GIOTTO'S GOSPEL OF LABOR. 



87 



per cent, is all that the poor banker can ob- 

 tain. 



And now the question will assuredly be 

 asked, How much longer is one per cent, to last? 

 Probably for some time longer. At this present 

 moment there is a nutter upward, but it seems 

 to arise from an accidental and temporary cause. 

 The Government is a borrower, and so large a 

 customer has a certain effect for a time. But 

 this is not a permanent force: as the revenue 

 flows in, the borrowing will cease, and the sub- 

 stantial rate of the nation will assert its suprem- 

 acy. Poverty is mended only by saving ; and 

 saving, except under very exceptional circum- 

 stances, is a slow process. A nation like Eng- 

 land, whose customers cover the whole world, is 

 bound up with the fortunes of countries of the 

 most diverse commercial conditions. That the 

 construction of railways will be revived, and 



will be pushed on with the wonted vigor, is in- 

 dubitable ; it is a necessity of civilization ; but 

 when will the work recommence ? That no one 

 is scarcely able to predict. And if the United 

 States renews her railway-labors, will she buy 

 her iron of herself or of England '? That is a 

 question which experience alone will be able to 

 answer. So also of other commodities, and of 

 other countries. Will they draw their supplies 

 from England or from elsewhere ? For our 

 part, we believe in England, in her manly intel- 

 ligence, her indomitable industry, her resolution 

 and courage under difficulties, her long experi- 

 ence, her vast resources of capital, and, not 

 least, in her perfect faith in free-trade. But she 

 and her customers have lived beyond their 

 means : and they must submit to the discomforts 

 of convalescence. 



— The Contemporary Review. 



GIOTTO'S GOSPEL OF LABOR. 1 



By SIDNEY COLVIN. 



I AM going to ask you to study with me a 

 series of old sculptures in Florence. 1 The 

 series consists of twenty-six subjects carved in 

 relief round the base of the great bell-tower of 

 the city. They were begun almost four hundred 

 and fifty years ago, and their workmanship is 

 very simple ; at first sight, perhaps, you will think 

 it very rough. But I hope to show you what 

 power and purpose there is in that simplicity, 

 and how completely, in these few manful strokes 

 of the old Tuscan chisel, the genius of a great 

 people is expressed. 



When I say that these sculptures express the 

 whole genius of a people, I only say what is true, 

 in a greater or less degree, of every work of art. 

 Every work of art contains the record, if, we 

 know how to read it, not only of the skill and 

 fancy of the workman who produced it, but of 



1 The two lectures of which the substance is here 

 abridged were illustrated for a popular audience, by 

 help of the oxy-hydrogen liyht, with elides reduced 

 from a set of photographs taken at the instance of 

 Mr. Ruskiu in 1874, and published by Mr. Goodban. 

 of Florence. To Mr. Ruskin I feel that I owe not only 

 thanks for the materials I have thus been enabled to 

 use, but also apologies for attempting to work out a 

 subject upon portions of which his genius has already 

 Bet its mark.— S. C. 



the thoughts and the civilization of those among 

 whom he lived. It is because of this concen- 

 trated human and historical significance which 

 belongs to them that the study of the works of 

 art is so especially fruitful. You are all familiar 

 with the division of educational studies into two 

 great classes, the class of real or Nature studies, 

 which make up what is called a scientific educa- 

 tion, and the class of literary or humane studies, 

 which make up what is called a classical educa- 

 tion. Between the partisans of science and the 

 partisans of literature there has at times been 

 hot debate, each claiming preeminent if not ex- 

 clusive excellence for their own range of studies. 

 The study of the works of fine art has found, by 

 comparison, little place in our discussion of edu- 

 cational systems. Nevertheless, it constitutes, in 

 a manner, a third order of studies lying half-way 

 between the other two and combining some of 

 the characteristic excellences of both. For the 

 study of the works of fine art is akin to the 

 physical sciences on the one hand, in that it is a 

 study not of words but of objects, and investi- 

 gates the properties of things that can be seen 

 and handled ; and it is akin to literature and the 

 classics on the other hand, in that, in objects, 

 the properties it discriminates are properties 



