RUSK IN 



tyl* gave it a place in literature ; the originality 

 of iU view*, the lofty conception of the painter s 

 art displayed in it, and the evident justness of 

 much of tlie criticism, secured recognition. Dis- 

 cipleii anon appeared ; and the view* of art enunci- 

 ated by Kuskin gradually made way, and have 

 largely determined the course and charncUT of 

 later English art. The lir-t volume wait published 

 in a much altered form in 1846. The Ml three 

 volumes contained illustrations by the author. A 

 n-M-e.1 and altered edition appeared in 1860-67 ; 

 another in 1873; nnd an edition in -i\ volumes, 

 with some additional plates, an epilogue, and new 

 index, in 1889. In 1849 appeared J'hr Seven Lamps 

 of Architecture ; and in 1851-53 The Stonet of 

 Venice, both being efforts to introduce a new and 

 loftier conception of the significance of domestic 

 architecture. They were exqui.sitely illustrated 

 by tlie author himself. About this time Pre- 

 Raphaelitism (q.v.) l>egan to develop itself as a 

 di-tinctivc phase of modern art, and Ruskin 

 warmly espoused its cause in letters, pamphlets, 

 and .\'<>ta on the Academy Exhibition (1855-60). 

 He was the earliest literary advocate of this school, 

 whose leading principle he defined as the resolve 

 'to paint things as they proliably did look and' 

 happen, not as, by rules of art developed under 

 Raphael, they might be supposed gracefully, de- 

 lii-inii.-ly. or sublimely to have happened.' 



In 1854 he published four admirable and sug- 

 gestive Lectures on Architecture ami Painting ; and 

 in 1858 two Lecture* on the Political Economy of 

 Art. The Note* on the Construction of Sheepfolds 

 (1851), dealing with the discipline of the church, 

 illustrate his ingenuity in devising picturesque 

 titles that suggest no notion of the subject treated. 

 The King of the Golden Hirer, a fairy story, was 

 published in 1851 ; and in 1854 The Two Paths, 

 lectures on art and its application to decoration 

 and manufacture. The Element* of Drawing and 

 the Element* of Perspective appeared in 1857 and 

 L1859. The Crown of Wild Olive is a series of four 

 ' essays on work, traffic, war, and the future of Eng- 

 land ; Sesame and Lilies, lectures on good litera- 

 ture. The Queen of the Air is a study of the Greek 

 myths of cloud and storm ; Ethics of the Dust, 

 lectures on crystallisation ; Ariadne Florentina, 

 on wood and metal engraving; Aratra Pentelici, 

 on the principles of sculpture. The Laws of Fesole 

 are the elements of painting and drawing ; Fronde* 

 Atfrestes are readings from 'Modern Painters;' 

 Gtotto and Hi* Works, Love's Meinie (on Birds), 

 and Deucalion ( on Geology ) are other publications. 

 Afunera Pulverit contains the elements of political 

 economy according to Kuskin ; while Unto this Last 

 in Kuskin's opinion, the best of his works 

 attacks the current doctrines of the ' dismal 

 science.' Val d'Arno contains lectures on the art 

 of the 13th century in Pisa and Florence ; later 

 courses dealt with the modern art of England and 

 English history ( Pleasures of England). Mornings 

 in Florence are studies of Christian art for Eng- 

 lish travellers; and St Mark's lieit is on the history 

 of Venice. The Eagle's Nett discusses the relation 

 of natural science to art ; Time and Tide are letters 

 to a working-man of Sunderland. Arrows of the 

 Chare is a selection of his letters ; On the Old Road 

 is tlie title of a repnblication of his miscellaneous 

 pamphlets, articles, and ess:n contributed to 

 various reviews and magazines, containing famous 

 utterances on Samuel Prout, the History of Chris- 

 tian Art, the Lord's Prayer, the 'Coitus of 

 Aglaia,' &c. An early volume of poems, issued 

 for private circulation, became a ranch sought after 

 bibliographical treasure; in 1891 it was reprinted 

 (in 2 vols.) with many additional pieces and illustra- 

 tion- from tlif author'* drawings. For* Clavigera 

 appeared as a sort of periodical at irregular inter- 



vals for several years, in the fonn of letters to the 

 workmen and laltourere of Great Britain, on a 

 great variety of topics (vols. i.-viii. with full 

 index, 1887). I'rotcrjtina, published in the same 

 way, gives studies of wayside flowers, llorliit 

 Iiiclusut ( 1887 ) is a series of letters ' to the ladies 

 of the Thwaite,' Second-hand copies of the early 

 works are still eagerly bought up at high prices; 

 thus, the old edition of Minimi I'uintirx, worth 6, 

 ln>. at its publication in 1860-67, has repeatedly 

 lieen sold since 1880 for 30 or 35. All Mi 

 Hiiskin'a books were for a time published privately 

 at Orpington in Kent ; but eventually he published 

 them through an agent of his own in the usual way, 

 except that the author insisted on their Ix-ing mid 

 at net prices. From 1869 till 1879 Ruskin was 

 Slade professor of Art at Oxford ; in 1871 he gave 

 5000 for the endowment of a master of drawing 

 there ; in 1883 he was re-elected professor, but 

 resigned in the following year. HewasaD.C.L. of 

 Oxford, and an honorary student of Christ Church. 

 In 1871 the degree of LL.D. was bestowed upon 

 him by the university of Cambridge. Subsequently 

 he founded a museum at VValkley, near Sheffield 

 (in 1890 transferred to Sheffield itself), where 

 he bestowed part of his own priceless library and 

 art treasures. In his later years he established 

 himself at Brantwood, on Coniston Lake, in the 

 Lake Country. He died 20th January 1900. 



Ruskin is or was primarily a critic of art ; but, as 

 the titles of his works indicate, his teaching has 

 extended over a wide area. Art for him is closely 

 and inseparably bound up with truth, w ith morals, 

 with religion ; and in most department* of political 

 philosophy, in social and political economy, Ruskin 

 lias been constant, in season and out of season, in 

 lifting up his testimony against what he conceives 

 to be low views, perverted ideals, coarse and vulgar 

 complacencies. Like Carlyle, whose pupil he pro- 

 fesses to be, he holds the world in these later days 

 to have gone on a wrong tack ; in hi- views of 

 nature and life he is, he says, ' alone in the midst 

 of a modern crowd, which rejects them all,' and 

 has to ' maintain himself against the contradiction 

 of every one of his best friends.' Within the 

 sphere of art criticism he declares that an important 

 part of his life-work has been to teach ' tlie su- 

 premacy of five great painters, despised lill lie .-[Mike 

 of them Turner, Tintoret. I.uini, Bottieelli, and 

 Carpaccio.' His life-long contention with political 

 economy is based on the Belief t hut the science has 

 been used to inculcate the unchecked 'and competi- 

 tive pursuit of merely material wealth. He affirms 

 broadly that his Munera Pulverit contains the lii-i 

 accurate analysis of the laws of political economy 

 which has liecn pubjished in England. AVhat is 

 usually called political economy is in reality 

 nothing more than the investigation of some acci 

 dental phenomena of modern commercial opera- 

 tions, and has no connection with political ecom>m\ 

 as treated by the great thinkers of the past MOO 

 as Plato, Xenophou, Cicero, Bacon. True political 

 economy regulates the acts and hahits of a society 

 or state, with reference to its maintenance, as 

 domestic economy doe- those of a household. It i- 

 neiiher an art nor a science, but a system of con 

 duct and legislation, founded on the science-. 

 directing the arts, and impossible except nndi r 

 certain conditions of moral culture. By tlie main- 

 tenance of the state, w hich is the ohject of political 

 economy, is to be understood the sup|K>rt of its 

 jiopulatlon in healthy and happy life, and the 

 increase of their numbers, so far as is consistent 

 with their happiness. It i- tin' multiplication of 

 human life at the highest standard,' cherishing and 

 developing the noblest type of manhood, alike in 

 beantv, in intelligence, and in character. The 

 wealth of which Kuskin takes cognisance is not 



