31 
YOU ARE REVEALED IN YOUR WORK. 
The faults of a work of art are the faults of its workman, and 
its virtues his virtues. 
Great art is the expression of the mind of a great man, and 
mean art that of the want of mind of a weak man. A foolish 
person builds foolishly, and a wise one, sensibly ; a virtuous one, 
beautifully ; and a vicious one, basely. If stone work is well put 
together, it means that a thoughtful man planned it, anda careful 
man cut it, and an honest man cemented it. If it has too much 
ornament, it means that its carver was too greedy of pleasure ; 
if too little, that he was rude, or insensitive, or stupid, and the 
like. So that when once you have learned how to spell these 
most precious of all legends, pictures and buildings—you may read 
the characters of men, and of nations, in their art, as in a mirror; 
nay, as in a microscope, and magnified a hundred-fold; for the 
character becomes passionate in the art, and intensifies itself in 
all its noblest or meanest delights. Nay, not only as in a micro- 
scope, but as under a scalpel, and in dissection ; for a man may 
hide himself from you, or misrepresent himself to you, every 
other way ; but he cannot in his work ; there, be sure, you have 
him to the inmost. All that he likes, all that he sees, all that 
he can do,—his imagination, his affections, his perseverance, his 
impatience, his clumsiness, cleverness, everything is there. If 
the work is a cobweb, you know it was made by a spider; if a 
honeycomb, by a bee ; a worm-cast is thrown up by a worm; and 
a nest wreathed by a bird ; and a house built by a man, worthily, 
if he is worthy, and ignobly, if he is ignoble. 
And always, from the least to the greatest, as the made thing 
is good or bad, so is the maker of it.— John Ruskin. 
Life without Industry is guilt. 
Industry without Art is brutality. 
The President, Mr. W. Lewis Grant, said the Lecturer was well- 
known in Manchester and district for the practical work he had 
done in spreading a true knowledge and appreciation of the 
principles of art. His name was associated with movements 
having lofty ideals, and he might congratulate himself and those 
who had worked with him on the good they had effected. 
The Lecturer, before the lights were turned down for the 
lantern illustrations, explained that he had preferred the word 
“‘workmanship ” to art, because art, like the word ‘ religion,” 
had been somewhat dishonoured and bastardised in its association 
with all kinds of extreme things. He therefore used the word 
