,rome if they chose4 ,then1 when the ,articles of ,faith and form of worship had been agreed upon between the ,english and ,scottish ,churches1 the written forms and articles should be carefully translated into the ,european languages1 and offered to the acceptance of the ,protestant churches on the ,continent1 with earnest entreaty that they would receive them1 and due entertainment of all such objections as they could reasonably allege2 and thus the whole body of ,protestants1 united in one great ,fold1 would indeed go in and out1 and find pasture2 and the work appointed for them would be done quickly1 and ,antichrist overthrown4 #bbb4 ,impossible3 a thousand times impossible6--,i hear it exclaimed against me4 ,no--not impossible4 ,christ does not order impossibilities1 and ,he has ordered us to be at peace one with another4 ,nay1 it is answered--,he came not to send peace1 but a sword4 ,yes1 verily3 to send a sword upon earth1 but not within ,his ,church2 for to ,his ,church ,he said1 ,my ,peace ,i leave with you4 ,,footnotes3 ,footnote #adj3 ,i may1 perhaps1 have missed count of one or two occurrences of the word2 but not1 ,i think1 in any important passages4 ,footnote #ada3 ,the expression ,house of ,god1 in #a ,tim4 iii4 #ae1 is shown to be used of the congregation by #a ,cor4 iii4 #af1 #ag4 ,i have not noticed the word ,greek3 kyriak 7oikia7 from which the ,german ,kirche1 the ,english ,church1 and the ,scotch ,kirk are derived1 as it is not used with that signification in the ,new ,testament4 ,footnote #adb3 ,any reference except to ,scripture1 in notes of this kind would1 of course1 be useless3 the argument from1 or with1 the ,fathers is not to be compressed into fifty pages4 ,i have something to say about ,hooker2 but ,i reserve that for another time1 not wishing to say it hastily1 or to leave it without support4 ,footnote #adc3 ,acts x4 #dd4 ,footnote #add3 ,let not the reader be displeased with me for these short and apparently insolent statements of opinion4 ,i am not writing insolently1 but as shortly and clearly as ,i can2 and when ,i seriously believe a thing1 ,i say so in a few words1 leaving the reader to determine what my belief is worth4 ,but ,i do not choose to temper down every expression of personal opinion into courteous generalities1 and so lose space1 and time1 and intelligibility at once4 ,we are utterly oppressed in these days by our courtesies1 and considerations1 and compliances1 and proprieties4 ,forgive me them1 this once1 or rather let us all forgive them to each other1 and learn to speak plainly first1 and1 if it may be1 gracefully afterwards2 and not only to speak1 but to stand by what we have spoken4 ,one of my ,oxford friends heard1 the other day1 that ,i was employed on these notes1 and forthwith wrote to me1 in a panic1 not to put my name to them1 for fear ,i should compromise myself4 ,i think we are most of us compromised to some extent already1 when ,england has sent a ,roman ,catholic minister to the second city in ,italy1 and remains herself for a week without any government1 because her chief men cannot agree upon the position which a ,popish cardinal is to have leave to occupy in ,london4 ,footnote #ade3 ,matt4 xxiv4 #d2 ,mark xiii4 #e2 ,luke xxi4 #h2 #a ,cor4 iii4 #ah1 vi4 #i1 xv4 #cc2 ,eph4 iv4 #ad1 v4 #f2 ,col4 ii4 #h2 #b ,thess4 ii4 #c2 ,heb4 iii4 #ac2 #a ,john i4 #h1 iii4 #g2 #b ,john #g1 #h4 ,footnote #adf3 ,greek3 exousia in #a ,cor4 ix4 #ab4 #b ,thess1 iii4 #i4 ,footnote #adg3 7,carlyle1 ,past and ,present1 chapter xi47 ,can anything be more striking than the repeated warnings of ,st4 ,paul against strife of words2 and his distinct setting forth of ,action as the only true means of attaining knowledge of the truth1 and the only sign of men's possessing the true faith8 ,compare #a ,timothy vi4 #d1 #bj1 7the latter verse especially1 in connection with the previous three17 and #b ,timothy ii4 #ad1 #ai1 #bb1 #bc1 tracing the connection here also2 add ,titus i4 #aj1 #ad1 #af1 noting in works they deny him1 and ,titus iii4 #h1 #i1 affirm constantly that they be careful to maintain good works2 but avoid foolish questions2 and finally1 #a ,timothy i4 #d-g3 a passage which seems to have been especially written for these times4 ,footnote #adh3 ,i leave1 in the main text1 the abstract question of the fitness of ,episcopacy unapproached1 not feeling any call to speak of it at length at present2 all that ,i feel necessary to be said is1 that bishops being granted1 it is clear that we have too few to do their work4 ,but the argument from the practice of the ,primitive ,church appears to me to be of enormous weight1--nor have ,i ever heard any rational plea alleged against ,episcopacy1 except that1 like other things1 it is capable of abuse1 and has sometimes been abused2 and as1 altogether clearly and indisputably1 there is described in the ,bible an episcopal office1 distinct from the merely ministerial one2 and1 apparently1 also an episcopal officer attached to each church1 and distinguished in the ,revelation as an ,angel1 ,i hold the resistance of the ,scotch ,presbyterian ,church to ,episcopacy to be unscriptural1 futile1 and schismatic4 ,footnote #adi3 ,by just judgment be deposed1 ,art4 #bf4 ,footnote #aej3 ,the difference between the authority of doctrine and discipline is beautifully marked in #b ,timothy ii4 #be1 and ,titus ii4 #ab-ae4 ,in the first passage1 the servant of ,god1 teaching divine doctrine1 must not strive1 but must in meekness instruct those that oppose themselves2 in the second passage1 teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts he is to live soberly1 righteously1 and godly in this present world1 the minister is to speak1 exhort1 and rebuke with ,,all ,,authority--both functions being expressed as united in #b ,timothy iv4 #c4 ,footnote #aea3 ,observe1 this and the following conclusions depend entirely on the supposition that the ,government is part of the ,body of the ,church1 and that some pains have been taken to compose it of religious and wise men4 ,if we choose1 knowingly and deliberately1 to compose our ,parliament1 in great part1 of infidels and ,papists1 gamblers and debtors1 we may well regret its power over the ,clerical officer2 but that we should1 at any time1 so compose our ,parliament1 is a sign that the ,clergy themselves have failed in their duty1 and the ,church in its watchfulness2--thus the evil accumulates in reaction4 ,whatever ,i say of the responsibility or authority of ,government1 is therefore to be understood only as sequent on what ,i have said previously of the necessity of closely circumscribing the ,church1 and then composing the ,civil ,government out of the circumscribed ,body4 ,thus1 all ,papists would at once be rendered incapable of share in it being subjected to the second or most severe degree of excommunication--first1 as idolaters1 by #a ,cor4 v4 #aj2 then as covetous and extortioners 7selling absolution17 by the same text2 and1 finally1 as heretics and maintainers of falsehoods1 by ,titus iii4 #aj1 and #a ,tim4 iv4 #a4 ,i do not write this hastily1 nor without earnest consideration both1 of the difficulty and the consequences of such ,church ,discipline4 ,but either the ,bible is a superannuated book1 and is only to be read as a record of past days2 or these things follow from it1 clearly and inevitably4 ,that we live in days when the ,bible has become impracticable1 is 7if it be so7 the very thing ,i desire to be considered4 ,i am not setting down these plans or schemes as at present possible4 ,i do not know how far they are possible2 but it seems to me that ,god has plainly commanded them1 and that1 therefore1 their impracticability is a thing to be meditated on4 ,footnote #aeb3 ,exod4 xxi4 #ae4 ,,the ,,lord',s ,,prayer ,,and ,,the ,,church4#aec ,,letters4 ,i4#aed ,,brantwood1 ,,coniston1 ,,lancashire1 #bjth ,june1 #ahgi4 #bbc4 ,,dear ,,mr4 ,,malleson1--,i could not at once answer your important letter2 for1 though ,i felt at once the impossibility of my venturing to address such an audience as you proposed1 ,i am unwilling to fail in answering to any call relating to matters respecting which my feelings have been long in earnest1 if in any wise it may be possible for me to be of service therein4 ,my health--or want of it--now utterly forbids my engagement in any duty involving excitement or acute intellectual effort2 but ,i think1 before the first ,tuesday in ,august1 ,i might be able to write one or two letters to yourself1 referring to1 and more or less completing1 some passages already printed in ,fors and elsewhere1 which might1 on your reading any portions you thought available1 become matter of discussion during the meeting at some leisure time1 after its own main purposes had been answered4 ,at all events1 ,i will think over what ,i should like1 and be able1 to represent to such a meeting1 and only beg you not to think me insensible of the honor done me by your wish1 and of the gravity of the trust reposed in me4 ,ever most faithfully yours1 ,j4 ,,ruskin4 ,,the ,,rev4 ,f4 ,a4 ,,malleson4 ,,ii4 ,,brantwood1 ,,coniston1 #bcrd ,june1 #ahgi4 #bbd4 ,,dear ,,mr4 ,,malleson1--,walking1 and talking1 are now alike impossible to me2#aee my strength is gone for both2 nor do ,i believe talking on such matters to be of the least use except to promote1 between sensible people1 kindly feeling and knowledge of each other's personal characters4 ,i have every trust in your kindness and truth2 nor do ,i fear being myself misunderstood by you2 what ,i may be able to put into written form1 so as to admit of being laid before your friends in council1 must be set down without any question of personal feeling--as simply as a mathematical question or demonstration4 #bbe4 ,the first exact question which it seems to me such an assembly may be earnestly called upon by laymen to solve1 is surely axiomatic3 the definition of themselves as a body1 and of their business as such4 ,namely3 as clergymen of the ,church of ,england1 do they consider themselves to be so called merely as the attached servants of a particular state8 ,do they1 in their quality of guides1 hold a position similar to that of the guides of ,chamouni or ,grindelwald1 who1 being a numbered body of examined and trustworthy persons belonging to those several villages1 have nevertheless no ,chamounist or ,grindelwaldist opinions on the subject of ,alpine geography or glacier walking2 but are prepared to put into practice a common and universal science of ,locality and ,athletics1 founded on sure survey and successful practice8 ,are the clergymen of the ,ecclesia of ,england thus simply the attached and salaried guides of ,england and the ,english1 in the way1 known of all good men1 that leadeth unto life8--or are they1 on the contrary1 a body of men holding1 or in any legal manner required1 or compelled to hold1 opinions on the subject--say1 of the height of the ,celestial ,mountains1 the crevasses which go down quickest to the pit1 and other cognate points of science--differing from1 or even contrary to1 the tenets of the guides of the ,church of ,france1 the ,church of ,italy1 and other ,christian countries8 ,is not this the first of all questions which a ,clerical ,council has to answer in open terms8 ,ever affectionately yours1 ,j4 ,,ruskin4 ,,iii4 ,,brantwood1 #fth ,july4 #bbf4 ,my first letter contained a ,layman's plea for a clear answer to the question1 ,what is a clergyman of the ,church of ,england8 ,supposing the answer to this first to be1 that the clergy of the ,church of ,england are teachers1 not of the ,gospel to ,england1 but of the ,gospel to all nations2 and not of the ,gospel of ,luther1 nor of the ,gospel of ,augustine1 but of the ,gospel of ,christ1--then the ,layman's second question would be3 ,can this ,gospel of ,christ be put into such plain words and short terms as that a plain man may understand it8--and1 if so1 would it not be1 in a quite primal sense1 desirable that it should be so1 rather than left to be gathered out of ,thirty-nine ,articles1 written by no means in clear ,english1 and referring1 for further explanation of exactly the most important point in the whole tenor of their teaching1#aef to a ,homily of ,justification1#aeg which is not generally in the possession1 or even probably within the comprehension1 of simple persons8 ,ever faithfully yours1 ,j4 ,,ruskin4 ,,iv4 ,,brantwood1 #hth ,july4 #bbg4 ,i am so very glad that you approve of the letter plan1 as it enables me to build up what ,i would fain try to say1 of little stones1 without lifting too much for my strength at once2 and the sense of addressing a friend who understands me and sympathizes with me prevents my being brought to a stand by continual need for apology1 or fear of giving offense4 ,but yet ,i do not quite see why you should feel my asking for a simple and comprehensible statement of the ,christian ,gospel at starting4 ,are you not bid to go into all the world and preach it to every creature8 7,i should myself think the clergyman most likely to do good who accepted the ,greek3 pas th ktisei so literally as at least to sympathize with ,st4 ,francis' sermon to the birds1 and to feel that feeding either sheep or fowls1 or unmuzzling the ox1 or keeping the wrens alive in the snow1 would be received by their ,heavenly ,feeder as the perfect fulfillment of ,his ,feed my sheep in the higher sense47#aeh #bbh4 ,that's all a parenthesis2 for although ,i should think that your good company would all agree that kindness to animals was a kind of preaching to them1 and that hunting and vivisection were a kind of blasphemy to them1 ,i want only to put the sterner question before your council1 how this ,gospel is to be preached either ,greek3 pantachou or to ,greek3 panta ta ethn if first its preachers have not determined quite clearly what it is8 ,and might not such definition1 acceptable to the entire body of the ,church of ,christ1 be arrived at by merely explaining1 in their completeness and life1 the terms of the ,lord's ,prayer--the first words taught to children all over the ,christian world8 ,i will try to explain what ,i mean of its several articles1 in following letters2 and in answer to the question with which you close your last1 ,i can only say that you are at perfect liberty to use any1 or all1 or any parts of them1 as you think good4 ,usually1 when ,i am asked if letters of mine may be printed1 ,i say3 ,assuredly1 provided only that you print them entire4 ,but in your hands1 ,i withdraw even this condition1 and trust gladly to your judgment1 remaining always ,faithfully and affectionately yours1 ,j4 ,,ruskin4 ,,the ,,rev4 ,f4 ,a4 ,,malleson4 ,v4 ,greek3 pater hmon ho en tois ouranois ,pater noster qui es in clis4 ,,brantwood1 #ajth ,july4 #bbi4 ,my meaning1 in saying that the ,lord's ,prayer might be made a foundation of ,gospel-teaching1 was not that it contained all that ,christian ministers have to teach2 but that it contains what all ,christians are agreed upon as first to be taught2 and that no good parish-working pastor in any district of the world but would be glad to take his part in making it clear and living to his congregation4 ,and the first clause of it1 of course rightly explained1 gives us the ground of what is surely a mighty part of the ,gospel--its first and great commandment1 namely1 that we have a ,father whom we can love1 and are required to love1 and to desire to be with ,him in ,heaven1 wherever that may be4 ,and to declare that we have such a loving ,father1 whose mercy is over all ,his works1 and whose will and law is so lovely and lovable that it is sweeter than honey1 and more precious than gold1 to those who can taste and see that the ,lord is ,good--this1 surely1 is a most pleasant and glorious good message and spell to bring to men--as distinguished from the evil message and accursed spell that ,satan has brought to the nations of the world instead of it1 that they have no ,father1 but only a consuming fire ready to devour them1 unless they are delivered from its raging flame by some scheme of pardon for all1 for which they are to be thankful1 not to the ,father1 but to the ,son4 ,supposing this first article of the true ,gospel agreed to1 how would the blessing that closes the epistles of that ,gospel become intelligible and living1 instead of dark and dead3 ,the grace of ,christ1 and the love of ,god1 and the fellowship of the ,holy ,ghost1--the most tender word being that used of the ,father8 ,,vi4 ,greek3 hagiastht to onoma sou ,sanctificetur nomen tuum4 ,,brantwood1 #abth ,july1 #ahgi4 #bcj4 ,i wonder how many1 even of those who honestly and attentively join in our ,church services1 attach any distinct idea to the second clause of the ,lord's ,prayer1 the first petition of it1 the first thing that they are ordered by ,christ to seek of their ,father8 ,am ,i unjust in thinking that most of them have little more notion on the matter than that ,god has forbidden bad language1 and wishes them to pray that everybody may be respectful to ,him8 ,is it any otherwise with the ,third ,commandment8 ,do not most look on it merely in the light of the statute of swearing8 and read the words will not hold him guiltless merely as a passionless intimation that however carelessly a man may let out a round oath1 there really is something wrong in it8 ,on the other hand1 can anything be more tremendous than the words themselves--double-negatived3 ,greek3 ou gar m katharis 444 kurios ,for other sins there is washing2--for this1 none6 the seventh verse1 ,ex4 xx41 in the ,septuagint1 marking the real power rather than the ,english1 which 7,i suppose7 is literal to the ,hebrew4 ,to my layman's mind1 of practical needs in the present state of the ,church1 nothing is so immediate as that of explaining to the congregation the meaning of being gathered in ,his name1 and having ,him in the midst of them2 as1 on the other hand1 of being gathered in blasphemy of ,his name1 and having the devil in the midst of them--presiding over the prayers which have become an abomination4 #bca4 ,for the entire body of the texts in the ,gospel against hypocrisy are one and all nothing but the expansion of the threatening that closes the ,third ,commandment4 ,for as the name whereby ,he shall be called is ,,the ,,lord ,,our ,,righteousness1--so the taking that name in vain is the sum of the deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish4 ,without dwelling on the possibility--which ,i do not myself1 however1 for a moment doubt--of an honest clergyman's being able actually to prevent the entrance among his congregation of persons leading openly wicked lives1 could any subject be more vital to the purposes of your meetings than the difference between the present and the probable state of the ,christian ,church which would result1 were it more the effort of zealous parish priests1 instead of getting wicked poor people to come to church1 to get wicked rich ones to stay out of it8 ,lest1 in any discussion of such question1 it might be1 as it too often is1 alleged that the ,lord looketh upon the heart1 etc41 let me be permitted to say--with as much positiveness as may express my deepest conviction--that1 while indeed it is the ,lord's business to look upon the heart1 it is the pastor's to look upon the hands and the lips2 and that the foulest oaths of the thief and the street-walker are1 in the ears of ,god1 sinless as the hawk's cry1 or the gnat's murmur1 compared to the responses in the ,church service1 on the lips of the usurer and the adulterer1 who have destroyed1 not their own souls only1 but those of the outcast ones whom they have made their victims4 ,it is for the meeting of clergymen themselves--not for a layman addressing them--to ask further1 how much the name of ,god may be taken in vain1 and profaned instead of hallowed--in the pulpit1 as well as under it4 ,ever affectionately yours1 ,j4 ,,ruskin4 ,,vii ,greek3 elthet basilheia sou ,adveniat regnum tuum4 ,,brantwood1 #adth ,july1 #ahgi4 #bcb4 ,,dear ,,mr4 ,,malleson1--,sincere thanks for both your letters and the proofs#aei sent4 ,your comment and conducting link1 when needed1 will be of the greatest help and value1 ,i am well assured1 suggesting what you know will be the probable feeling of your hearers1 and the point that will come into question4 ,yes1 certainly1 that ,his in the fourth line was meant to imply that eternal presence of ,christ2 as in another passage1#afj referring to the ,creation1 when ,his right hand strewed the snow on ,lebanon1 and smoothed the slopes of ,calvary1 but in so far as we dwell on that truth1 ,hast thou seen ,me1 ,philip1 and not the ,father8#afa we are not teaching the people what is specially the ,gospel of ,christ as having a distinct function--namely1 to serve the ,father1 and do the ,father's will4 ,and in all ,his human relations to us1 and commands to us1 it is as the ,son of ,man1 not as the power of ,god and wisdom of ,god1 that ,he acts and speaks4 ,not as the ,power2 for ,he must pray1 like one of us4 ,not as the ,wisdom2 for ,he must not know if it be possible ,his prayer should be heard4 #bcc4 ,and in what ,i want to say of the third clause of ,his prayer 7,his1 not merely as ,his ordering1 but ,his using71 it is especially this comparison between ,his kingdom1 and ,his ,father's1 that ,i want to see the disciples guarded against4 ,i believe very few1 even of the most earnest1 using that petition1 realize that it is the ,father's--not the ,son's--kingdom1 that they pray may come1--although the whole prayer is foundational on that fact3 ,for ,thine is the kingdom1 the power1 and the glory4 ,and ,i fancy that the mind of the most faithful ,christian is quite led away from its proper hope1 by dwelling on the reign--or the coming again--of ,christ2 which1 indeed1 they are to look for1 and watch for1 but not to pray for4 ,their prayer is to be for the greater kingdom to which ,he1 risen and having all ,his enemies under ,his feet1 is to surrender ,his1 that ,god may be ,all in ,all4 ,and1 though the greatest1 it is that everlasting kingdom which the poorest of us can advance4 ,we cannot hasten ,christ's coming4 ,of the day and hour1 knoweth none4 ,but the kingdom of ,god is as a grain of mustard seed3--we can sow of it2 it is as a foam-globe of leaven3--we can mingle it2 and its glory and its joy are that even the birds of the air can lodge in the branches thereof4 ,forgive me for getting back to my sparrows2 but truly1 in the present state of ,england1 the fowls of the air are the only creatures1 tormented and murdered as they are1 that yet have here and there nests1 and peace1 and joy in the ,holy ,ghost4 ,and it would be well if many of us1 in reading that text1 ,the kingdom of ,god is not meat and drink1 had even got so far as to the understanding that it was at least as much1 and that until we had fed the hungry1 there was no power in us to inspire the unhappy4 ,ever affectionately yours1 ,j4 ,,ruskin4 ,i will write my feeling about the pieces of the ,life of ,christ you have sent me1 in a private letter4 ,i may say at once that ,i am sure it will do much good1 and will be upright and intelligible1 which how few religious writings are6 ,,viii4 ,greek3 gentht to thelma sou hs en ouran1 ka ep gs4 ,fiat voluntas tua sicut in caelo et in terra4 ,,brantwood1 #ith ,august1 #ahgi4 #bcd4 ,i was reading the second chapter of ,malachi this morning by chance1 and wondering how many clergymen ever read it1 and took to heart the commandment for them4 ,for they are always ready enough to call themselves priests 7though they know themselves to be nothing of the sort7 whenever there is any dignity to be got out of the title2 but1 whenever there is any good1 hot scolding or unpleasant advice given them by the prophets1 in that self-assumed character of theirs1 they are as ready to quit it as ever ,dionysus his lion-skin1 when he finds the character of ,herakles inconvenient4 ,ye have wearied the ,lord with your words 7yes1 and some of ,his people1 too1 in your time73 yet ye say1 ,wherein have we wearied ,him8 ,when ye say1 ,everyone that doeth evil is good in the sight of the ,lord1 and ,he delighteth in them2 or1 ,where is the ,god of judgment8 ,how many1 again and again ,i wonder1 of the lively young ecclesiastics supplied to the increasing demand of our west-ends of flourishing ,cities of the ,plain1 ever consider what sort of sin it is for which ,god 7unless they lay it to heart7 will curse their blessings1 and spread dung upon their faces1 or have understood1 even in the dimmest manner1 what part they had taken1 and were taking1 in corrupting the covenant of the ,lord with ,levi1 and causing many to stumble at the ,law8 #bce4 ,perhaps the most subtle and unconscious way which the religious teachers upon whom the ends of the world are come1 have done this1 is in never telling their people the meaning of the clause in the ,lord's ,prayer1 which1 of all others1 their most earnest hearers have oftenest on their lips3 ,thy will be done4 ,they allow their people to use it as if their ,father's will were always to kill their babies1 or do something unpleasant to them1 instead of explaining to them that the first and intensest article of their ,father's will was their own sanctification1 and following comfort and wealth2 and that the one only path to national prosperity and to domestic peace was to understand what the will of the ,lord was1 and to do all they could to get it done4 ,whereas one would think1 by the tone of the eagerest preachers nowadays1 that they held their blessed office to be that1 not of showing men how to do their ,father's will on earth1 but how to get to heaven without doing any of it either here or there6 #bcf4 ,i say1 especially1 the most eager preachers2 for nearly the whole ,missionary body 7with the hottest ,evangelistic sect of the ,english ,church7 is at this moment composed of men who think the ,gospel they are to carry to mend the world with1 forsooth1 is that1 ,if any man sin1 he hath an ,advocate with the ,father2 while ,i have never yet1 in my own experience1 met either with a ,missionary or a ,town ,bishop who so much as professed himself to understand what the will of the ,lord was1 far less to teach anybody else to do it2 and for fifty preachers1 yes1 and fifty hundreds whom ,i have heard proclaiming the ,mediator of the ,new ,testament1 that they which were called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance1 ,i have never yet heard so much as one heartily proclaiming against all those deceivers with vain words 7,eph4 v4 #f71 that no covetous person which is an idolater hath any inheritance in the kingdom of ,christ1 or of ,god2 and on myself personally and publicly challenging the ,bishops of ,england generally1 and by name the ,bishop of ,manchester1 to say whether usury was1 or was not1 according to the will of ,god1 ,i have received no answer from any one of them4#afb #acth ,august4 #bcg4 ,i have allowed myself1 in the beginning of this letter1 to dwell on the equivocal use of the word ,priest in the ,english ,church 7see ,christopher ,harvey1 ,grosart's edition1 p4 #ch71 because the assumption of the mediatorial1 in defect of the pastoral1 office by the clergy fulfill itself1 naturally and always1 in their pretending to absolve the sinner from his punishment1 instead of purging him from his sin2 and practically1 in their general patronage and encouragement of all the iniquity of the world1 by steadily preaching away the penalties of it4 ,so that the great cities of the earth1 which ought to be the places set on its hills1 with the temple of the ,lord in the midst of them1 to which the tribes should go up1#afc--;centers to the ,kingdoms and ,provinces of ,honor1 ,virtue1 and the ,knowledge of the law of ,god1--have become1 instead1 loathsome centers of fornication and covetousness--the smoke of their sin going up into the face of ,heaven like the furnace of ,sodom1 and the pollution of it rotting and raging through the bones and the souls of the peasant people round them1 as if they were each a volcano whose ashes broke out in blains upon man and upon beast4#afd ,and in the midst of them1 their freshly-set-tip steeples ring the crowd to a weekly prayer that the rest of their lives may be pure and holy1 while they have not the slightest intention of purifying1 sanctifying1 or changing their lives in any the smallest particular2 and their clergy gather1 each into himself1 the curious dual power1 and ,janus-faced majesty in mischief1 of the prophet that prophesies falsely1 and the priest that bears rule by his means4 ,and the people love to have it so4 ,,brantwood1 #abth ,august4 ,i am very glad of your little note from ,brighton4 ,i thought it needless to send the two letters there1 which you will find at home2 and they pretty nearly end all ,i want to say2 for the remaining clauses of the prayer touch on things too high for me4 ,but ,i will send you one concluding letter about them4 ,,ix4 ,greek3 ton arton mn ton epiousion dos hmin smeron4 ,panem nostrum quotidianum da nobis hodie4 ,,brantwood1 #aith ,august4 #bch4 ,i retained the foregoing letter by me till now1 lest you should think it written in any haste or petulance2 but it is every word of it deliberate1 though expressing the bitterness of twenty years of vain sorrow and pleading concerning these things4 ,nor am ,i able to write1 otherwise1 anything of the next following clause of the prayer2--for no words could be burning enough to tell the evils which have come on the world from men's using it thoughtlessly and blasphemously1 praying ,god to give them what they are deliberately resolved to steal4 ,for all true ,christianity is known--as its ,master was--in breaking of bread1 and all false ,christianity in stealing it4 ,let the clergyman only apply--with impartial and level sweep--to his congregation the great pastoral order3 ,the man that will not work1 neither should he eat2 and be resolute in requiring each member of his flock to tell him what--day by day--they do to earn their dinners2--and he will find an entirely new view of life and its sacraments open upon him and them4 #bci4 ,for the man who is not--day by day--doing work which will earn his dinner1 must be stealing his dinner2#afe and the actual fact is that the great mass of men1 calling themselves ,christians1 do actually live by robbing the poor of their bread1 and by no other trade whatsoever3 and the simple examination of the mode of the produce and consumption of ,european food--who digs for it1 and who eats it--will prove that to any honest human soul4 ,nor is it possible for any ,christian ,church to exist but in pollutions and hypocrisies beyond all words1 until the virtues of a life moderate in its self-indulgence1 and wide in its offices of temporal ministry to the poor1 are insisted on as the normal conditions in which1 only1 the prayer to ,god for the harvest of the earth is other than blasphemy4 ,in the second place4 ,since in the parable in ,luke1 the bread asked for is shown to be also1 and chiefly1 the ,holy ,spirit 7,luke xi4 #ac71 and the prayer1 ,give us each day our daily bread1 is1 in its fullness1 the disciples'1 ,lord1 evermore give us this bread1--the clergyman's question to his whole flock1 primarily literal3 ,children1 have ye here any meat8 must ultimately be always the greater spiritual one3 ,children1 have ye here any ,holy ,spirit8 or1 ,have ye not heard yet whether there be any8 and1 instead of a ,holy ,ghost the ,lord and ,giver of ,life1 do you only believe in an unholy mammon1 ,lord and ,giver of ,death8 ,the opposition between the two ,lords has been1 and will be as long as the world lasts1 absolute1 irreconcilable1 mortal2 and the clergyman's first message to his people of this day is--if he be faithful--,choose ye this day whom ye will serve4 ,ever faithfully yours1 ,j4 ,,ruskin4 ,x4 ,greek3 kai aphes hmin ta opheilmata hmn1 s kai hmeis aphiemen tois opheiletais hmn4 ,et dimitte nobis debita nostra1 sicut et nos dimittimus debitoribus nostris4 ,,brantwood1 #crd ,september4 #bdj4 ,,dear ,,mr4 ,,malleson1--,i have been very long before trying to say so much as a word about the sixth clause of the ,pater2 for whenever ,i began thinking of it1 ,i was stopped by the sorrowful sense of the hopeless task you poor clergymen had1 nowadays1 in recommending and teaching people to love their enemies1 when their whole energies were already devoted to swindling their friends4 ,but1 in any days1 past or now1 the clause is one of such difficulty1 that1 to understand it1 means almost to know the love of ,god which passeth knowledge4 ,but1 at all events1 it is surely the pastor's duty to prevent his flock from misunderstanding it2 and above all things to keep them from supposing that ,god's forgiveness is to be had simply for the asking1 by those who willfully sin after they have received the knowledge of the truth4 #bda4 ,there is one very simple lesson also1 needed especially by people in circumstances of happy life1 which ,i have never heard fully enforced from the pulpit1 and which is usually the more lost sight of1 because the fine and inaccurate word trespasses is so often used instead of the single and accurate one debts4 ,among people well educated and happily circumstanced it may easily chance that long periods of their lives pass without any such conscious sin as could1 on any discovery or memory of it1 make them cry out1 in truth and in pain1--,i have sinned against the ,lord4 ,but scarcely an hour of their happy days can pass over them without leaving--were their hearts open--some evidence written there that they have left undone the things that they ought to have done1 and giving them bitterer and heavier cause to cry1 and cry again--forever1 in the pure words of their ,master's prayer1 ,dimitte nobis debita nostra4 ,in connection with the more accurate translation of debts rather than trespasses1#aff it would surely be well to keep constantly in the mind of complacent and inoffensive congregations that in ,christ's own prophecy of the manner of the last judgment1 the condemnation is pronounced only on the sins of omission3 ,i was hungry1 and ye gave ,me no meat4 #bdb4 ,but1 whatever the manner of sin1 by offense or defect1 which the preacher fears in his people1 surely he has of late been wholly remiss in compelling their definite recognition of it1 in its several and personal particulars4 ,nothing in the various inconsistency of human nature is more grotesque than its willingness to be taxed with any quantity of sins in the gross1 and its resentment at the insinuation of having committed the smallest parcel of them in detail4 ,and the ,english ,liturgy1 evidently drawn up with the amiable intention of making religion as pleasant as possible1 to a people desirous of saving their souls with no great degree of personal inconvenience1 is perhaps in no point more unwholesomely lenient than in its concession to the popular conviction that we may obtain the present advantage1 and escape the future punishment1 of any sort of iniquity1 by dexterously concealing the manner of it from man1 and triumphantly confessing the quantity of it to ,god4 #bdc4 ,finally1 whatever the advantages and decencies of a form of prayer1 and how wide soever the scope given to its collected passages1 it cannot be at one and the same time fitted for the use of a body of well-taught and experienced ,christians1 such as should join the services of a ,church nineteen centuries old1--and adapted to the needs of the timid sinner who has that day first entered its porch1 or of the remorseful publican who has only recently become sensible of his call to a pew4 ,and surely our clergy need not be surprised at the daily increasing distrust in the public mind of the efficacy of ,prayer1 after having so long insisted on their offering supplication1 at least every ,sunday morning at eleven o'clock1 that the rest of their lives hereafter might be pure and holy1 leaving them conscious all the while that they would be similarly required to inform the ,lord next week1 at the same hour1 that there was no health in them6 ,among1 the much-rebuked follies and abuses of so-called ,ritualism1 none that ,i have heard of are indeed so dangerously and darkly ,ritual as this piece of authorized mockery of the most solemn act of human life1 and only entrance of eternal life--,repentance4 ,believe me1 dear ,mr4 ,malleson1 ,ever faithfully and respectfully yours1 ,j4 ,,ruskin4 ,,xi4 ,greek3 kai m eisenenks hmas eis peirasmon1 alla rhysai hmas apo tou ponrou2 hoti sou estin h basileia1 kai h dynamis1 kai h doxa1 eis tous ainas4 ,amn4 ,et ne nos inducas in tentationem2 sed libera nos a malo2 quia tuum est regnum1 potentia1 et gloria in sceeula sceculorum4 ,amen4 ,,brantwood1 #adth ,september1 #ahgi4 #bdd4 ,,dear ,,mr4 ,,malleson1--,the gentle words in your last letter referring to the difference between yourself and me in the degree of hope with which you could regard what could not but appear to the general mind ,utopian in designs for the action of the ,christian ,church1 surely might best be answered by appeal to the consistent tone of the prayer we have been examining4 ,is not every one of its petitions for a perfect state8 and is not this last clause of it1 of which we are to think to-day--if fully understood--a petition not only for the restoration of ,paradise1 but of ,paradise in which there shall be no deadly fruit1 or1 at least1 no tempter to praise it8 ,and may we not admit that it is probably only for want of the earnest use of this last petition that not only the preceding ones have become formal with us1 but that the private and simply restricted prayer for the little things we each severally desire1 has become by some ,christians dreaded and unused1 and by others used faithlessly1 and therefore with disappointment8 #bde4 ,and is it not for want of this special directness and simplicity of petition1 and of the sense of its acceptance1 that the whole nature of prayer has been doubted in our hearts1 and disgraced by our lips2 that we are afraid to ask ,god's blessing on the earth1 when the scientific people tell us ,he has made previous arrangements to curse it2 and that1 instead of obeying1 without fear or debate1 the plain order1 ,ask1 and ye shall receive1 that your joy may be full1 we sorrowfully sink back into the apology for prayer1 that it is a wholesome exercise1 even when fruitless1 and that we ought piously always to suppose that the text really means no more than ,ask1 and ye shall not receive1 that your joy may be empty8 ,supposing we were first all of us quite sure that we had prayed1 honestly1 the prayer against temptation1 and that we would thankfully be refused anything we had set our hearts upon1 if indeed ,god saw that it would lead us into evil1 might we not have confidence afterwards that ,he in whose hand the king's heart is1 as the rivers of water1 would turn our tiny little hearts also in the way that they should go1 and that then the special prayer for the joys ,he taught them to seek would be answered to the last syllable1 and to overflowing8 #bdf4 ,it is surely scarcely necessary to say1 farther1 what the holy teachers of all nations have invariably concurred in showing1--that faithful prayer implies always correlative exertion2 and that no man can ask honestly or hopefully to be delivered from temptation1 unless he has himself honestly and firmly determined to do the best he can to keep out of it4 ,but1 in modern days1 the first aim of all ,christian parents is to place their children in circumstances where the temptations 7which they are apt to call opportunities7 may be as great and as many as possible2 where the sight and promise of all these things in ,satan's gift may be brilliantly near2 and where the act of falling down to worship me may be partly concealed by the shelter1 and partly excused1 as involuntary1 by the pressure1 of the concurrent crowd4 ,in what respect the kingdoms of the world1 and the glory of them1 differ from the ,kingdom1 the ,power1 and the ,glory1 which are ,god's forever1 is seldom1 as far as ,i have heard1 intelligibly explained from the pulpit2 and still less the irreconcilable hostility between the two royalties and realms asserted in its sternness of decision4 ,whether it be1 indeed1 ,utopian to believe that the kingdom we are taught to pray for may come--verily come--for the asking1 it is surely not for man to judge2 but it is at least at his choice to resolve that he will no longer render obedience1 nor ascribe glory and power1 to the ,devil4 ,if he cannot find strength in himself to advance towards ,heaven1 he may at least say to the power of ,hell1 ,get thee behind me2 and staying himself on the testimony of ,him who saith1 ,surely ,i come quickly1 ratify his happy prayer with the faithful ,amen1 even so1 come1 ,lord ,jesus4 ,ever1 my dear friend1 ,believe me affectionately and gratefully yours1 ,j4 ,,ruskin4 ,,note4--,the following further letters from ,mr4 ,ruskin to ,mr4 ,malleson were printed in ,letters to the ,clergy4 ,sept4 #acth4 #bdg4 ,,dear ,,mr4 ,,malleson1--,i am so very grateful for your proposal to edit the letters without any further reference to me4 ,i think that will be exactly the right way2 and ,i believe ,i can put you at real ease in the doing of it1 by explaining1 as ,i can in very few words1 the kind of carte blanche ,i should rejoicingly give you4 ,interrupted to-day6 more to-morrow with1 ,i hope1 the last letter4 ,j4 ,,ruskin4 #adth ,sept4 ,i've nearly done the last letter1 but will keep it till to-morrow1 rather than finish hurriedly1 for the first post4 ,your nice little note has just come2 and ,i can only say that you cannot please me better than by acting with perfect freedom in all ways2 and that ,i only want to see1 or reply to1 what you wish me for the matter's sake4 ,and surely there is no occasion for any thought or waste of type about me personally1 except only to express your knowledge of my real desire for the health and power of the ,church1 ,more than this praise you must not give me2 for ,i have learned almost everything1 ,i may say1 that ,i know1 by my errors4 ,i am affectionately yours1 ,j4 ,,ruskin4 #agth ,oct4 #bdh4 ,i am thankful to see that the letters read clearly and easily1 and contain all that was in my mind to get said2 and nothing can possibly be more right in every way than the printing and binding1#afg nor more courteous and firm than your preface4 ,yes1 there will be a chasm to cross--a tauriformis ,aufidus#afh--;greater than ,rubicon1 and the roar of it for many a year has been heard in the distance1 through the gathering fog on the earth1 more loudly4 ,the ,river of spiritual ,death to this world1 and entrance to ,purgatory in the other1 come down to us4 ,when will the feet of the ,priests be dipped in the still brim of the water8 ,jordan overflows his banks already4 99 99 99 99 99 ,when you have put your large edition1 with its correspondence1 into press1 ,i should like to read the sheets as they are issued2 and put merely letters of reference to be taken up in a short ,epilogue4 ,but ,i don't want to do or say anything more till you have all in perfect readiness for publication4 ,i should merely add my reference letters in the margin1 and the shortest possible notes at the end4 ,j4 ,,ruskin4 ,,footnotes3 ,footnote #aec3 ,these letters were written by ,mr4 ,ruskin to the ,rev4 ,f4 ,a4 ,malleson1 ,vicar of ,broughton-in-,furness1 by whom they were read1 after a few introductory remarks1 before the ,furness ,clerical ,society4 ,they originated1 as may be gathered from the first of them1 in a request by ,mr4 ,malleson that ,mr4 ,ruskin would address the society on the subject4 ,they have been printed in three forms3--7#a7 in a small pamphlet 7,october #ahgi7 for private circulation only1 among the members of the ,furness and one or two other clerical societies2 7#b7 in the ,contemporary ,review of ,december #ahgi2 7#c7 in a volume 7,strahan ,co41 #ahhj7 entitled ,the ,lord's ,prayer and the ,church1 and containing also various replies to ,mr1 ,ruskin's letters1 and an epilogue by way of rejoinder by ,mr4 ,ruskin himself4 ,this volume was edited by ,mr4 ,malleson1 with whose concurrence ,mr4 ,ruskin's contributions to it are reprinted here4--,,ed4 ,footnote #aed3 ,called ,letter ,,ii4 in the ,furness pamphlet1--where a note is added to the effect that there was a previous unpublished letter4--,,ed4 ,footnote #aee3 ,in answer to the proposal of discussing the subject during a mountain walk4--,f4 ,a4 ,m4 ,footnote #aef3 ,art1 xi4 ,footnote #aeg3 ,homily xi4 of the ,second ,table4 ,footnote #aeh3 ,arrows of the ,chace4 ,footnote #aei3 ,see postscript to this letter4--,,ed4 ,footnote #afj3 ,referring to the closing sentence of the third paragraph of the fifth 'ter1 which seemed to express what ,i felt could not be ,mr4 ,ruskin's full meaning1 ,i pointed out to him the following sentence in ,modern ,painters3-- ,when1 in the desert1 ,jesus was girding ,himself for the work of life1 angels of life came and ministered unto ,him2 now1 in the fair world1 when ,he is girding ,himself for the work of death1 the ministrants come to ,him from the grave2 but from the grave conquered4 ,one from the tomb under ,abarim1 which ,his own hand had sealed long ago2 the other from the rest which ,he had entered without seeing corruption4 ,on this ,i made a remark somewhat to the following effect3 that ,i felt sure ,mr4 ,ruskin regarded the loving work of the ,father and of the ,son to be equal in the forgiveness of sins and redemption of mankind2 that what is done by the ,father is in reality done also by the ,son2 and that it is by a mere accommodation to human infirmity of understanding that the doctrine of the ,trinity is revealed to us in language1 inadequate indeed to convey divine truths1 but still the only language possible2 and ,i asked whether some such feeling was not present in his mind when he used the pronoun ,his1 in the above passage from ,modern ,painters1 of the ,son1 where it would be usually understood of the ,father2 and as a corollary1 whether1 in the letter1 he does not himself fully recognize the fact of the redemption of the world by the loving self-sacrifice of the ,son in entire concurrence with the equally loving will of the ,father4 ,this1 as well as ,i can recollect1 is the origin of the passage in the second paragraph in the seventh letter4--,f4 ,a4 ,m4 ,footnote #afa3 ,the ,letters to the ,clergy adds note3 ,yet hast thou not known ,me1 ,philip8 he that hath seen ,me hath seen the ,father 7,john xiv4 #i74--;,,ed4 ,footnote #afb3 ,fors ,clavigera1 ,letter lxxxii4 7,see ante1 #adh4--;,,ed47 ,footnote #afc3 ,bibliotheca ,pastorum1 ,vol4 i4 ,the ,economist of ,xenophon1 ,pref41 p4 xii--,,ed4 ,footnote #afd3 ,see ante1 p4 #cai1 #aed2 p4 #ccj1 #aff4--;,,ed4 ,footnote #afe3 ,arrows of the ,chace4 ,footnote #aff3 ,arrows of the ,chace4 ,footnote #afg3 ,referring to the first edition1 printed for private circulation4--,f4 ,a4 ,m4 ,footnote #afh3 ,sic tauriformis volvitur ,aufidus1 ,qua regna ,dauni praefluit ,appuli ,quum saevit1 horrendamque cultis ,diluviem meditatur agris4 --,,hor41 ,carm41 iv4 #ad4 ,,epilogue4 ,,brantwood1 ,,coniston1 ,june #ahhj4 #bdi4 ,,my ,,dear ,,malleson1--,i have glanced at the proofs you send2 and can do no more than glance1 even if it seemed to me desirable that ,i should do more1--which1 after said glance1 it does in no wise4 ,let me remind you of what it is absolutely necessary that the readers of the book should clearly understand--that ,i wrote these ,letters at your request1 to be read and discussed at the meeting of a private society of clergymen4 ,i declined then to be present at the discussion1 and ,i decline still4 ,you afterwards asked leave to print the ,letters1 to which ,i replied that they were yours1 for whatever use you saw good to make of them3 afterwards your plans expanded1 while my own notion remained precisely what it had been--that the discussion should have been private1 and kept within the limits of the society1 and that its conclusions1 if any1 should have been announced in a few pages of clear print1 for the parishioners' exclusive reading4 ,i am1 of course1 flattered by the wider course you have obtained for the ,letters1 but am not in the slightest degree interested by the debate upon them1 nor by any religious debates whatever1 undertaken without serious conviction that there is a jot wrong in matters as they are1 or serious resolution to make them a tittle better4 ,which1 so far as ,i can read the minds of your correspondents1 appears to me the substantial state of them4#afi #bej4 ,one thing ,i cannot pass without protest--the quantity of talk about the writer of the ,letters4 ,what ,i am1 or am not1 is of no moment whatever to the matters in hand4 ,i observe with comfort1 or at least with complacency1 that on the strength of a couple of hours' talk1 at a time when ,i was thinking chiefly of the weatherings of slate you were good enough to show me above ,goat's ,water1 you would have ventured to baptize me in the little lake--as not a goat1 but a sheep4 ,the best ,i can be sure of1 myself1 is that ,i am no wolf1 and have never aspired to the dignity even of a ,dog of the ,lord4 ,you told me1 if ,i remember rightly1 that one of the members of the original meeting denounced me as an arch-heretic#agj--meaning1 doubtless1 an arch-pagan2 for a heretic1 or sect-maker1 is of all terms of reproach the last that can be used of me4 ,and ,i think he should have been answered that it was precisely as an arch-pagan that ,i ventured to request a more intelligible and more unanimous account of the ,christian ,gospel from its preachers4 #bea4 ,if anything in the ,letters offended those of you who hold me a brother1 surely it had been best to tell me between ourselves1 or to tell it to the ,church1 or to let me be ,anathema ,maranatha in peace1--in any case1 ,i must at present so abide1 correcting only the mistakes about myself which have led to graver ones about the things ,i wanted to speak of4#aga ,the most singular one1 perhaps1 in all the ,letters is that of ,mr4 ,wanstall's1 that ,i do not attach enough weight to antiquity4 ,i have only come upon the sentence to-day 7#bith ,may71 but my reply to it is partly written already1 with reference to the wishes of some other of your correspondents to know more of my reasons for finding fault with the ,english ,liturgy4 #beb4 ,if people are taught to use the ,liturgy rightly and reverently1 it will bring them all good2 and for some thirty years of my life ,i used to read it always through to my servant and myself1 if we had no ,protestant church to go to1 in ,alpine or ,italian villages4 ,one can always tacitly pray of it what one wants1 and let the rest pass4 ,but1 as ,i have grown older1 and watched the decline in the ,christian faith of all nations1 ,i have got more and more suspicious of the effect of this particular form of words on the truthfulness of the ,english mind 7now fast becoming a salt which has lost his savor1 and is fit only to be trodden underfoot of men74 ,and during the last ten years1 in which my position at ,oxford has compelled me to examine what authority there was for the code of prayer1 of which the ,university is now so ashamed that it no more dares compel its youths so much as to hear1 much less to utter it1 ,i got necessarily into the habit of always looking to the original forms of the prayers of the fully developed ,christian ,church4 ,nor did ,i think it a mere chance which placed in my own possession a manuscript of the perfect ,church service of the thirteenth century1 written by the monks of the ,sainte ,chapelle for ,st4 ,louis2 together with one of the same date1 written in ,england1 probably for the ,diocese of ,lincoln2 adding some of the ,collects1 in which it corresponds with ,st4 ,louis's1 and the ,latin hymns so much beloved by ,dante1 with the appointed music for them4 #bec4 ,and my wonder has been greater every hour1 since ,i examined closely the text of these and other early books1 that in any state of declining1 or captive1 energy1 the ,church of ,england should have contented itself with a service which cast out1 from beginning to end1 all these intensely spiritual and passionate utterances of chanted prayer 7the whole body1 that is to say1 of the authentic ,christian ,psalms71 and in adopting what it timidly preserved of the ,collects1 mangled or blunted them down to the exact degree which would make them either unintelligible or inoffensive--so vague that everybody might use them1 or so pointless that nobody could be offended by them4 ,for a special instance3 ,the prayer for our bishops and curates1 and all congregations committed to their charge1 is1 in the ,lincoln ,service-book1 for our bishop1 and all congregations committed to his charge4 ,the change from singular to plural seems a slight one4 ,but it suffices to take the eyes of the people off their own bishop into infinite space2 to change a prayer which was intended to be uttered in personal anxiety and affection1 into one for the general good of the ,church1 of which nobody could judge1 and for which nobody would particularly care2 and1 finally1 to change a prayer to which the answer1 if given1 would be visible1 into one of which nobody could tell whether it were answered or not4 #bed4 ,in the ,collects1 the change1 though verbally slight1 is thus tremendous in issue4 ,but in the ,litany--word and thought go all wild together4 ,the first prayer of the ,litany in the ,lincoln ,service-book is for the ,pope and all ranks beneath him1 implying a very noteworthy piece of theology--that the ,pope might err in religious matters1 and that the prayer of the humblest servant of ,god would be useful to him3--,ut ,dompnum ,apostolicum1 et omnes gradus ecclesie in sancta religione conservare digneris4 ,meaning that whatever errors particular persons might1 and must1 fall into1 they prayed ,god to keep the ,pope right1 and the collective testimony and conduct of the ranks below him4 ,then follows the prayer for their own bishop and his flock--then for the king and the princes 7chief lords71 that they 7not all nations7 might be kept in concord--and then for our bishops and abbots1--the ,church of ,england proper2 every one of these petitions being direct1 limited1 and personally heartfelt2--and then this lovely one for themselves3-- ,ut obsequium servitutis nostre rationabile facias4--,that ,thou wouldst make the obedience of our service reasonable 7which is your reasonable service74 ,this glorious prayer is1 ,i believe1 accurately an early ,english one4 ,it is not in the ,st4 ,louis ,litany1 nor in a later elaborate ,french fourteenth century one2 but ,i find it softened in an ,italian ,,ms4 of the fifteenth century into ut nosmet ipsos in tuo sancto servitio confortare et conservare digneris1--that ,thou wouldst deign to keep and comfort us ourselves in ,thy sacred service 7the comfort1 observe1 being here asked for whether reasonable or not672 and in the best and fullest ,french service-book ,i have1 printed at ,rouen in #aebj1 it becomes1 ut congregationes omnium sanctorum in tuo sancto servitio conservare digneris2 while victory as well as concord is asked for the king and the princes1--thus leading the way to that for our own ,queen's victory over all her enemies1 a prayer which might now be advisedly altered into one that she--and in her1 the monarchy of ,england--might find more fidelity in their friends4 #bee4 ,i give one more example of the corruption of our ,prayer-,book1 with reference to the objections taken by some of your correspondents to the distinction implied in my ,letters between the ,persons of the ,father and the ,christ4 ,the ,memoria de ,sancta ,trinitate1 in the ,st4 ,louis service-book1 runs thus3-- ,omnipotens sempiterne ,deus1 qui dedisti famulis tuis in confessione vere fidei eterne ,trinitatis gloriam agnoscere1 et in potentia majestatis adorare unitatem1 quesumus ut ejus fidei firmitate ab omnibus semper muniemur adversis4 ,qui vivis et regnas ,deus1 per omnia secula seculorum4 ,amen4 ,almighty and everlasting ,god1 who has given to ,thy servants1 in confession of true faith to recognize the glory of the ,eternal ,trinity1 and in the power of ,majesty to pray to the ,unity2 we ask that by the firmness of that faith we may be always defended from all adverse things1 who livest and reignest ,god through all ages4 ,amen4 #bef4 ,turning to our ,collect1 we find we have first slipped in the word us before ,thy servants1 and by that little insertion have slipped in the squire and his jockey1 and the public-house landlord--and anyone else who may chance to have been coaxed1 swept1 or threatened into ,church on ,trinity ,sunday1 and required the entire company of them to profess themselves servants of ,god1 and believers in the mystery of the ,trinity4 ,and we think we have done ,god a service6 ,grace4 ,not a word about grace in the original4 ,you don't believe by having grace1 but by having wit4 ,to acknowledge4 ,agnosco is to recognize1 not to acknowledge4 ,to see that there are three lights in a chandelier is a great deal more than to acknowledge that they are there4 ,to worship4 ,adorare is to pray to1 not to worship4 ,you may worship a mere magistrate2 but you pray to the ,father1 ,son1 and ,holy ,ghost4 ,the last sentence in the ,english is too horribly mutilated to be dealt with in any patience4 ,the meaning of the great old collect is that by the shield of that faith we may quench all the fiery darts of the devil4 ,the ,english prayer means1 if it means anything1 ,please keep us in our faith without our taking any trouble2 and1 besides1 please don't let us lose our money1 nor catch cold4 ,who livest and reignest4 ,right2 but how many of any extant or instant congregations understand what the two words mean8 ,that ,god is a living ,god1 not a dead ,law2 and that ,he is a reigning ,god1 putting wrong things to rights1 and that1 sooner or later1 with a strong hand and a rod of iron2 and not at all with a soft sponge and warm water1 washing everybody as clean as a baby every ,sunday morning1 whatever dirty work they may have been about all the week4 #beg4 ,on which latter supposition your modern ,liturgy1 in so far as it has supplemented instead of corrected the old one1 has entirely modeled itself1--producing in its first address to the congregation before the ,almighty precisely the faultfulest and foolishest piece of ,english language that ,i know in the whole compass of ,english or ,american literature4 ,in the seventeen lines of it 7as printed in my old-fashioned1 large-print ,prayer-,book71 there are seven times over two words for one idea4 #a4 ,acknowledge and confess4 #b4 ,sins and wickedness4 #c4 ,dissemble nor cloke4 #d4 ,goodness and mercy4 #e4 ,assemble and meet4 #f4 ,requisite and necessary4 #g4 ,pray and beseech4 ,there is1 indeed1 a shade of difference in some of these ideas for a good scholar1 none for a general congregation2#agb and what difference they can guess at merely muddles their heads3 to acknowledge sin is indeed different from confessing it1 but it cannot be done at a minute's notice2 and goodness is a different thing from mercy1 but it is by no means ,god's infinite goodness that forgives our badness1 but that judges it4 #beh4 ,the faultfulest1 ,i said1 and the foolishest4 ,after using fourteen words where seven would have done1 what is it that the whole speech gets said with its much speaking8 ,this ,morning ,service of all ,england begins with the assertion that the ,scripture moveth us in sundry places to confess our sins before ,god4 ,does it so8 ,have your congregations ever been referred to those sundry places8 ,or do they take the assertion on trust1 or remain under the impression that1 unless with the advantage of their own candor1 ,god must remain ill-informed on the subject of their sins8 ,that we should not dissemble nor cloke them4 ,can we then8 ,are these grown-up congregations of the enlightened ,english ,church in the nineteenth century still so young in their nurseries that the ,thou1 ,god1 seest me is still not believed by them if they get under the bed8 #bei4 ,let us look up the sundry moving passages referred to4 7,i suppose myself a simple lamb of the flock1 and only able to use my ,english ,bible47 ,i find in my concordance 7confess and confession together7 forty-two occurrences of the word4 ,sixteen of these1 including ,john's confession that he was not the ,christ1 and the confession of the faithful fathers that they were pilgrims on the earth1 do indeed move us strongly to confess ,christ before men4 ,have you ever taught your congregations what that confession means8 ,they are ready enough to confess ,him in church1 that is to say1 in their own private synagogue4 ,will they in ,parliament8 ,will they in a ballroom8 ,will they in a shop8 ,sixteen of the texts are to enforce their doing that4 ,the most important one 7#a ,tim4 vi4 #ac7 refers to ,christ's own good confession1 which ,i suppose was not of ,his sins1 but of ,his obedience4 ,how many of your congregations can make any such kind of confession1 or wish to make it8 ,the eighteenth1 nineteenth1 and twentieth 7#a ,kings viii4 #cc1 #b ,chron4 vi4 #bf1 ,heb4 xiii4 #ae7 speak of confessing thankfully that ,god is ,god 7and not a putrid plasma nor a theory of development71 and the twenty-first 7,job xl4 #ad7 speaks of ,god's own confession1 that no doubt we are the people1 and that wisdom shall die with us1 and on what conditions ,he will make it4 #bfj4 ,there remains twenty-one texts which do speak of the confession of our sins--very moving ones indeed--and ,heaven grant that some day the ,british public may be moved by them4 7#a47 ,the first is ,lev4 v4 #e1 ,he shall confess that he hath sinned in that thing4 ,and if you can get any soul of your congregation to say he has sinned in anything1 he may do it in two words for one if he likes1 and it will yet be good liturgy4 7#b47 ,the second is indeed general--,lev4 xvi4 #ba3 the command that the whole nation should afflict its soul on the great day of atonement once a year4 ,the ,church of ,england1 ,i believe1 enjoins no such unpleasant ceremony4 ,her festivals are passed by her people often indeed in the extinction of their souls1 but by no means in their intentional affliction4 7#c1 #d1 #e47 ,the third1 fourth1 and fifth 7,lev4 xxvi4 #dj1 ,numb4 v4 #g1 ,nehem4 i4 #f7 refer all to national humiliation for definite idolatry1 accompanied with an entire abandonment of that idolatry1 and of idolatrous persons4 ,how soon that form of confession is likely to find a place in the ,english congregations the defenses of their main idol1 mammon1 in the vilest and cruelest shape of it--usury--with which this book has been defiled1 show very sufficiently4 #bfa4 7#f47 ,the sixth is ,psalm xxxii4 #e--virtually the whole of that psalm1 which does1 indeed1 entirely refer to the greater confession1 once for all opening the heart to ,god1 which can be by no means done fifty-two times a year1 and which1 once done1 puts men into a state in which they will never again say there is no health in them2 nor that their hearts are desperately wicked2 but will obey forever the instantly following order1 ,rejoice in the ,lord1 ye righteous1 and shout for joy1 all ye that are true of heart4 7#g47 ,the seventh 7,acts xxiv4 #ad7 is the one confession in which ,i can myself share3--,after the way which they call heresy1 so worship ,i the ,lord ,god of my fathers4 7#h47 ,the eighth 7,james v4 #af7 tells us to confess our faults--not to ,god1 but one to another--a practice not favored by ,english catechumens--7by the way1 what do you all mean by auricular confession--confession that can be heard8 and is the ,protestant pleasanter form one that can't be87 7#i47 ,the ninth is that passage of ,st4 ,john 7i4 #i71 the favorite evangelical text1 which is read and preached by thousands of false preachers every day1 without once going on to read its great companion1 ,beloved1 if our heart condemn us1 ,god is greater than our heart1 and knoweth all things2 but if our heart condemn us not1 then have we confidence toward ,god4 ,make your people understand the second text1 and they will understand the first4 ,at present you leave them understanding neither4 #bfb4 ,and the entire body of the remaining texts is summed in ,joshua vii4 #ai and ,ezra x4 #aa1 in which1 whether it be ,achan1 with his ,babylonish garment1 or the people of ,israel1 with their ,babylonish lusts1 the meaning of confession is simply what it is to every brave boy1 girl1 man1 and woman1 who knows the meaning of the word honor before ,god or man--namely1 to say what they have done wrong1 and to take the punishment of it 7not to get it blanched over by any means71 and to do it no more--which is so far from being a tone of mind generally enforced either by the ,english1 or any other extant ,liturgy1 that1 though all my maids are exceedingly pious1 and insist on the privilege of going to church as a quite inviolable one1 ,i think it a scarcely to be hoped for crown and consummation of virtue in them that they should tell me when they have broken a plate2 and ,i should expect to be met only with looks of indignation and astonishment if ,i ventured to ask one of them how she had spent her ,sunday afternoon4 ,without courage1 said ,sir ,walter ,scott1 there is no truth2 and without truth there is no virtue4 ,the sentence would have been itself more true if ,sir ,walter had written candor for truth1 for it is possible to be true in insolence1 or true in cruelty4 ,but in looking back from the ridges of the ,hill ,difficulty in my own past life1 and in all the vision that has been given me of the wanderings in the ways of others--this1 of all principles1 has become to me surest--that the first virtue to be required of man is frankness of heart and lip3 and ,i believe that every youth of sense and honor1 putting himself to faithful question1 would feel that he had the devil for confessor1 if he had not his father or his friend4 #bfc4 ,that a clergyman should ever be so truly the friend of his parishioners as to deserve their confidence from childhood upwards1 may be flouted as a sentimental ideal2 but he is assuredly only their enemy in showing his ,lutheran detestation of the sale of indulgences by broadcasting these gratis from his pulpit4 ,the inconvenience and unpleasantness of a catechism concerning itself with the personal practice as well as the general theory of duty1 are indeed perfectly conceivable by me3 yet ,i am not convinced that such manner of catechism would therefore be less medicinal2 and during the past ten years it has often been matter of amazed thought with me1 while our ,president at ,corpus read prayers to the chapel benches1 what might by this time have been the effect on the learning as well as the creed of the ,university1 if1 forty years ago1 our stern old ,dean ,gaisford1 of the ,house of ,christ1 instead of sending us to chapel as to the house of correction1 when we missed a lecture1 had inquired1 before he allowed us to come to chapel at all1 whether we were gamblers1 harlot-mongers1 or in concealed and selfish debt4 #bfd4 ,i observe with extreme surprise in the preceding letters the unconsciousness of some of your correspondents1 that there ever was such a thing as discipline in the ,christian ,church4 ,indeed1 the last wholesome instance of it ,i can remember was when my own great-great uncle ,maitland lifted ,lady ---- from his altar-rails1 and led her back to her seat before the congregation1 when she offered to take the ,sacrament1 being at enmity with her son4#agc ,but ,i believe a few hours honestly spent by any clergyman on his ,church history would show him that the ,church's confidence in her prayer has been always exactly proportionate to the strictness of her discipline2 that her present fright at being caught praying by a chemist or an electrician1 results mainly from her having allowed her twos and threes gathered in the name of ,christ to become sixes and sevens gathered in the name of ,belial2 and that therefore her now needfulest duty is to explain to her stammering votaries1 extremely doubtful as they are of the effect of their supplications either on politics or the weather1 that although ,elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are1 he had them better under command2 and that while the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much1 the formal and lukewarm one of an iniquitous man availeth--much the other way4 ,such an instruction1 coupled with due explanation of the nature of righteousness and iniquity1 directed mainly to those who have the power of both in their own hands1 being makers of law1 and holders of property1 would1 without any further debate1 bring about a very singular change in the position and respectability of ,english clergymen4 #bfe4 ,how far they may at present be considered as merely the ,squire's left hand1 bound to know nothing of what he is doing with his right1 it is for their own consciences to determine4 ,for instance1 a friend wrote to me the other day1 ,will you not come here8 ,you will see a noble duke destroying a village as old as the ,conquest1 and driving out dozens of families whose names are in ,domesday ,book1 because1 owing to the neglect of his ancestors and rackrenting for a hundred years1 the place has fallen out of repair1 and the people are poor1 and may become paupers4 ,a local paper ventured to tell the truth4 ,the duke's agent called on the editor1 and threatened him with destruction if he did not hold his tongue4 ,the noble duke1 doubtless1 has proper ,protestant horror of auricular confession4 ,but suppose1 instead of the local editor1 the local parson had ventured to tell the truth from his pulpit1 and even to intimate to his ,grace that he might no longer receive the ,body and ,blood of the ,lord at the altar of that parish6 ,the parson would scarcely--in these days--have been therefore made bonfire of1 and had a pretty martyr's memorial by ,mr4 ,scott's pupils2 but he would have lighted a goodly light1 nevertheless1 in this ,england of ours1 whose pettifogging piety has now neither the courage to deny a duke's grace in its church1 nor to declare ,christ's in its ,parliament4 #bff4 ,lastly4 ,several of your contributors1 ,i observe1 have rashly dipped their feet in the brim of the water of that raging question of ,usury2 and ,i cannot but express my extreme regret that you should yourself have yielded to the temptation of expressing opinions which you have had no leisure either to sound or to test4 ,my assertion1 however1 that the rich lived mainly by robbing the poor1 referred not to ,usury1 but to ,rent2 and the facts respecting both these methods of extortion are perfectly and indubitably ascertainable by any person who himself wishes to ascertain them1 and is able to take the necessary time and pains4 ,i see no sign1 throughout the whole of these letters1 of any wish whatever1 on the part of one of their writers1 to ascertain the facts1 but only to defend practices which they hold to be convenient in the world1 and are afraid to blame in their congregations4 ,of the presumption with which several of the writers utter their notions on the subject1 ,i do not think it would be right to speak farther1 in an epilogue to which there is no reply1 in the terms which otherwise would have been deserved4 ,in their bearing on other topics1 let me earnestly thank you 7so far as my own feelings may be permitted voice in the matter7 for the attention with which you have examined1 and the courage with which you have ratified1 or at least endured1 letters which could not but bear at first the aspect of being written in a hostile--sometimes even in a mocking spirit4 ,that aspect is untrue1 nor am ,i answerable for it3 the things of which ,i had to speak could not be shortly described but in terms which might sound satirical2 for all error1 if frankly shown1 is precisely most ridiculous when it is most dangerous1 and ,i have written no word which is not chosen as the exactest for its occasion1 whether it move sigh or smile4 ,in my earlier days ,i wrote much with the desire to please1 and the hope of influencing the reader4 ,as ,i grow older and older1 ,i recognize the truth of the ,preacher's saying1 ,desire shall fail1 and the mourners go about the streets2 and ,i content myself with saying1 to whoso it may concern1 that the thing is verily thus1 whether they will hear or whether they will forbear4 ,no man more than ,i has ever loved the places where ,god's honor dwells1 or yielded truer allegiance to the teaching of ,his evident servants4 ,no man at this time grieves more for the danger of the ,church which supposes him her enemy1 while she whispers procrastinating pax vobiscum in answer to the spurious kiss of those who would fain toll curfew over the last fires of ,english faith1 and watch the sparrow find nest where she may lay her young1 around the altars of the ,lord4 ,ever affectionately yours1 ,j4 ,,ruskin4 ,,footnotes3 ,footnote #afi3 ,the following extracts from letters of ,mr4 ,ruskin to ,mr4 ,malleson were printed in the ,letters to the ,clergy3-- #adth ,may1 #ahhj4--,my dear ,malleson1 444 ,i had never seen yours at all when ,i wrote last4 ,i fell first on ----1 whom ,i read with some attention1 and commented on with little favor2 went on to the next1 and remained content with that taste till ,i had done my ,scott 7,nineteenth ,century74 ,i have this morning been reading your own1 on which ,i very earnestly congratulate you4 ,god knows it is not because they are friendly or complimentary1 but because you do see what ,i mean2 and people hardly ever do2 and ,i think it needs very considerable power and feeling to forgive and understand as you do4 ,you have said everything ,i want to say1 and much more1 except on the one point of excommunication1 which will be the chief1 almost the only1 subject of my final note4 #afth ,may4--,yes1 the omission of the ',mr4' meant much change in all my feelings towards you and estimates of you2 for which change1 believe me1 ,i am more glad and thankful than ,i can well tell you4 ,j4 ,,ruskin4 ,footnote #agj3 ,only a heretic6--,f4 ,a4 ,m4 ,footnote #aga3 ,i may perhaps be pardoned for vindicating-at least my arithmetic1 which1 with ,bishop ,colenso1 ,i rather pride myself upon4 ,one of your correspondents greatly doubts my having heard five thousand asserters of evangelical principles 7,catholic-absolvent or ,protestant-detergent are virtually the same74 ,i am now sixty years old1 and for forty-five of them was in church at least once on the ,sunday1--say once a month also in afternoons1--and you have above three thousand church services4 ,when ,i am abroad ,i am often in half-a-dozen churches in the course of a single day1 and never lose a chance of listening to anything that is going on4 ,add the conversations pursued1 not unearnestly1 with every sort of reverend person ,i can get to talk to me--from the ,bishop of ,strasburg 7as good a specimen of a town bishop as ,i have known71 with whom ,i was studying ecstatic paintings in the year #ahej--;down to the simplest traveling tinker inclined ,gospelwards1 whom ,i perceive to be sincere1 and your correspondent will perceive that my rapid numerical expression must be far beneath the truth4 ,he subjoins his more rational doubt of my acquaintance with many town missionaries2 to which ,i can only answer1 that as ,i do not live in town1 nor set up for a missionary myself1 my spiritual advantages have certainly not been great in that direction4 ,i simply assert that of the few ,i have known1--beginning with ,mr4 ,spurgeon1 under whom ,i sat with much edification for a year or two1--,i have not known any such teaching as ,i speak of4 ,footnote #agb3 ,the only explanation ever offered for this exuberant wordiness is that if worshipers did not understand one term they would the other1 and in some cases1 in the ,exhortation and elsewhere1 one word is of ,latin and the other of ,saxon derivation4#a ,but this is surely a very feeble excuse for bad composition4 ,of a very different kind is that beautiful climax which is reached in the three admirably chosen pairs of words in the ,prayer for the ,parliament1 peace and happiness1 truth and justice1 religion and piety4--,f4 ,a4 ,m4 7,note #a3 ,the repetition of synonymous terms is of very frequent occurrence in sixteenth century writing1 as for ever and aye1 ,time and the hour run through the roughest day 7,macbeth1 i4 #c747 ,footnote #agc3 ,in some of the country districts of ,scotland the right of the ,church to interfere with the lives of private individuals is still exercised4 ,only two years ago1 a wealthy gentleman farmer was rebuked by the ,kirk ,session of the ,dissenting ,church to which he belonged1 for infidelity to his wife4 ,at the ,scottish half-yearly ,communion the ceremony of fencing the tables used to be observed2 that is1 turning away all those whose lives were supposed to have made them unfit to receive the ,sacrament4 ,,the ,,nature ,,and ,,authority ,,of ,,miracle4#agd #bfg4 ,every age of the world has its own special sins1 and special simplicities2 and among our own most particular humors in both kinds must be reckoned the tendency to parade our discoveries of the laws of ,nature1 as if nobody had ever heard of a law of ,nature before4 ,the most curious result of this extremely absurd condition of mind is perhaps the alarm of religious persons on subjects of which one would have fancied most of the palpable difficulties had been settled before the nineteenth century4 ,the theory of prayer1 for instance1 and of ,miracles4 ,i noticed a lengthy discussion in the newspapers a month or two ago1 on the propriety of praying for1 or against rain4 ,it had suddenly1 it seems1 occurred to the public mind1 and to that of the gentlemen who write the theology of the breakfast-table1 that rain was owing to natural causes2 and that it must be unreasonable to expect ,god to supply on our immediate demand what could not be provided but by previous evaporation4 ,i noticed farther that this alarming difficulty was at least softened to some of our ,metropolitan congregations by the assurances of their ministers1 that1 although1 since the last lecture by ,professor ,tyndall at the ,royal ,institution1 it had become impossible to think of asking ,god for any temporal blessing1 they might still hope their applications for spiritual advantages would occasionally be successful2--thus implying that though material processes were necessarily slow1 and the laws of ,heaven respecting matter1 inviolable1 mental processes might be instantaneous1 and mental laws at any moment disregarded by their ,institutor3 so that the spirit of a man might be brought to maturity in a moment1 though the resources of ,omnipotence would be overtaxed1 or its consistency abandoned1 in the endeavor to produce the same result ,on a greengage4 ,more logically1 though not more wisely1 other divines have asserted that prayer is medicinally beneficial to ourselves1 whether we obtain what we ask for or not2 and that our moral state is gradually elevated by the habit of praying daily that the ,kingdom of ,god may come1--though nothing would more astonish us than its coming4 #bfh4 ,with these doubts respecting the possibility or propriety of miracle1 a more immediate difficulty occurs as to its actual nature or definition4 ,what is the quality of any event which may be properly called miraculous8 ,what are the degrees of wonderfulness8--what the surpassing degree of it1 which changes the wonder into the sign1 or may be positively recognized by human intelligence as an interruption1 instead of a new operation1 of those laws of ,nature with which1 of late1 we have become so exhaustively acquainted8 ,for my own part1 ,i can only say that ,i am so haunted by doubt of the security of our best knowledge1 and by discontent in the range of it1 that it seems to me contrary to modesty1 whether in a religious or scientific point of view1 to regard anything as miraculous4 ,i know so little1 and this little ,i know is so inexplicable1 that ,i dare not say anything is wonderful because it is strange to me1 or not wonderful because it is familiar4 ,i have not the slightest idea how ,i compel my hand to write these words1 or my lips to read them3 and the question which was the thesis of ,mr4 ,ward's very interesting paper1 ,can ,experience prove the ,uniformity of ,nature8#age is1 in my mind1 so assuredly answerable with the negative which the writer appeared to desire1 that1 precisely on that ground1 the performance of any so-called miracle whatever would be morally unimpressive to me4 ,if a second ,joshua to-morrow commanded the sun to stand still1 and it obeyed him2 and he therefore claimed deference as a miracle-worker1 ,i am afraid ,i should answer1 ,what6 a miracle that the sun stands still8--not at all4 ,i was always expecting it would4 ,the only wonder1 to me1 was its going on4 #bfi4 ,but even assuming the demonstrable uniformity of the laws or customs of ,nature which are known to us1 it remains a difficult question what manner of interference with such law or custom we might logically hold miraculous1 and what1 on the contrary1 we should treat only as proof of the existence of some other law1 hitherto undiscovered4 ,for instance1 there is a case authenticated by the signatures of several leading physicists in ,paris1 in which a peasant girl1 under certain conditions of morbid excitement1 was able to move objects at some distance from her without touching them4 ,taking the evidence for what it may be worth1 the discovery of such a faculty would only1 ,i suppose1 justify us in concluding that some new vital energy was developing itself under the conditions of modern bodily health2 and not that any interference with the laws of ,nature had taken place4 ,yet the generally obstinate refusal of men of science to receive any verbal witness of such facts is a proof that they believe them contrary to a code of law which is more or less complete in their experience1 and altogether complete in their conception2 and ,i think it is therefore their province to lay down for us the true principle by which we may distinguish the miraculous violation of a known law from the sudden manifestation of an unknown one4 #bgj4 ,in the meantime1 supposing ourselves ever so incapable of defining law1 or discerning its interruption1 we need not therefore lose our conception of the one1 nor our faith in the other4 ,some of us may no more be able to know a genuine miracle1 when we see it1 than others to know a genuine picture2 but the ordinary impulse to regard1 therefore1 all claim to miraculous power as imposture1 or self-deception1 reminds me always of the speech of a ,french lady to me1 whose husband's collection of old pictures had brought unexpectedly low prices in the auction-room1--,how can you be so senseless1 she said1 as to attach yourself to the study of an art in which you see that all excellence is a mere matter of opinion8 ,some of us have thus come to imagine that the laws of ,nature1 as well as those of ,art1 may be matters of opinion2 and ,i recollect an ingenious paper by ,mr4 ,frederic ,harrison1 some two years ago1 on the ,subjective ,synthesis1--which1 after proving1 what does not seem to stand in need of so elaborate proof1 that we can only know1 of the universe1 what we can see and understand1 went on to state that the laws of ,nature were not objective realities1 any more than they were absolute truths4#agf ,which decision1 it seems to me1 is as if some modest and rational gnat1 who had submitted to the humiliating conviction that it could know no more of the world than might be traversed by flight1 or tasted by puncture1 yet1 in the course of an experiment on a philosopher with its proboscis1 hearing him speak of the ,institutes of ,justinian1 should observe1 on its return to the society of gnats1 that the ,institutes of ,justinian were not objective realities1 any more than they were absolute truths4 ,and1 indeed1 the careless use of the word ,truth itself1 often misleads even the most accurate thinkers4 ,a law cannot be spoken of as a truth1 either absolute or concrete4 ,it is a law of nature1 that is to say1 of my own particular nature1 that ,i fall asleep after dinner1 and my confession of this fact is a truth2 but the bad habit is no more a truth than the statement of it is a bad habit4 #bga4 ,nevertheless1 in spite of the treachery of our conceptions and language1 and in just conclusion even from our narrow experience1 the conviction is fastened in our hearts that the habits or laws of ,nature are more constant than our own and sustained by a firmer ,intelligence3 so that1 without in the least claiming the faculty of recognition of miracle1 we may securely define its essence4 ,the phenomena of the universe with which we are acquainted are assumed to be1 under general conditions1 constant1 but to be maintained in that constancy by a supreme personal ,mind2 and it is farther supposed that1 under particular conditions1 this ruling ,person interrupts the constancy of these phenomena1 in order to establish a particular relation with inferior creatures4 #bgb4 ,it is1 indeed1 singular how ready the inferior creatures are to imagine such a relation1 without any very decisive evidence of its establishment4 ,the entire question of miracle is involved with that of the special providences which are supposed1 in some theories of religion1 sometimes to confound the enemies1 and always to protect the darlings of ,god3 and in the minds of amiable persons1 the natural and very justifiable sense of their own importance to the well-being of the world may often encourage the pleasant supposition that the ,deity1 however improvident for others1 will be provident for them4 ,i recollect a paper on this subject by ,dr4 ,guthrie1 published not long ago in some religious periodical1 in which the writer mentioned1 as a strikingly ,providential circumstance1 the catching of his foot on a ledge of rock which averted what might otherwise have been a fatal fall4 ,under the sense of the loss to the cause of religion and the society of ,edinburgh1 which might have been the consequence of the accident1 it is natural that ,dr4 ,guthrie should refer to it with strongly excited devotional feelings3 yet1 perhaps1 with better reason1 a junior member of the ,alpine ,club1 less secure of the value of his life1 would have been likely on the same occasion rather to be provoked by his own awkwardness1 than impressed by the providential structure of the rock4 ,at the root of every error on these subjects we may trace either an imperfect conception of the universality of ,deity1 or an exaggerated sense of individual importance3 and yet it is no less certain that every train of thought likely to lead us in a right direction must be founded on the acknowledgment that the personality of a ,deity who has commanded the doing of ,justice and the showing of ,mercy can be no otherwise manifested than in the signal support of causes which are just1 and favor of persons who are kind4 ,the beautiful tradition of the deaths of ,cleobis and ,bito1 indeed1 expresses the sense proper to the wisest men1 that we are unable either to discern or decide for ourselves in what the favor of ,god consists3 but the promises of the ,christian religion imply that its true disciples will be enabled to ask with prudence what is to be infallibly granted4 #bgc4 ,and1 indeed1 the relations between ,god and ,his creatures which it is the function of miracle to establish1 depend far more on the correspondence of events with human volition than on the marvelous character of the events themselves4 ,these relations are1 in the main1 twofold4 ,miracles are either to convince1 or to assist4 ,we are apt to think of them as meant only to establish faith1 but many are for mere convenience of life4 ,elisha's making the ax-head swim1 and the poisoned soup wholesome1 were not to convince anybody1 but merely to give help in the quickest way4 ,conviction is1 indeed1 in many of the most interesting miracles1 quite a secondary end1 and often an unattained one4 ,the hungry multitude are fed1 the ship in danger relieved by sudden calm4 ,the disciples disregard the multiplying of the loaves1 yet are strongly affected by the change in the weather4 ,but whether for conviction1 aid 7or aid in the terrific form of punishment71 the essence of miracle is as the manifestation of a ,power which can direct or modify the otherwise constant phenomena of ,nature2 and it is1 ,i think1 by attaching too great importance to what may be termed the missionary work of miracle1 instead of what may in distinction be called its pastoral work1 that many pious persons1 no less than infidels1 are apt to despise1 and therefore to deny1 miraculous power altogether4 #bgd4 ,we do not need to be convinced1 they say1 of the existence of ,god by the capricious exertion of ,his power4 ,we are satisfied in the normal exertion of it2 and it is contrary to the idea of ,his ,excellent ,majesty that there should be any other4 ,but all arguments and feelings must be distrusted which are founded on our own ideas of what it is proper for ,deity to do4 ,nor can ,i1 even according to our human modes of judgment1 find any impropriety in the thought that an energy may be natural without being normal1 and ,divine without being constant4 ,the wise missionary may indeed require no miracle to confirm his authority2 but the despised pastor may need miracle to enforce it1 or the compassionate governor to make it beneficial4 ,and it is quite possible to conceive of ,pastoral ,miracle as resulting from a power as natural as any other1 though not as perpetual4 ,the wind bloweth where it listeth1 and some of the energies granted to men born of the ,spirit may be manifested only on certain conditions and on rare occasions2 and therefore be always wonderful or miraculous1 though neither disorderly nor unnatural4 ,thus ,st4 ,paul's argument to ,agrippa1 ,why should it be thought with you a thing impossible that ,god should raise the dead8 would be suicidal1 if he meant to appeal to the miracle as a proof of the authority of his mission4 ,but1 claiming no authority1 he announces as a probable and acceptable fact the opening of a dispensation in which it was as natural for the dead to be raised as for the ,gospel to be preached to the poor1 though both the one and the other were miraculous signs that the ,master of ,nature had come down to be ,emmanuel among men1 and that no prophet was in future to look for another4 ,we have indeed fallen into a careless habit of using the words supernatural and superhuman1 as if equivalent4 ,a human act may be super-doggish1 and a ,divine act superhuman1 yet all three acts absolutely ,natural4 ,it is1 perhaps1 as much the virtue of a ,spirit to be inconstant as of a poison to be sure1 and therefore always impossible to weigh the elements of moral force in the balance of an apothecary4 #bge4 ,it is true that1 in any abstract reflection on these things1 one is instantly brought to pause by questions of the reasonableness1 the necessity1 or the expedient degree of miracle4 ,christ walks on the water1 overcoming gravity to that extent4 ,why not have flown1 and overcome it altogether8 ,he feeds the multitude by breaking existent loaves2 why not have commanded the stones into bread8 ,or1 instead of miraculously feeding either an assembly or a nation1 why not enable them1 like ,himself1 miraculously to fast1 for the needful time8 ,and in generally admitting the theories of pastoral miracle the instant question submits itself1--,supposing a nation wisely obedient to divinely appointed ministers of a sensible ,theocracy1 how much would its government be miraculously assisted1 and how many of its affairs brought to miraculous prosperity of issue8 ,would its enemies be destroyed by angels1 and its food poured down upon it from the skies1 or would the supernatural aid be limited to diminishing the numbers of its slain in battle1#agg or to conducting its merchant ships safely1 or instantaneously1 to the land whither they would go8 ,but no progress can be made1 and much may be prevented1 in the examination of any really difficult human problem1 by thus approaching it on the hypothetical side4 ,such approach is easy to the foolish1 pleasant to the proud1 and convenient to the malicious1 but absolutely fruitless of practical result4 ,our modesty and wisdom consist alike in the simple registry of the facts cognizable by us1 and our duty1 in making active use of them for the present1 without concerning ourselves as to the possibilities of the future4 ,and the two main facts we have to deal with are that the historical record of miracle is always of inconstant power1 and that our own actual energies are inconstant almost in exact proportion to their worthiness4 #bgf4 ,first1 ,i say1 the history of miracle is of inconstant power4 ,st4 ,paul raises ,eutychus from death1 and his garments effect miraculous cure2 yet he leaves ,trophimus sick at ,miletum1 recognizes only the mercy of ,god in the recovery of ,epaphroditus1 and1 like any uninspired physician1 recommends ,timothy wine for his infirmities4 ,and in the second place1 our own energies are inconstant almost in proportion to their nobleness4 ,we breathe with regularity1 and can calculate upon the strength necessary for common tasks4 ,but the record of our best work1 and of our happiest moments1 is always one of success which we did not expect1 and of enthusiasm which we could not prolong4 #bgg4 ,and therefore we can only look for an imperfect and interrupted1 but may surely insist on an occasional1 manifestation of miraculous credentials by every minister of religion4 ,there is no practical difficulty in the discernment of marvel properly to be held superhuman4 ,it is indeed frequently alleged by the admirers of scientific discovery that many things which were wonderful fifty years ago1 have ceased to be so now2 and ,i am perfectly ready to concede to them that what they now themselves imagine to be admirable1 will not in the future be admired4 ,but the petty sign1 said to have been wrought by the augur ,attus before ,tarquin1 would be as impressive at this instant as it was then2 while the utmost achievements of recent scientific miracle have scarcely yet achieved the feeding of ,lazarus their beggar1 still less the resurrection of ,lazarus their friend4 ,our ,christian faith1 at all events1 stands or falls by this test4 ,these signs shall follow them that believe1 are words which admit neither of qualification nor misunderstanding2 and it is far less arrogant in any man to look for such ,divine attestation of his authority as a teacher1 than to claim1 without it1 any authority to teach4 ,and assuredly it is no proof of any unfitness or unwisdom in such expectations1 that1 for the last thousand years1 miraculous powers seem to have been withdrawn from1 or at least indemonstrably possessed1 by a ,church which1 having been again and again warned by its ,master that ,riches were deadly to ,religion1 and ,love essential to it1 has nevertheless made wealth the reward of ,theological learning1 and controversy its occupation4 ,there are states of moral death no less amazing than physical resurrection2 and a church which permits its clergy to preach what they have ceased to believe1 and its people to trust what they refuse to obey1 is perhaps more truly miraculous in impotence1 than it would be miraculous in power1 if it could move the fatal rocks of ,california to the ,pole1 and plant the sycamore and the vine between the ridges of the sea4 ,,footnotes3 ,footnote #agd3 ,contemporary ,review1 ,march1 #ahgc4 ,footnote #age3 ,read at the ,november meeting of the ,metaphysical ,society4 ,footnote #agf3 ,i quote from memory but am sure of the purport of the sentence1 though not of its expression4 ,footnote #agg3 ,and be it death proclaimd through our host to boast of this4--,henry ,v4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,an ,,oxford ,,lecture4 7,nineteenth ,century1 ,january #ahgh47 99 99 99 99 99 ,,an ,,oxford ,,lecture4#agh #bgh4 ,i am sure that all in this audience who were present yesterday at ,dr4 ,acland's earnest and impressive lecture must have felt how deeply ,i should be moved by his closing reference to the friendship begun in our undergraduate days2--of which ,i will but say that1 if it alone were all ,i owed to ,oxford1 the most gracious kindness of the ,alma ,mater would in that gift have been fulfilled to me4 ,but his affectionate words1 in their very modesty1 as if even standing on the defense of his profession1 the noblest of human occupations6 and of his science--the most wonderful and awful of human intelligences6 showed me that ,i had yet not wholly made clear to you the exactly limited measure in which ,i have ventured to dispute the fitness of method of study now assigned to you in this ,university4 #bgi4 ,of the dignity of physical science1 and of the happiness of those who are devoted to it for the healing and the help of mankind1 ,i never have meant to utter1 and ,i do not think ,i have uttered1 one irreverent word4 ,but against the curiosity of science1 leading us to call virtually nothing gained but what is new discovery1 and to despise every use of our knowledge in its acquisition2 of the insolence of science1 in claiming for itself a separate function of that human mind which in its perfection is one and indivisible1 in the image of its ,creator2 and of the perversion of science1 in hoping to discover by the analysis of death1 what can only be discovered by the worship of life1--of these ,i have spoken1 not only with sorrow1 but with a fear which every day ,i perceive to be more surely grounded1 that such labor1 in effacing from within you the sense of the presence of ,god in the garden of the earth1 may awaken within you the prevailing echo of the first voice of its ,destroyer1 ,ye shall be as gods4 #bhj4 ,to-day ,i have little enough time to conclude1--none to review--what ,i have endeavored thus to say2 but one instance1 given me directly in conversation after lecture1 by one of yourselves1 will enable me to explain to you precisely what ,i mean4 ,after last lecture1 in which you remember ,i challenged our physiologists to tell me how a bird flies1 one of you1 whose pardon1 if he thinks it needful1 ,i ask for this use of his most timely and illustrative statement1 came to me1 saying1 ,you know the way in which we are shown how a bird flies1 is1 that any one1 a dove for instance1 is given to us1 plucked1 and partly skinned1 and incised at the insertion of the wing bone2 and then1 with a steel point1 the ligament of the muscle at the shoulder is pulled up1 and out1 and made distinct from other ligaments1 and we are told 'that is the way a bird flies1' and on that matter it is thought we have been told enough4 ,i say that this instance given me was timely2 ,i will say more--in the choice of this particular bird1 providential4 ,let me take1 in their order1 the two subjects of inquiry and instruction1 which are indeed offered to us in the aspect and form of that one living creature4 #bha4 ,of the splendor of your own true life1 you are told1 in the words which1 to-day1 let me call1 as your ,fathers did1 words of inspiration--,yet shall ye be as the wings of a dove1 that is covered with silver wings and her feathers with gold4 ,of the manifold iris of color in the dove's plumage1 watched carefully in sunshine as the bird moves1 ,i cannot hope to give you any conception by words2 but that it is the most exquisite1 in the modesty of its light1 and in the myriad mingling of its hue1 of all plumage1 ,i may partly prove to you in this one fact1 that out of all studies of color1 the one which ,i would desire most to place within your reach in these schools1 is ,turner's drawing of a dove1 done when he was in happy youth at ,farnley4 ,but of the causes of this color1 and of the peculiar subtlety in its iridescence1 nothing is told you in any scientific book ,i have ever seen on ornithology4 #bhb4 ,of the power of flight in these wings1 and the tender purpose of their flight1 you hear also in your ,fathers' book4 ,to the ,church1 flying from her enemies into desolate wilderness1 there were indeed given two wings as of a great eagle4 ,but the weary saint of ,god1 looking forward to his home in calm of eternal peace1 prays rather--,oh that ,i had wings like a dove1 for then should ,i flee away1 and be at rest4 ,and of these wings1 and this mind of hers1 this is what reverent science should teach you3 first1 with what parting of plume1 and what soft pressure and rhythmic beating of divided air1 she reaches that miraculous swiftness of undubious motion1 compared with which the tempest is slow1 and the arrow uncertain2 and secondly1 what clew there is1 visible1 or conceivable to thought of man1 by which1 to her living conscience and errorless pointing of magnetic soul1 her distant home is felt afar beyond the horizon1 and the straight path1 through concealing clouds1 and over trackless lands1 made plain to her desire1 and her duty1 by the finger of ,god4 #bhc4 ,and lastly1 since in the tradition of the ,old ,covenant she was made the messenger of forgiveness to those eight souls saved through the baptism unto death1 and in the ,gospel of the ,new ,covenant1 under her image1 was manifested the well-pleasing of ,god1 in the fulfillment of all righteousness by ,his ,son in the ,baptism unto life1--surely alike all ,christian people1 old and young1 should be taught to be gladdened by her sweet presence2 and in every city and village in ,christendom she should have such home as in ,venice she has had for ages1 and be1 among the sculptured marbles of the temple1 the sweetest sculpture2 and1 fluttering at your children's feet1 their never-angered friend4 ,and surely also1 therefore1 of the thousand evidences which any carefully thoughtful person may see1 not only of the ministration of good1 but of the deceiving and deadly power of the evil angels1 there is no one more distinct in its gratuitous1 and unreconcilable sin1 than that this--of all the living creatures between earth and sky--should be the one chosen to amuse the apathy of our murderous idleness1 with skill-less1 effortless1 merciless slaughter4 #bhd4 ,i pass to the direct subject on which ,i have to speak finally to-day2--the reality of that ministration of the good angels1 and of that real adversity of the principalities and powers of ,satan1 in which1 without exception1 all earnest ,christians have believed1 and the appearance of which1 to the imagination of the greatest and holiest of them1 has been the root1 without exception1 of all the greatest art produced by the human mind or hand in this world4 ,that you have at present no art properly so called in ,england at all--whether of painting1 sculpture1 or architecture#agi--;,i1 for one1 do not care4 ,in midst of ,scottish ,lothians1 in the days of ,scott1 there was1 by how much less art1 by so much purer life1 than in the midst of ,italy in the days of ,raphael4 ,but that you should have lost1 not only the skill of ,art1 but the simplicity of ,faith and life1 all in one1 and not only here deface your ancient streets by the ,ford of the waters of sacred learning1 but also deface your ancient hills with guilt of mercenary desolation1 driving their ancient shepherd life into exile1 and diverting the waves of their streamlets into the cities which are the very centers of pollution1 of avarice1 and impiety3 for this ,i do care1--for this you have blamed me for caring1 instead of merely trying to teach you drawing4 ,i have nevertheless yet done my best to show you what real drawing is2 and must yet again bear your blame for trying to show you1 through that1 somewhat more4 #bhe4 ,i was asked1 as we came out of chapel this morning1 by one of the ,fellows of my college1 to say a word to the ,undergraduates1 about ,thirlmere4 ,his request1 being that of a faithful friend1 came to enforce on me the connection between this form of spoliation of our native land of its running waters1 and the gaining disbelief in the power of prayer over the distribution of the elements of our bread and water1 in rain1 and sunshine1--seedtime1 and harvest4 ,respecting which1 ,i must ask you to think with me to-day what is the meaning of the myth1 if you call it so1 of the great prophet of the ,old ,testament1 who is to be again sent before the coming of the day of the ,lord4 ,for truly1 you will find that if any part of your ancient faith be true1 it is needful for every soul which is to take up its cross1 with ,christ1 to be also first transfigured in the light of ,christ1--talking with ,moses and with ,elias4 ,the contest of ,moses is with the temporal servitude1--of ,elijah1 with the spiritual servitude1 of the people2 and the war of ,elijah is with their servitude essentially to two ,gods1 ,baal1 or the ,sun ,god1 in whose hand they thought was their life1 and ,baalzebub--the ,fly ,god1--of ,corruption1 in whose hand they thought was the arbitration of death4 ,the entire contest is summed in the first assertion by ,elijah1 of his authority as the ,servant of ,god1 over those elemental powers by which the heart of ,man1 whether ,jew or heathen1 was filled with food and gladness4 ,and ,elijah the ,tishbite2 who was of the inhabitants of ,gilead1 said unto ,ahab1 ,as the ,lord ,god of ,israel liveth1 before whom ,i stand1 there shall not be dew nor rain these years1 but according to my word4 #bhf4 ,your modern philosophers have explained to you the absurdity of all that3 you think8 ,of all the shallow follies of this age1 that proclamation of the vanity of prayer for the sunshine and rain2 and the cowardly equivocations1 to meet it1 of the clergy who never in their lives really prayed for anything1 ,i think1 excel4 ,do these modern scientific gentlemen fancy that nobody1 before they were born1 knew the laws of cloud and storm1 or that the mighty human souls of former ages1 who every one of them lived and died by prayer1 and in it1 did not know that in every petition framed on their lips they were asking for what was not only fore-ordained1 but just as probably fore-done8 or that the mother pausing to pray before she opens the letter from ,alma or ,balaclava1 does not know that already he is saved for whom she prays1 or already lies festering in his shroud8 ,the whole confidence and glory of prayer is in its appeal to a ,father who knows our necessities before we ask1 who knows our thoughts before they rise in our hearts1 and whose decrees1 as unalterable in the eternal future as in the eternal past1 yet in the close verity of visible fact1 bend1 like reeds1 before the fore-ordained and faithful prayers of ,his children4 #bhg4 ,of ,elijah's contest on ,carmel with that ,sun-power in which1 literally1 you again now are seeking your life1 you know the story1 however little you believe it4 ,but of his contest with the ,death-power1 on the ,hill of ,samaria1 you read less frequently1 and more doubtfully4 ,oh1 thou ,man of ,god1 the ,king hath said1 ,come down4 ,and ,elijah answered and said1 ,if ,i be a man of ,god1 let fire come down from ,heaven1 and consume thee1 and thy fifty4 ,how monstrous1 how revolting1 cries your modern religionist1 that a prophet of the ,lord should invoke death on fifty men4 ,and he sits himself1 enjoying his muffin and ,times1 and contentedly allows the slaughter of fifty thousand men1 so it be in the interests of ,england1 and of his own stock on ,exchange4 ,but note ,elijah's message4 ,because thou hast sent to inquire of ,baalzebub the ,god of ,ekron1 therefore1 thou shalt not go down from the bed on which thou art gone up1 but shalt surely die4 ,because thou hast sent to inquire3 he had not sent to pray to the ,god of ,ekron1 only to ask of him4 ,the priests of ,baal prayed to ,baal1 but ,ahaziah only questions the fly-god4 ,he does not pray ,let me recover1 but he asks ,shall ,i recover of this disease8 ,the scientific mind again1 you perceive1--,sanitary investigation2 by oracle of the ,god of ,death4 ,whatever can be produced of disease1 by flies1 by aphides1 by lice1 by communication of corruption1 shall not we moderns also wisely inquire1 and so recover of our diseases8 ,all which may1 for aught ,i know1 be well2 and when ,i hear of the vine disease or potato disease being stayed1 ,i will hope also that plague may be1 or diphtheria1 or aught else of human plague1 by due sanitary measures4 #bhh4 ,in the meantime1 ,i see that the common cleanliness of the earth and its water is despised1 as if it were a plague2 and after myself laboring for three years to purify and protect the source of the loveliest stream in the ,english midlands1 the ,wandel1 ,i am finally beaten1 because the road commissioners insist on carrying the road washings into it1 at its source4 ,but that's nothing4 ,two years ago1 ,i went1 for the first time since early youth1 to see ,scott's country by the shores of ,yarrow1 ,teviot1 and ,gala waters4 ,i will read you once again1 though you will remember it1 his description of one of those pools which you are about sanitarily to draw off into your engine-boilers1 and then ,i will tell you what ,i saw myself in that sacred country4 ,oft in my mind such thoughts awake1 ,by lone ,saint ,mary's silent lake2 ,thou know'st it well1--nor fen1 nor sedge1 ,pollute the pure lake's crystal edge2 ,abrupt and sheer1 the mountains sink ,at once upon the level brink2 ,and just a trace of silver sand ,marks where the water meets the land4 ,far in the mirror1 bright and blue1 ,each hill's huge outline you may view2 ,shaggy with heath1 but lonely1 bare1 ,nor tree1 nor bush1 nor brake1 is there1 ,save where1 of land1 yon slender line ,bears thwart the lake the scatter'd pine4 99 99 99 99 99 ,and silence aids--though the steep hills ,send to the lake a thousand rills ,in summer tide1 so soft they weep1 ,the sound but lulls the ear asleep2 ,your horse's hoof-tread sounds too rude1 ,so stilly is the solitude4 ,nought living meets the eye or ear1 ,but well ,i ween the dead are near2 ,for though1 in feudal strife1 a foe ,hath laid ,our ,lady's chapel low1 ,yet still beneath the hallow'd soil1 ,the peasant rests him from his toil1 ,and1 dying1 bids his bones be laid1 ,where erst his simple fathers pray'd4 #bhi4 ,what ,i saw myself1 in that fair country1 of which the sight remains with me1 ,i will next tell you4 ,i saw the ,teviot oozing1 not flowing1 between its wooded banks1 a mere sluggish injection1 among the filthy stones1 of poisonous pools of scum-covered ink2 and in front of ,jedburgh ,abbey1 where the foaming river used to dash round the sweet ruins as if the rod of ,moses had freshly cleft the rock for it1 bare and foul nakedness of its bed1 the whole stream carried to work in the mills1 the dry stones and crags of it festering unseemly in the evening sun1 and the carcass of a sheep1 brought down in the last flood1 lying there in the midst of the children at their play1 literal and ghastly symbol1 in the sweetest pastoral country in the world1 of the lost sheep of the house of ,israel4 ,that is your symbol to-day1 of the ,lamb as it had been slain2 and that the work of your prayerless science2--the issues1 these1 of your enlightened teaching1 and of all the toils and the deaths of the ,covenanters on those barren hills1 of the prophetic martyrs here in your crossing streets1 and of the highest1 sincerest1 simplest patriot of ,catholic ,england1 ,sir ,thomas ,more1 within the walls of ,england's central ,tower4 ,so is ended1 with prayer for the bread of this life1 also the hope of the life that is to come4 ,yet ,i will take leave to show you the light of that hope1 as it shone on1 and guided1 the children of the ages of faith4 #bij4 ,of that legend of ,st4 ,ursula which ,i read to you so lately1 you remember1 ,i doubt not1 that the one great meaning is the victory of her faith over all fears of death4 ,it is the laying down of all the joy1 of all the hope1 nay of all the ,love1 of this life1 in the eager apprehension of the rejoicing and the love of ,eternity4 ,what truth there was in such faith ,i dare not say that ,i know2 but what manner of human souls it made1 you may for yourselves see4 ,here are enough brought to you1 of the thoughts of a believing people4#ahj ,this maid in her purity is no fable2 this is a ,venetian maid1 as she was seen in the earthly dawn1 and breathed on by the breeze of her native sea4 ,and here she is in her womanhood1 in her courage and perfect peace1 waiting for her death4 ,i have sent for this drawing for you1 from ,sheffield1 where it is to stay1 they needing it more than you4 ,it is the best of all that my friend did with me at ,venice1 for ,st4 ,george1 and with ,st4 ,george's help and ,st4 ,ursula's4 ,it shows you only a piece of the great picture of the martyrdom--nearly all have fallen around the maid1 and she kneels with her two servant princesses1 waiting for her own death4 ,faithful behind their mistress1 they wait with her1--not feebler1 but less raised in thought1 as less conceiving their immortal destiny2 the one1 a gentle girl1 conceiving not in her quiet heart any horror of death1 bows her fair head towards the earth1 almost with a smile2 the other1 fearful lest her faith should for an instant fail1 bursts into passion of prayer through burning tears4 ,st4 ,ursula kneels1 as daily she knelt1 before the altar1 giving herself up to ,god forever4 ,and so you see her1 here in the days of childhood1 and here in her sacred youth1 and here in her perfect womanhood1 and here borne to her grave4 ,such creatures as these have lived--do live yet1 thank ,god1 in the faith of ,christ4 #bia4 ,you hear it openly said that this1 their faith1 was a foolish dream4 ,do you choose to find out whether it was or not8 ,you may if you will1 but you can find it out in one way only4 ,take the dilemma in perfect simplicity4 ,either ,christianity is true or not4 ,let us suppose it first one1 then the other1 and see what follows4 ,let it first be supposed untrue4 ,then rational investigation will in all probability discover that untruth2 while1 on the other hand1 irrational submission to what we are told may lead us into any form of absurdity or insanity2 and1 as we read history1 we shall find that this insanity has perverted1 as in the ,crusades1 half the strength of ,europe to its ruin1 and been the source of manifold dissension and misery to society4 ,start with the supposition that ,christianity is untrue1 much more with the desire that it should be1 and that is the conclusion at which you will certainly arrive4 ,but1 on the other hand1 let us suppose that it is1 or may be1 true4 ,then1 in order to find out whether it is or not1 we must attend to what it says of itself4 ,and its first saying is an order to adopt a certain line of conduct4 ,do that first1 and you shall know more4 ,its promise is of blessing and of teaching1 more than tongue can utter1 or mind conceive1 if you choose to do this2 and it refuses to teach or help you on any other terms than these4 #bib4 ,you may think it strange that such a trial is required of you4 ,surely the evidences of our future state might have been granted on other terms--nay1 a plain account might have been given1 with all mystery explained away in the clearest language4 ,then1 we should have believed at once4 ,yes1 but1 as you see and hear1 that1 if it be our way1 is not ,god's4 ,he has chosen to grant knowledge of ,his truth to us on one condition and no other4 ,if we refuse that condition1 the rational evidence around us is all in proof of our death1 and that proof is true1 for ,god also tells us that in such refusal we shall die4 ,you see1 therefore1 that in either case1 be ,christianity true or false1 death is demonstrably certain to us in refusing it4 ,as philosophers1 we can expect only death1 and as unbelievers1 we are condemned to it4 ,there is but one chance of life--in admitting so far the possibility of the ,christian verity as to try it on its own terms4 ,there is not the slightest possibility of finding out whether it be true1 or not1 first4 ,show me a sign first and ,i will come1 you say4 ,no1 answers ,god4 ,come first1 then you shall see a sign4 ,hard1 you think8 ,you will find it is not so1 on thinking more4 ,for this1 which you are commanded1 is not a thing unreasonable in itself4 ,so far from that1 it is merely the wisest thing you could do for your own and for others' happiness1 if there were no eternal truth to be discovered4 ,you are called simply to be the servant of ,christ1 and of other men for ,his sake2 that is to say1 to hold your life and all its faculties as a means of service to your fellows4 ,all you have to do is to be sure it is the service you are doing them1 and not the service you do yourself1 which is uppermost in your minds4 #bic4 ,now you continually hear appeals to you made in a vague way1 which you don't know how far you can follow4 ,you shall not say that1 to-day2 ,i both can and will tell you what ,christianity requires of you in simplest terms4 ,read your ,bible as you would any other book--with strictest criticism1 frankly determining what you think beautiful1 and what you think false or foolish4 ,but be sure that you try accurately to understand it1 and transfer its teaching to modern need by putting other names for those which have become superseded by time4 ,for instance1 in such a passage as that which follows and supports the ,lie not one to another of ,colossians iii4--seeing that ye have put on the new man1 which is renewed in knowledge after the spirit of ,him that created him1 where 7meaning in that great creation where7 there is neither ,greek nor ,jew1 circumcision nor uncircumcision1 barbarian1 ,scythian1 bond nor free4 ,in applying that verse to the conduct and speech of modern policy1 it falls nearly dead1 because we suffer ourselves to remain under a vague impression--vague1 but practically paralyzing1--that though it was very necessary to speak the truth in the countries of ,scythians and ,jews1 there is no objection to any quantity of lying in managing the affairs of ,christendom4 ,but now merely substitute modern for ancient names1 and see what a difference it will make in the force and appeal of the passage1 ,lie not one to another1 brethren1 seeing that ye have put off the old man1 with his deeds1 and have put on the new man1 which is renewed to knowledge1 ,greek3 eis epignsin1 according to the knowledge of ,him that created him1 in that great creation where there is neither ,englishman nor ,german1 baptism nor want of baptism1 ,turk nor ,russian1 slave nor free1 but ,christ is all1 and in all4 #bid4 ,read your ,bible1 then1 making it the first morning business of your life to understand some piece of it clearly1 and your daily business to obey of it all that you understand1 beginning first with the most human and most dear obedience--to your father and mother4 ,doing all things as they would have you do1 for the present3 if they want you to be lawyers--be lawyers2 if soldiers--soldiers2 if to get on in the world--even to get money--do as they wish1 and that cheerfully1 after distinctly explaining to them in what points you wish otherwise4 ,theirs is for the present the voice of ,god to you4 ,but1 at the same time1 be quite clear about your own purpose1 and the carrying out of that so far as under the conditions of your life you can4 ,and any of you who are happy enough to have wise parents will find them contented in seeing you do as ,i now tell you4 #bie4 ,first cultivate all your personal powers1 not competitively1 but patiently and usefully4 ,you have no business to read in the long vacation4 ,come here to make scholars of yourselves1 and go to the mountains or the sea to make men of yourselves4 ,give at least a month in each year to rough sailor's work and sea fishing4 ,don't lounge and flirt on the beach1 but make yourselves good seamen4 ,then1 on the mountains1 go and help the shepherd at his work1 the wood-men at theirs1 and learn to know the hills by night and day4 ,if you are staying in level country1 learn to plow1 and whatever else you can that is useful4 ,then here in ,oxford1 read to the utmost of your power1 and practice singing1 fencing1 wrestling1 and riding4 ,no rifle practice1 and no racing--boat or other4 ,leave the river quiet for the naturalist1 the angler1 and the weary student like me4 ,you may think all these matters of no consequence to your studies of art and divinity2 and that ,i am merely crotchety and absurd4 ,well1 that is the way the devil deceives you4 ,it is not the sins which we feel sinful1 by which he catches us2 but the apparently healthy ones1--those which nevertheless waste the time1 harden the heart1 concentrate the passions on mean objects1 and prevent the course of gentle and fruitful thought4 #bif4 ,having thus cultivated1 in the time of your studentship1 your powers truly to the utmost1 then1 in your manhood1 be resolved they shall be spent in the true service of men--not in being ministered unto1 but in ministering4 ,begin with the simplest of all ministries--breaking of bread to the poor4 ,think first of that1 not of your own pride1 learning1 comfort1 prospects in life3 nay1 not now1 once come to manhood1 may even the obedience to parents check your own conscience of what is your ,master's work4 ,whoso loveth father and mother more than me is not worthy of me4 ,take the perfectly simple words of the ,judgment1 ,inasmuch as ye did it unto one of the least of these1 ye did it unto me3 but you must do it1 not preach it4 ,and you must not be resolved that it shall be done only in a gentlemanly manner4 ,your pride must be laid down1 as your avarice1 and your fear4 ,whether as fishermen on the sea1 plowmen on the earth1 laborers at the forge1 or merchants at the shop-counter1 you must break and distribute bread to the poor1 set down in companies--for that also is literally told you--upon the green grass1 not crushed in heaps under the pavement of cities4 ,take ,christ at ,his literal word1 and1 so sure as ,his word is true1 ,he will be known of you in breaking of bread4 ,refuse that servant's duty because it is plain1--seek either to serve ,god1 or know ,him1 in any other way3 your service will become mockery of ,him1 and your knowledge darkness4 ,every day your virtues will be used by the evil spirits to conceal1 or to make respectable1 national crime2 every day your felicities will become baits for the iniquity of others2 your heroisms1 wreckers' beacons1 betraying them to destruction2 and before your own deceived eyes and wandering hearts every false meteor of knowledge will flash1 and every perishing pleasure glow1 to lure you into the gulf of your grave4 #big4 ,but obey the word in its simplicity1 in wholeness of purpose and with serenity of sacrifice1 like this of the ,venetian maids'1 and truly you shall receive sevenfold into your bosom in this present life1 as in the world to come1 life everlasting4 ,all your knowledge will become to you clear and sure1 all your footsteps safe2 in the present brightness of domestic life you will foretaste the joy of ,paradise1 and to your children's children bequeath1 not only noble fame1 but endless virtue4 ,he shall give his angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways2 and the peace of ,god1 which passeth all understanding1 shall keep your hearts and minds through ,christ ,jesus4 ,,footnotes3 ,footnote #agh3 ,left1 at the ,editor's request1 with only some absolutely needful clearing of unintelligible sentences1 as it was written for free delivery4 ,it was the last of a course of twelve given this autumn2--refers partly to things already said1 partly to drawings on the walls2 and needs the reader's pardon throughout1 for faults and abruptness incurable but by re-writing the whole as an essay instead of a lecture4--7,nineteenth ,century1 ,january1 #ahgh47 ,footnote #agi3 ,of course1 this statement is merely a generalization of many made in the preceding lectures1 the tenor of which any readers acquainted with my recent writings may easily conceive4 ,footnote #ahj3 ,the references were to the series of drawings lately made1 in ,venice1 for the ,oxford and ,sheffield schools1 from the works of ,carpaccio1 by ,mr4 ,fairfax ,murray4