,ruskin ,treasuries ,,of ,,vulgarity ,london3 ,george ,allen #aijf ,what do you mean by vulgarity8 ,you will find it a fruitful subject of thought2 but1 briefly1 the essence of all vulgarity lies in want of sensation4 ,sesame and ,lilies1 ,sec4 #bh4 ,all rights reserved 99,,ruskin ,,treasuries99 99,,of ,,vulgarity99 #a4 ,two great errors1 colouring1 or rather discolouring1 severally1 the minds of the higher and lower classes1 have sown wide dissension1 and wider misfortune1 through the society of modern days4 ,these errors are in our modes of interpreting the word gentleman4 ,its primal1 literal1 and perpetual meaning is a man of pure race2 well bred1 in the sense that a horse or dog is well bred4 ,see below1 pp4 #ci-dg4 ,the so-called higher classes1 being generally of purer race than the lower1 have retained the true idea1 and the convictions associated with it2 but are afraid to speak it out1 and equivocate about it in public2 this equivocation mainly proceeding from their desire to connect another meaning with it1 and a false one2--that of a man living in idleness on other people's labour2--with which idea the term has nothing whatever to do4 ,the lower classes1 denying vigorously1 and with reason1 the notion that a gentleman means an idler1 and rightly feeling that the more any one works1 the more of a gentleman he becomes1 and is likely to become1--have nevertheless got little of the good they otherwise might1 from the truth1 because1 with it1 they wanted to hold a falsehood1--namely1 that race was of no consequence4 ,it being precisely of as much consequence in man as it is in any other animal4 #b4 ,the nation cannot truly prosper till both these errors are finally got quit of4 ,gentlemen have to learn that it is no part of their duty or privilege to live on other people's toil4 ,they have to learn that there is no degradation in the hardest manual1 or the humblest servile1 labour1 when it is honest4 ,but that there is degradation1 and that deep1 in extravagance1 in bribery1 in indolence1 in pride1 in taking places they are not fit for1 or in coining places for which there is no need4 ,it does not disgrace a gentleman to become an errand boy1 or a day labourer2 but it disgraces him much to become a knave1 or a thief4 ,and knavery is not the less knavery because it involves large interests1 nor theft the less theft because it is countenanced by usage1 or accompanied by failure in undertaken duty4 ,it is an incomparably less guilty form of robbery to cut a purse out of a man's pocket1 than to take it out of his hand on the understanding that you are to steer his ship up channel1 when you do not know the soundings4 #c4 ,on the other hand1 the lower orders1 and all orders1 have to learn that every vicious habit and chronic disease communicates itself by descent2 and that by purity of birth the entire system of the human body and soul may be gradually elevated1 or1 by recklessness of birth1 degraded2 until there shall be as much difference between the well-bred and ill-bred human creature 7whatever pains be taken with their education7 as between a wolf-hound and the vilest mongrel cur4 ,and the knowledge of this great fact ought to regulate the education of our youth1 and the entire conduct of the nation4 ,see below1 pp4 #da-db4 #d4 ,gentlemanliness1 however1 in ordinary parlance1 must be taken to signify those qualities which are usually the evidence of high breeding1 and which1 so far as they can be acquired1 it should be every man's effort to acquire2 or1 if he has them by nature1 to preserve and exalt4 ,vulgarity1 on the other hand1 will signify qualities usually characteristic of ill-breeding1 which1 according to his power1 it becomes every person's duty to subdue4 ,we have briefly to note what these are4 #e4 ,a gentleman's first characteristic is that fineness of structure in the body1 which renders it capable of the most delicate sensation2 and of structure in the mind which renders it capable of the most delicate sympathies--one may say1 simply1 fineness of nature4 ,this is1 of course1 compatible with heroic bodily strength and mental firmness2 in fact1 heroic strength is not conceivable without such delicacy4 ,elephantine strength may drive its way through a forest and feel no touch of the boughs2 but the white skin of ,homer's ,atrides would have felt a bent rose-leaf1 yet subdue its feeling in glow of battle1 and behave itself like iron4 ,i do not mean to call an elephant a vulgar animal2 but if you think about him carefully1 you will find that his non-vulgarity consists in such gentleness as is possible to elephantine nature2 not in his insensitive hide1 nor in his clumsy foot2 but in the way he will lift his foot if a child lies in his way2 and in his sensitive trunk1 and still more sensitive mind1 and capability of pique on points of honour4 #f4 ,and1 though rightness of moral conduct is ultimately the great purifier of race1 the sign of nobleness is not in this rightness of moral conduct1 but in sensitiveness4 ,when the make of the creature is fine1 its temptations are strong1 as well as its perceptions2 it is liable to all kinds of impressions from without in their most violent form2 liable therefore to be abused and hurt by all kinds of rough things which would do a coarser creature little harm1 and thus to fall into frightful wrong if its fate will have it so4 ,thus ,david1 coming of gentlest as well as royalest race1 of ,ruth as well as of ,judah1 is sensitiveness through all flesh and spirit2 not that his compassion will restrain him from murder when his terror urges him to it2 nay1 he is driven to the murder all the more by his sensitiveness to the shame which otherwise threatens him4 ,but when his own story is told under a disguise1 though only a lamb is now concerned1 his passion about it leaves him no time for thought4 ,the man shall die--note the reason--because he had no pity4 ,he is so eager and indignant that it never occurs to him as strange that ,nathan hides the name4 ,this is true gentleman4 ,a vulgar man would assuredly have been cautious1 and asked who it was4 #g4 ,hence it will follow that one of the probable signs of high-breeding in men generally1 will be their kindness and mercifulness2 these always indicating more or less fineness of make in the mind2 and miserliness and cruelty the contrary2 hence that of ,isaiah3 ,the vile person shall no more be called liberal1 nor the churl said to be bountiful4 ,but a thousand things may prevent this kindness from displaying or continuing itself2 the mind of the man may be warped so as to bear mainly on his own interests1 and then all his sensibilities will take the form of pride1 or fastidiousness1 or revengefulness2 and other wicked1 but not ungentlemanly tempers2 or1 farther1 they may run into utter sensuality and covetousness1 if he is bent on pleasure1 accompanied with quite infinite cruelty when the pride is wounded or the passions are thwarted2--until your gentleman becomes ,ezzelin1 and your lady1 the deadly ,lucrece2 yet still gentleman and lady1 quite incapable of making anything else of themselves1 being so born4 ,see below1 p4 #dd4 #h4 ,a truer sign of breeding than mere kindness is therefore sympathy2--a vulgar man may often be kind in a hard way1 on principle1 and because he thinks he ought to be2 whereas1 a highly-bred man1 even when cruel1 will be cruel in a softer way1 understanding and feeling what he inflicts1 and pitying his victim4 ,only we must carefully remember that the quantity of sympathy a gentleman feels can never be judged of by its outward expression1 for another of his chief characteristics is apparent reserve4 ,i say apparent reserve2 for the sympathy is real1 but the reserve not3 a perfect gentleman is never reserved1 but sweetly and entirely open1 so far as it is good for others1 or possible1 that he should be4 ,in a great many respects it is impossible that he should be open except to men of his own kind4 ,to them1 he can open himself1 by a word or syllable1 or a glance2 but to men not of his kind he cannot open himself1 though he tried it through an eternity of clear grammatical speech4 ,by the very acuteness of his sympathy he knows how much of himself he can give to anybody2 and he gives that much frankly2--would always be glad to give more if he could1 but is obliged1 nevertheless1 in his general intercourse with the world1 to be a somewhat silent person2 silence is to most people1 he finds1 less reserve than speech4 ,whatever he said1 a vulgar man would misinterpret3 no words that he could use would bear the same sense to the vulgar man that they do to him2 if he used any1 the vulgar man would go away saying1 ,he had said so and so1 and meant so and so 7something assuredly he never meant73 but he keeps silence1 and the vulgar man goes away saying1 ,he didn't know what to make of him4 ,which is precisely the fact1 and the only fact which he is anywise able to announce to the vulgar man concerning himself4 #i4 ,there is yet another quite as efficient cause of the apparent reserve of a gentleman4 ,his sensibility being constant and intelligent1 it will be seldom that a feeling touches him1 however acutely1 but it has touched him in the same way often before1 and in some sort is touching him always4 ,it is not that he feels little1 but that he feels habitually2 a vulgar man having some heart at the bottom of him1 if you can by talk or by sight fairly force the pathos of anything down to his heart1 will be excited about it and demonstrative2 the sensation of pity being strange to him and wonderful4 ,but your gentleman has walked in pity all day long2 the tears have never been out of his eyes2 you thought the eyes were bright only2 but they were wet4 ,you tell him a sorrowful story1 and his countenance does not change2 the eyes can but be wet still3 he does not speak neither1 there being1 in fact1 nothing to be said1 only something to be done2 some vulgar person1 beside you both1 goes away saying1 ,how hard he is6 ,next day he hears that the hard person has put good end to the sorrow he said nothing about2--and then he changes his wonder1 and exclaims1 ,how reserved he is6 #aj4 ,self-command is often thought a characteristic of high-breeding2 and to a certain extent it is so1 at least it is one of the means of forming and strengthening character2 but it is rather a way of imitating a gentleman than a characteristic of him2 a true gentleman has no need of self-command2 he simply feels rightly on all occasions2 and desiring to express only so much of his feeling as it is right to express1 does not need to command himself4 ,hence perfect ease is indeed characteristic of him2 but perfect ease is inconsistent with self-restraint4 ,nevertheless gentlemen1 so far as they fail of their own ideal1 need to command themselves1 and do so2 while1 on the contrary1 to feel unwisely1 and to be unable to restrain the expression of the unwise feeling1 is vulgarity2 and yet even then1 the vulgarity1 at its root1 is not in the mistimed expression1 but in the unseemly feeling2 and when we find fault with a vulgar person for exposing himself1 it is not his openness1 but clumsiness1 and yet more the want of sensibility to his own failure1 which we blame2 so that still the vulgarity resolves itself into want of sensibility4 ,also1 it is to be noted that great powers of self-restraint may be attained by very vulgar persons when it suits their purposes4 #aa4 ,closely1 but strangely1 connected with this openness is that form of truthfulness which is opposed to cunning1 yet not opposed to falsity absolute4 ,and herein is a distinction of great importance4 ,cunning signifies especially a habit or gift of over-reaching1 accompanied with enjoyment and a sense of superiority4 ,it is associated with small and dull conceit1 and with an absolute want of sympathy or affection4 ,its essential connection with vulgarity may be at once exemplified by the expression of the butcher's dog in ,landseer's ,low ,life4 ,cruikshank's ,noah ,claypole1 in the illustrations to ,oliver ,twist1 in the interview with the ,jew1 is1 however1 still more characteristic4 ,it is the intensest rendering of vulgarity absolute and utter with which ,i am acquainted4 ,the truthfulness which is opposed to cunning ought1 perhaps1 rather to be called the desire of truthfulness2 it consists more in unwillingness to deceive than in not deceiving1--an unwillingness implying sympathy with and respect for the person deceived2 and a fond observance of truth up to the possible point1 as in a good soldier's mode of retaining his honour through a ruse-de-guerre4 ,a cunning person seeks for opportunities to deceive2 a gentleman shuns them4 ,a cunning person triumphs in deceiving2 a gentleman is humiliated by his success1 or at least by so much of the success as is dependent merely on the falsehood1 and not on his intellectual superiority4 #ab4 ,the absolute disdain of all lying belongs rather to ,christian chivalry than to mere high-breeding2 as connected merely with this latter1 and with general refinement and courage1 the exact relations of truthfulness may be best studied in the well-trained ,greek mind4 ,the ,greeks believed that mercy and truth were co-relative virtues--cruelty and falsehood1 co-relative vices4 ,but they did not call necessary severity1 cruelty2 nor necessary deception1 falsehood4 ,it was needful sometimes to slay men1 and sometimes to deceive them4 ,when this had to be done1 it should be done well and thoroughly2 so that to direct a spear well to its mark1 or a lie well to its end1 was equally the accomplishment of a perfect gentleman4 ,hence1 in the pretty diamond-cut-diamond scene between ,pallas and ,ulysses1 when she receives him on the coast of ,ithaca1 the goddess laughs delightedly at her hero's good lying1 and gives him her hand upon it2--showing herself then in her woman's form1 as just a little more than his match4 ,subtle would he be1 and stealthy1 who should go beyond thee in deceit1 even were he a god1 thou many-witted6 ,what6 here in thine own land1 too1 wilt thou not cease from cheating8 ,knowest thou not me1 ,pallas ,athena1 maid of ,jove1 who am with thee in all thy labours1 and gave thee favour with the ,phaeacians1 and keep thee1 and have come now to weave cunning with thee8 ,but how completely this kind of cunning was looked upon as a part of a man's power1 and not as a diminution of faithfulness1 is perhaps best shown by the single line of praise in which the high qualities of his servant are summed up by ,chremulus in the ,plutus--,of all my house servants1 ,i hold you to be the faithfullest1 and the greatest cheat 7or thief74 ,homer1 ,od41 xiii4 #bia seq4 ,aristophanes1 ,plutus1 #bf-bg4 #ac4 ,thus1 the primal difference between honourable and base lying in the ,greek mind lay in honourable purpose4 ,a man who used his strength wantonly to hurt others was a monster2 so1 also1 a man who used his cunning wantonly to hurt others4 ,strength and cunning were to be used only in self-defence1 or to save the weak1 and then were alike admirable4 ,this was their first idea4 ,then the second1 and perhaps the more essential1 difference between noble and ignoble lying in the ,greek mind1 was that the honourable lie--or1 if we may use the strange1 yet just1 expression1 the true lie--knew and confessed itself for such--was ready to take the full responsibility of what it did4 ,as the sword answered for its blow1 so the lie for its snare4 ,but what the ,greeks hated with all their heart was the false lie2--the lie that did not know itself1 feared to confess itself1 which slunk to its aim under a cloak of truth1 and sought to do liars' work1 and yet not take liars' pay1 excusing itself to the conscience by quibble and quirk4 ,hence the great expression of ,jesuit principle by ,euripides1 ,the tongue has sworn1 but not the heart1 was a subject of execration throughout ,greece1 and the satirists exhausted their arrows on it--no audience was ever tired of hearing 7,greek3 to ,euripideion ekeino7 that ,euripidean thing brought to shame4 ,hippolytus1 #fab4 #ad4 ,and this is especially to be insisted on in the early education of young people4 ,it should be pointed out to them with continual earnestness that the essence of lying is in deception1 not in words3 a lie may be told by silence1 by equivocation1 by the accent on a syllable1 by a glance of the eye attaching a peculiar significance to a sentence2 and all these kinds of lies are worse and baser by many degrees than a lie plainly worded2 so that no form of blinded conscience is so far sunk as that which comforts itself for having deceived1 because the deception was by gesture or silence1 instead of utterance2 and1 finally1 according to ,tennyson's deep and trenchant line1 ,a lie which is half a truth is ever the worst of lies4 ,the ,grandmother4 #ae4 ,although1 however1 ungenerous cunning is usually so distinct an outward manifestation of vulgarity1 that ,i name it separately from insensibility1 it is in truth only an effect of insensibility1 producing want of affection to others1 and blindness to the beauty of truth4 ,the degree in which political subtlety in men such as ,richelieu1 ,machiavel1 or ,metternich1 will efface the gentleman1 depends on the selfishness of political purpose to which the cunning is directed1 and on the base delight taken in its use4 ,the command1 ,be ye wise as serpents1 harmless as doves1 is the ultimate expression of this principle1 misunderstood usually because the word wise is referred to the intellectual power instead of the subtlety of the serpent4 ,the serpent has very little intellectual power1 but according to that which it has1 it is yet1 as of old1 the subtlest of the beasts of the field4 #af4 ,another great sign of vulgarity is also1 when traced to its root1 another phase of insensibility1 namely1 the undue regard to appearances and manners1 as in the households of vulgar persons1 of all stations1 and the assumption of behaviour1 language1 or dress unsuited to them1 by persons in inferior stations of life4 ,i say undue regard to appearances1 because in the undueness consists1 of course1 the vulgarity4 ,it is due and wise in some sort to care for appearances1 in another sort undue and unwise4 ,wherein lies the difference8 ,at first one is apt to answer quickly3 the vulgarity is simply in pretending to be what you are not4 ,but that answer will not stand4 ,a queen may dress like a waiting-maid1--perhaps succeed1 if she chooses1 in passing for one2 but she will not1 therefore1 be vulgar2 nay1 a waiting-maid may dress like a queen1 and pretend to be one1 and yet need not be vulgar1 unless there is inherent vulgarity in her4 ,in ,scribe's very absurd but very amusing ,reine d'un jour1 a milliner's girl sustains the part of a queen for a day4 ,she several times amazes and disgusts her courtiers by her straightforwardness2 and once or twice very nearly betrays herself to her maids of honour by an unqueenly knowledge of sewing2 but she is not in the least vulgar1 for she is sensitive1 simple1 and generous1 and a queen could be no more4 #ag4 ,is the vulgarity1 then1 only in trying to play a part you cannot play1 so as to be continually detected8 ,no2 a bad amateur actor may be continually detected in his part1 but yet continually detected to be a gentleman3 a vulgar regard to appearances has nothing in it necessarily of hypocrisy4 ,you shall know a man not to be a gentleman by the perfect and neat pronunciation of his words3 but he does not pretend to pronounce accurately2 he does pronounce accurately1 the vulgarity is in the real 7not assumed7 scrupulousness4 #ah4 ,it will be found on farther thought1 that a vulgar regard for appearances is1 primarily1 a selfish one1 resulting not out of a wish to give pleasure 7as a wife's wish to make herself beautiful for her husband71 but out of an endeavour to mortify others1 or attract for pride's sake2--the common keeping up appearances of society1 being a mere selfish struggle of the vain with the vain4 ,but the deepest stain of the vulgarity depends on this being done1 not selfishly only1 but stupidly1 without understanding the impression which is really produced1 nor the relations of importance between oneself and others1 so as to suppose that their attention is fixed upon us1 when we are in reality ciphers in their eyes--all which comes of insensibility4 ,hence pride simple is not vulgar 7the looking down on others because of their true inferiority to us71 nor vanity simple 7the desire of praise71 but conceit simple 7the attribution to ourselves of qualities we have not7 is always so4 ,in cases of over-studied pronunciation1 etc41 there is insensibility1 first1 in the person's thinking more of himself than of what he is saying2 and1 secondly1 in his not having musical fineness of ear enough to feel that his talking is uneasy and strained4 #ai4 ,finally1 vulgarity is indicated by coarseness of language or manners1 only so far as this coarseness has been contracted under circumstances not necessarily producing it4 ,the illiterateness of a ,spanish or ,calabrian peasant is not vulgar1 because they had never an opportunity of acquiring letters2 but the illiterateness of an ,english school-boy is4 ,so again1 provincial dialect is not vulgar2 but cockney dialect1 the corruption1 by blunted sense1 of a finer language continually heard1 is so in a deep degree2 and again1 of this corrupted dialect1 that is the worst which consists1 not in the direct or expressive alteration of the form of a word1 but in an unmusical destruction of it by dead utterance and bad or swollen formation of lip4 ,there is no vulgarity in-- ,blythe1 blythe1 blythe was she1 ,blythe was she1 but and ben1 ,and weel she liked a ,hawick gill1 ,and leugh to see a tappit hen2 but much in ,mrs4 ,gamp's inarticulate bottle on the chimley-piece1 and let me put my lips to it when ,i am so dispoged4 #bj4 ,so also of personal defects1 those only are vulgar which imply insensibility or dissipation4 ,there is no vulgarity in the emaciation of ,don ,quixote1 the deformity of the ,black ,dwarf1 or the corpulence of ,falstaff2 but much in the same personal characters1 as they are seen in ,uriah ,heep1 ,quilp1 and ,chadband4 #ba4 ,one of the most curious minor questions in this matter is respecting the vulgarity of excessive neatness1 complicating itself with inquiries into the distinction between base neatness1 and the perfectness of good execution in the fine arts4 ,it will be found on final thought that precision and exquisiteness of arrangement are always noble2 but become vulgar only when they arise from an equality 7insensibility7 of temperament1 which is incapable of fine passion1 and is set ignobly1 and with a dullard mechanism1 on accuracy in vile things4 ,in the finest ,greek coins1 the letters of the inscriptions are purposely coarse and rude1 while the relievi are wrought with inestimable care4 ,but in an ,english coin1 the letters are the best done1 and the whole is unredeemably vulgar4 ,in a picture of ,titian's1 an inserted inscription will be complete in the lettering1 as all the rest is2 because it costs ,titian very little more trouble to draw rightly than wrongly1 and in him1 therefore1 impatience with the letters would be vulgar1 as in the ,greek sculptor of the coin1 patience would have been4 ,for the engraving of a letter accurately is difficult work1 and his time must have been unworthily thrown away4 #bb4 ,all the different impressions connected with negligence or foulness depend1 in like manner1 on the degree of insensibility implied4 ,disorder in a drawing-room is vulgar1 in an antiquary's study1 not2 the black battle-stain on a soldier's face is not vulgar1 but the dirty face of a housemaid is4 ,and lastly1 courage1 so far as it is a sign of race1 is peculiarly the mark of a gentleman or a lady3 but it becomes vulgar if rude or insensitive1 while timidity is not vulgar1 if it be a characteristic of race or fineness of make4 ,a fawn is not vulgar in being timid1 nor a crocodile gentle because courageous4 #bc4 ,without following the inquiry into farther detail1 we may conclude that vulgarity consists in a deadness of the heart and body1 resulting from prolonged1 and especially from inherited conditions of degeneracy1 or literally un-racing2--gentlemanliness being another word for an intense humanity4 ,and vulgarity shows itself primarily in dulness of heart1 not in rage or cruelty1 but in inability to feel or conceive noble character or emotion4 ,this is its essential1 pure1 and most fatal form4 ,dulness of bodily sense and general stupidity1 with such forms of crime as peculiarly issue from stupidity1 are its material manifestation4 #bd4 ,two years ago1 when ,i was first beginning to work out the subject1 and chatting with one of my keenest-minded friends 7,mr4 ,brett1 the painter of the ,val d',aosta in the ,exhibition of #ahei71 ,i casually asked him1 ,what is vulgarity8 merely to see what he would say1 not supposing it possible to get a sudden answer4 ,he thought for about a minute1 then answered quietly1 ,it is merely one of the forms of ,death4 ,i did not see the meaning of the reply at the time2 but on testing it1 found that it met every phase of the difficulties connected with the inquiry1 and summed the true conclusion4 ,yet1 in order to be complete1 it ought to be made a distinctive as well as conclusive definition2 showing what form of death vulgarity is2 for death itself is not vulgar1 but only death mingled with life4 ,i cannot1 however1 construct a short-worded definition which will include all the minor conditions of bodily degeneracy2 but the term deathful selfishness will embrace all the most fatal and essential forms of mental vulgarity4 ,modern ,painters1 vol4 v4 pt4 ix4 ch4 vii4 99 99 99 99 99 ,we ought always in pure ,english to use the term good breeding literally2 and to say good nurture for what we usually mean by good breeding4 ,given the race and make of the animal1 you may turn it to good or bad account2 you may spoil your good dog or colt1 and make him as vicious as you choose1 or break his back at once by ill-usage2 and you may1 on the other hand1 make something serviceable and respectable out of your poor cur and colt if you educate them carefully2 but ill-bred they will both of them be to their lives' end2 and the best you will ever be able to say of them is1 that they are useful1 and decently behaved1 ill-bred creatures4 ,an error1 which is associated with the truth1 and which makes it always look weak and disputable1 is the confusion of race with name2 and the supposition that the blood of a family must still be good1 if its genealogy be unbroken and its name not lost1 though sire and son have been indulging age after age in habits involving perpetual degeneracy of race4 ,of course it is equally an error to suppose that1 because a man's name is common1 his blood must be base2 since his family may have been ennobling it by pureness of moral habit for many generations1 and yet may not have got any title1 or other sign of nobleness1 attached to their names4 ,nevertheless1 the probability is always in favour of the race which has had acknowledged supremacy1 and in which every motive leads to the endeavour to preserve its true nobility4 ,modern ,painters1 vol4 v4 pt4 ix4 ch4 vii4 ,sec4 #c n4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the old ,english rough proverb is irrevocably true1--you can make no silk purse of a sow's ear4 ,and this great truth also holds--though it is a disagreeable one to look full in the face--that1 named or nameless1 no man can make himself a gentleman who was not born one4 ,if he lives a right life1 and cultivates all the powers1 and yet more all the sensibilities1 he is born with1 and chooses his wife well1 his own son will be more a gentleman than he is1 and he may see yet better blood than his son's in his grandchild's cheeks1 but he must be content to remain a clown himself--if he was born a clown4 ,modern ,painters1 vol4 v4 pt4 ix4 ch4 vii4 ,sec4 #c n4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the two great words which1 in their first use1 meant only perfection of race1 have come1 by consequence of the invariable connection of virtue with the fine human nature1 both to signify benevolence of disposition4 ,the word generous and the word gentle both1 in their origin1 meant only of pure race1 but because charity and tenderness are inseparable from this purity of blood1 the words which once stood only for pride1 now stand as synonymous for virtue4 ,the ,crown of ,wild ,olive1 ,sec4 #ajh4 99 99 99 99 99 ,what vulgarity is1 whether in manners1 acts1 or conceptions1 most well-educated persons understand2 but what it consists in1 or arises from1 is a more difficult question4 ,i believe that on strict analysis it will be found definable as the habit of mind and act resulting from the prolonged combination of insensibility with insincerity4 ,it would be more accurate to say1 constitutional insensibility2 for people are born vulgar1 or not vulgar1 irrevocably4 ,an apparent insensibility may often be caused by one strong feeling quenching or conquering another2 and this to the extent of involving the person in all kinds of cruelty and crime3 yet1 ,borgia or ,ezzelin1 lady and knight still2 while the born clown is dead in all sensation and capacity of thought1 whatever his acts or life may be4 ,cloten1 in ,cymbeline1 is the most perfect study of pure vulgarity1 which ,i know in literature2 ,perdita1 in ,winter's ,tale1 the most perfect study of its opposite 7irrespective of such higher virtue or intellect as we have in ,desdemona or ,portia74 ,perdita's exquisite openness1 joined with as exquisite sensitiveness1 constitute the precise opposite of the apathetic insincerity which is1 ,i believe1 the essence of vulgarity4 ,academy ,notes1 #ahei4 99 99 99 99 99 ,gentlemanliness in a limited sense may mean only the effect of careful education1 good society1 and refined habits of life1 on average temper and character4 ,deep and true gentlemanliness is based on intense sensibility and sincerity1 perfected by courage and other qualities of race1 as opposed to that union of insensibility with cunning1 which is the essence of vulgarity4 ,sir ,joshua and ,holbein1 ,sec4 #f n4 99 99 99 99 99 ,there is1 indeed1 perhaps1 no greater sign of innate and real vulgarity of mind or defective education than the want of power to understand the universality of the ideal truth2 the absence of sympathy with the colossal grasp of those intellects1 which have in them so much of divine1 that nothing is small to them1 nothing large2 but with equal and unoffended vision they take in the sum of the world1--,straw ,street and the seventh heaven1--in the same instant4 ,dante1 ,paradiso1 x4 #acc-cd4 ,a certain portion of this divine spirit is visible even in the lower examples of all the true men2 it is1 indeed1 perhaps1 the clearest test of their belonging to the true and great group1 that they are continually touching what to the multitude appear vulgarities4 ,the higher a man stands1 the more the word vulgar becomes unintelligible to him4 ,vulgar8 what1 that poor farmer's girl of ,william ,hunt's1 bred in the stable1 putting on her ,sunday gown1 and pinning her best cap1 out of the green and red pin-cushion6 ,not so2 she may be straight on the road to those high heavens1 and may shine hereafter as one of the stars in the firmament for ever4 ,nay1 even that lady in the satin bodice1 with her arm laid over a balustrade to show it1 and her eyes turned up to heaven to show them2 and the sportsman waving his rifle for the terror of beasts1 and displaying his perfect dress for the delight of men1 are kept1 by the very misery and vanity of them1 in the thoughts of a great painter1 at a sorrowful level1 somewhat above vulgarity4 ,it is only when the minor painter takes them on his easel1 that they become things for the universe to be ashamed of4 ,we may dismiss this matter of vulgarity in plain and few words1 at least as far as regards art4 ,there is never vulgarity in a whole truth1 however commonplace4 ,it may be unimportant or painful4 ,it cannot be vulgar4 ,vulgarity is only in concealment of truth1 or in affectation4 ,modern ,painters1 vol4 iii4 pt4 iv4 ch4 vii4 ,sec4 #i4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the first thing then that he has to do1 if unhappily his parents or masters have not done it for him1 is to find out what he is fit for4 ,in which inquiry a man may be safely guided by his likings1 if he be not also guided by his pride4 ,people usually reason in some such fashion as this3 ,i don't seem quite fit for a head-manager in the firm of ---- ,co41 therefore1 in all probability1 ,i am fit to be ,chancellor of the ,exchequer4 ,whereas1 they ought rather to reason thus3 ,i don't seem quite fit to be head-manager in the firm of ---- ,co41 but ,i dare say ,i might do something in a small greengrocery business2 ,i used to be a good judge of pease2 that is to say1 always trying lower instead of trying higher1 until they find bottom3 once well set on the ground1 a man may build up by degrees1 safely1 instead of disturbing every one in his neighbourhood by perpetual catastrophes4 ,but this kind of humility is rendered especially difficult in these days1 by the contumely thrown on men in humble employments4 ,the very removal of the massy bars which once separated one class of society from another1 has rendered it tenfold more shameful in foolish people's1 i4e41 in most people's eyes1 to remain in the lower grades of it1 than ever it was before4 ,when a man born of an artisan was looked upon as an entirely different species of animal from a man born of a noble1 it made him no more uncomfortable or ashamed to remain that different species of animal1 than it makes a horse ashamed to remain a horse1 and not to become a giraffe4 ,but now that a man may make money1 and rise in the world1 and associate himself1 unreproached1 with people once far above him1 not only is the natural discontentedness of humanity developed to an unheard-of extent1 whatever a man's position1 but it becomes a veritable shame to him to remain in the state he was born in1 and everybody thinks it his duty to try to be a gentleman4 ,persons who have any influence in the management of public institutions for charitable education know how common this feeling has become4 ,hardly a day passes but they receive letters from mothers who want all their six or eight sons to go to college1 and make the grand tour in the long vacation1 and who think there is something wrong in the foundations of society because this is not possible4 ,out of every ten letters of this kind1 nine will allege1 as the reason of the writers' importunity1 their desire to keep their families in such and such a station of life4 ,there is no real desire for the safety1 the discipline1 or the moral good of the children1 only a panic horror of the inexpressibly pitiable calamity of their living a ledge or two lower on the molehill of the world--a calamity to be averted at any cost whatever1 of struggle1 anxiety1 and shortening of life itself4 ,i do not believe that any greater good could be achieved for the country1 than the change in public feeling on this head1 which might be brought about by a few benevolent men1 undeniably in the class of gentlemen1 who would1 on principle1 enter into some of our commonest trades1 and make them honourable2 showing that it was possible for a man to retain his dignity1 and remain1 in the best sense1 a gentleman1 though part of his time was every day occupied in manual labour1 or even in serving customers over a counter4 ,i do not in the least see why courtesy1 and gravity1 and sympathy with the feelings of others1 and courage1 and truth1 and piety1 and what else goes to make up a gentleman's character1 should not be found behind a counter as well as elsewhere1 if they were demanded1 or even hoped for1 there4 ,pre-,raphaelitism1 ,sec4 #b4 99 99 99 99 99 ,as in nothing is a gentleman better to be discerned from a vulgar person1 so in nothing is a gentle nation 7such nations have been7 better to be discerned from a mob1 than in this1--that their feelings are constant and just1 results of due contemplation1 and of equal thought4 ,you can talk a mob into anything2 its feelings may be--usually are--on the whole1 generous and right2 but it has no foundation for them1 no hold of them2 you may tease or tickle it into any1 at your pleasure2 it thinks by infection1 for the most part1 catching an opinion like a cold1 and there is nothing so little that it will not roar itself wild about1 when the fit is on2--nothing so great but it will forget in an hour1 when the fit is past4 ,but a gentleman's1 or a gentle nation's1 passions are just1 measured1 and continuous4 ,sesame and ,lilies1 ,sec4 #cj4 99 99 99 99 99 ,whether it is indeed the gods who have given any gentleman the grace to despise the rabble depends wholly on whether it is indeed the rabble1 or he1 who are the malignant persons4 ,fiction1 ,fair and ,foul1 ,sec4 #df4 99 99 99 99 99 ,i have summed the needful virtue of men under the terms of gentleness and justice2 gentleness being the virtue which distinguishes gentlemen from churls1 and justice that which distinguishes honest men from rogues4 ,now gentleness may be defined as the ,habit or ,state of ,love1 and ungentleness or clownishness as the ,state or ,habit of ,lust4 ,now there are three great loves that rule the souls of men3 the love of what is lovely in creatures1 and of what is lovely in things1 and what is lovely in report4 ,and these three loves have each their relative corruption1 a lust--the lust of the flesh1 the lust of the eyes1 and the pride of life4 ,and1 as ,i have just said1 a gentleman is distinguished from a churl by the purity of sentiment he can reach in all these three passions2 by his imaginative love1 as opposed to lust2 his imaginative possession of wealth as opposed to avarice2 his imaginative desire of honour as opposed to pride4 ,fors ,clavigera1 ,letter #da4 99 99 99 99 99 ,of all essential things in a gentleman's bodily and moral training1 this is really the beginning--that he should have close companionship with the horse1 the dog1 and the eagle4 ,of all birthrights and bookrights--this is his first4 ,he needn't be a ,christian1--there have been millions of ,pagan gentlemen2 he needn't be kind--there have been millions of cruel gentlemen2 he needn't be honest1--there have been millions of crafty gentlemen4 ,he needn't know how to read1 or to write his own name4 ,but he must have horse1 dog1 and eagle for friends4 ,if then he has also ,man for his friend1 he is a noble gentleman2 and if ,god for his ,friend1 a king4 ,and if1 being honest1 being kind1 and having ,god and ,man for his friends1 he then gets these three brutal friends1 besides his angelic ones1 he is perfect in earth1 as for heaven4 ,for1 to be his friends1 these must be brought up with him1 and he with them4 ,falcon on fist1 hound at foot1 and horse part of himself--,eques1 ,ritter1 ,cavalier1 ,chevalier4 ,yes2--horse and dog you understand the good of2 but what's the good of the falcon1 think you8 ,to be friends with the falcon must mean that you love to see it soar2 that is to say1 you love fresh air and the fields4 ,farther1 when the ,law of ,god is understood1 you will like better to see the eagle free than the jessed hawk4 ,and to preserve your eagles' nests1 is to be a great nation4 ,it means keeping everything that is noble2 mountains and floods1 and forests1 and the glory and honour of them1 and all the birds that haunt them4 ,fors ,clavigera1 ,letter #ge4 ,,ballantyne ,,press1 ,,edinburgh 99 99 99 99 99 99,the ,works of ,ruskin99 ,these are published in various forms3-- #a4 ,the ,library ,edition1 now in course of issue4 ,this is the definitive and complete edition1 and contains much literary and personal matter1 not published in any other form4 ,it alone contains all ,ruskin's works4 ,this edition is strictly limited1 and should be subscribed for without delay4 #b4 ,the ,works ,edition4 #hvo4 #c4 ,the ,students' ,edition4 ,crown #hvo4 #d4 ,the ,pocket ,edition4 ,fcap4 #hvo4 7,see p4 #c et sqq474 ,intending ,subscribers to ,,the ,,library ,,edition can arrange for payment by annual instalments on application to the ,publisher4 ,information about any of the foregoing can be had of ,mr4 ,g4 ,allen1 #aef ,charing ,cross ,road1 ,london1 who will send complete ,catalogue on application4 99,ruskin ,reprints for the ,pocket99 99,fcap4 #hvo1 ,gilt tops1 ,gilt backs4 ,autograph on side499 ,,cloth ,,limp 4 4 4 #bs4 #f;d 7 ,,leather ,,limp 4 4 #cs4 #f;d 7 net per ,vol4 ,with ,indices ,,now ,,ready ,,sesame ,,and ,,lilies4 ,three ,lectures and ,long ,preface4 ,,the ,,crown ,,of ,,wild ,,olive4 ,essays on ,work1 ,traffic1 ,war1 and the ,future of ,england4 ,,the ,,two ,,paths4 ,on ,decoration and ,manufacture4 ,,time ,,and ,,tide4 ,on ,laws of ,work4 ,,lectures ,,on ,,art4 ,delivered at ,oxford in #ahgj4 ,a ,,joy ,,for ,,ever4 ,on the ,political ,economy of ,art4 ,,the ,,queen ,,of ,,the ,,air4 ,a ,study of ,greek ,myths4 ,,the ,,ethics ,,of ,,the ,,dust4 ,on the ,elements of ,crystallisation4 ,,the ,,elements ,,of ,,drawing4 ,with #ej ,woodcuts4 ,,the ,,eagle',s ,,nest4 ,on the ,relation of ,natural ,science to ,art4 ,,munera ,,pulveris4 ,on the ,elements of ,political ,economy ,,frondes ,,agrestes4 ,readings in ,modern ,painters4 ,,mornings ,,in ,,florence4 ,studies of ,christian ,art4 ,,st4 ,,mark',s ,,rest4 ,the ,history of ,venice4 ,,the ,,stones ,,of ,,venice4 ,vol4 ,i4 ,selections for ,travellers4 ,,the ,,stones ,,of ,,venice4 ,vol4 ,,ii4 ,selections for ,travellers4 99 99 99 99 99 ,,in ,,preparation 99,,ruskin ,,treasuries99 99,a ,series of little ,books on ,,life1 ,,art1 ,,trade1 ,,work1 c41 c499 99,demy #cbmo1 ,cloth1 #f;d4 each net2 ,leather1 gilt1 #as4 each net99 ,list of ,titles-- ,wealth4 ,women and ,dress4 ,girlhood4 ,religion4 ,art4 ,education and ,youth4 ,the ,dignity of ,man4 ,vulgarity4 ,liberty and ,government4 ,economy4 ,maxims4 ,trade and ,money4 ,books and ,reading4 ,the ,bible4 ,shakespeare4 ,the ,greek ,poets4 ,the ,latin ,poets4 ,dante4 ,architecture4 ,artists 7,various74 ,sculpture4 ,engraving and ,photography4