Selections From the Works of John Ruskin

64

Kings xxiii, 18, and Hosea x, 7.

65

Iliad, 3. 243. In the MS. Ruskin notes, "The insurpassably tender irony in the epithet—'life-giving earth'—of the grave"; and then adds another illustration:—"Compare the hammer-stroke at the close of the [32d] chapter of Vanity Fair—'The darkness came down on the field and city, and Amelia was praying for George, who was lying on his face, dead, with a bullet through his heart. A great deal might have been said about it. The writer is very sorry for Amelia, neither does he want faith in prayer. He knows as well as any of us that prayer must be answered in some sort; but those are the facts. The man and woman sixteen miles apart–one on her knees on the floor, the other on his face in the clay. So much love in her heart, so much lead in his. Make what you can of it." [Cook and Wedderburn.]

66

The poem may be crudely paraphrased as follows:—

"Quick, Anna, quick! to the mirror! It is late,And I'm to dance at the ambassador's …I'm going to the ball …"They're faded, see,These ribbons—they belong to yesterday.Heavens, how all things pass! Now gracefully hangThe blue tassels from the net that holds my hair."Higher!—no, lower!—you get nothing right!…Now let this sapphire sparkle on my brow.You're pricking me, you careless thing! That's good!I love you, Anna dear. How fair I am...."I hope he'll be there, too—the one I've triedTo forget! no use! (Anna, my gown!) he too …necklace, this?These golden beads the Holy Father blessed?)"He'll be there—Heavens! suppose he takes my hand—I scarce can draw my breath for thinking of it!And I confess to Father AnselmoTo-morrow—how can I ever tell him all?…One last glance at the mirror. O, I'm sureThat they'll adore me at the ball to-night."Before the fire she stands admiringly.O God! a spark has leapt into her gown.Fire, fire!—O run!—Lost thus when mad with hope?What, die? and she so fair? The hideous flamesRage greedily about her arms and breast,Envelop her, and leaping ever higher,Swallow up all her beauty, pitiless—Her eighteen years, alas! and her sweet dream.Adieu to ball, to pleasure, and to love!"Poor Constance!" said the dancers at the ball,"Poor Constance!"—and they danced till break of day.

67

Isaiah xiv, 8.

68

Isaiah lv, 12.

69

Night Thoughts, 2. 345.

70

Pastorals: Summer, or Alexis, 73 ff., with the omission of two couplets after the first.

71

From the poem beginning 'T is said that some have died for love, Ruskin evidently quoted from memory, for there are several verbal slips in the passage quoted.

72

Stanza 16, of Shenstone's twenty-sixth Elegy.

73

The Excursion, 6. 869 ff.

74

I cannot quit this subject without giving two more instances, both exquisite, of the pathetic fallacy, which I have just come upon, in Maud:—

For a great speculation had fail'd;And ever he mutter'd and madden'd, and ever wann'd with despair;And out he walk'd, when the wind like a broken worldling wail'd,And the flying gold of the ruin'd woodlands drove thro' the air.There has fallen a splendid tearFrom the passion-flower at the gate.The red rose cries, "She is near, she is near!"And the white rose weeps, "She is late."The larkspur listens, "I hear, I hear!" And the lily whispers, "I wait."           [Ruskin.]

75

Endymion, 2. 349-350.

76

See p. 68.

77

Iliad, 21. 212-360.

78

Compare Lay of the Last Minstrel, canto i. stanza 15, and canto v. stanza 2. In the first instance, the river-spirit is accurately the Homeric god, only Homer would have believed in it,—Scott did not, at least not altogether. [Ruskin.]

79

The Excursion, 4. 861-871.

80

Genesis xxviii, 12; xxxii, 1; xxii, 11; Joshua v, 13 ff.; Judges xiii, 3 ff.

81

Iliad, 5. 846.

82

Iliad, 1. 43.

83

Iliad, 21. 489 ff.

84

Compare the exquisite lines of Longfellow on the sunset in The Golden Legend:—

The day is done; and slowly from the sceneThe stooping sun up-gathers his spent shafts.And puts them back into his golden quiver.[Ruskin.]

85

Iliad, 3. 365.

86

Iliad, 3. 406 ff.

87

Iliad, 4. 141. [Ruskin.]

88

Odyssey, 5. 63-74.

89

Iliad, 2. 776. [Ruskin.]

90

Odyssey 7. 112-132.

91

Odyssey, 24. 334 ff.

92

Odyssey, 6. 162.

93

Odyssey, 6. 291-292.

94

Odyssey, 10. 510. [Ruskin.]

95

Compare the passage in Dante referred to above, p. 60. [Ruskin.]

96

Iliad, 4. 482-487.

97

Pollards, trees polled or cut back at some height above the ground, producing a thick growth of young branches in a rounded mass.

98

Quoted, with some omission, from chapter 12.

99

Odyssey, 11. 572; 24. 13. The couch of Ceres, with Homer's usual faithfulness, is made of a ploughed field, 5. 127. [Ruskin.]

100

Odyssey, 12. 45.

101

Odyssey, 4. 605.

102

Iliad, 21. 351.

103

Odyssey, 5. 398, 463. [Ruskin.]

104

Odyssey, 12. 357. [Ruskin.]

105

Odyssey, 5. 481-493.

106

Odyssey, 9. 132, etc. Hence Milton's

From haunted spring, and dale,Edged with poplar pale.[Ruskin.]

Hymn on The Morning of Christ's Nativity, 184-185.

107

Odyssey, 9. 182.

108

Odyssey, 10. 87-88.

109

Odyssey, 13. 236, etc. [Ruskin.]

110

Educated, as we shall see hereafter, first in this school. Turner gave the hackneyed composition a strange power and freshness, in his Glaucus and Scylla. [Ruskin.]

111

Flodden, Flodden Field, a plain in Northumberland, famous as the battlefield where James IV of Scotland was defeated by an English army under the Earl of Surrey, Sept. 9, 1513. The sixth canto of Scott's Marmion gives a fairly accurate description of the action.

Chevy-Chase, a famous old English ballad recounting the incidents of the battle of Otterburn [Aug. 19, 1388] in which the Scots under the Earl of Douglas defeated the English under the Percies.

112

Shenstone's Rural Elegance, 201 ff., quoted with some slight inaccuracies.

113

Clouds, 316-318; 380 ff.; 320-321.

114

Ephesians ii, 12.

115

Wordsworth's "The world is too much with us."

116

Pre-Raphaelitism, of course, excepted, which is a new phase of art, in no wise considered in this chapter. Blake was sincere, but full of wild creeds, and somewhat diseased in brain. [Ruskin.]

117

Gower Street, a London street selected as typical of modern ugliness.

Gaspar Poussin [1613-75], a French landscape painter, of the pseudo-classical school.

118

Of course this is meant only of the modern citizen or country-gentleman, as compared with a citizen of Sparta or old Florence. I leave it to others to say whether the "neglect of the art of war" may or may not, in a yet more fatal sense, be predicated of the English nation. War, without art, we seem, with God's help, able still to wage nobly. [Ruskin.]

119

See David Copperfield, chap. 55 and 58. [Ruskin.]

120

Ruskin proceeds to discuss Scott as he has discussed Homer. The chapter on Turner that follows here is an almost equally good illustration of Ruskin's ideas.

121

c. 1478-1511.

122

Dante, alluding to Florence, Paradiso, 25. 5. "From the fair sheepfold, where a lamb I slumbered." Longfellow's tr.

123

Allusions to pictures by Turner, The Garden of the Hesperides, and The Meuse: Orange-Merchantman going to pieces on the Bar.

124

The pictures referred to are: The Death of Nelson, The Battle of Trafalgar, and The Fighting Téméraire being towed to its Last Berth (see cut). The first and third are in the National Gallery, London.

125

Matthew xxiii, 14.

126

Santa Maria della Salute, a church conspicuously situated at the junction of the Grand Canal and the Giudecca.

127

Liber Studiorum. "Interior of a church." It is worthy of remark that Giorgione and Titian are always delighted to have an opportunity of drawing priests. The English Church may, perhaps, accept it as matter of congratulation that this is the only instance in which Turner drew a clergyman. [Ruskin.]

128

1785.

129

Wolsey's famous palace, twelve miles from London.

130

I do not mean that this is his first acquaintance with the country, but the first impressive and touching one, after his mind was formed. The earliest sketches I found in the National Collection are at Clifton and Bristol; the next, at Oxford. [Ruskin.]

131

The reference is to the two famous ruined abbeys of Yorkshire—Whitby and Bolton.

132

The Tenth Plague of Egypt. [Ruskin.]

133

Rizpah, the Daughter of Aiah. [Ruskin.]

134

Dürer [1471-1528], German painter, engraver, and designer. Salvator [1615-73], Italian painter, etcher, satirical poet, and musical composer.

135

I.e., between November 17, 1796, and June 18, 1815.

136

Joel iii, 13.

137

The palace of the Camerlenghi, beside the Rialto, is a graceful work of the early Renaissance (1525) passing into Roman Renaissance. [Adapted from Ruskin.]

138

Signifying approximately "Keep to the right."

139

See note 1, p. 129.

140

Childe Harold, 4. 1.

141

Marino Faliero, 3. 1. 22 ff.

142

Dandolo [c. 1108-1205] and Foscari [1372-1457] were among the most famous of Venetian Doges.

143

In the battle of Custozza, 1848, the Austrians defeated the Piedmontese.

144

Acts xiii, 13 and xv, 38, 39. [Ruskin.]

145

The reader who desires to investigate it may consult Galliciolli, Delle Memorie Venete (Venice, 1795), tom. 2, p. 332, and the authorities quoted by him. [Ruskin.]

146

Venice, 1761 tom. 1, p. 126. [Ruskin.]

147

A wonderful City, such as was never seen before.

148

St. Mark's Place, "partly covered by turf, and planted with a few trees; and on account of its pleasant aspect called Brollo or Broglio, that is to say, Garden." The canal passed through it, over which is built the bridge of the Malpassi. Galliciolli, lib. I, cap. viii. [Ruskin.]

149

My authorities for this statement are given below, in the chapter on the Ducal Palace. [Ruskin.]

150

In the Chronicles, Sancti Marci Ducalis Cappdla. [Ruskin.]

151

"To God the Lord, the glorious Virgin Annunciate, and the Protector St. Mark."—Corner, p. 14. It is needless to trouble the reader with the various authorities for the above statements: I have consulted the best. The previous inscription once existing on the church itself:

Anno milleno transacto bisque trigeno Desuper undecimo fuit facta primo,

is no longer to be seen, and is conjectured by Corner, with much probability, to have perished "in qualche ristauro." [Ruskin.]

152

Signed Bartolomeus Bozza, 1634, 1647, 1656, etc. [Ruskin.]

153

An obvious slip. The mosaic is on the west wall of the south transept. [Cook and Wedderburn.]

154

Guida di Venezia, p. 6. [Ruskin.]

155

Fritters and liquors for sale.

156

Antony and Cleopatra, 2. 5. 29.

157

Matthew xxi, 12 and John ii, 16.

158

The third kind of ornament, the Renaissance, is that in which the inferior detail becomes principal, the executor of every minor portion being required to exhibit skill and possess knowledge as great as that which is possessed by the master of the design; and in the endeavour to endow him with this skill and knowledge, his own original power is overwhelmed, and the whole building becomes a wearisome exhibition of well-educated imbecility. We must fully inquire into the nature of this form of error, when we arrive at the examination of the Renaissance schools. [Ruskin.]

159

Job xix, 26.

160

Matthew viii, 9.

161

Vide Preface to Fair Maid of Perth. [Ruskin.]

162

The Elgin marbles are supposed by many persons to be "perfect". In the most important portions they indeed approach perfection, but only there. The draperies are unfinished, the hair and wool of the animals are unfinished, and the entire bas-reliefs of the frieze are roughly cut. [Ruskin.]

163

May-day processions in honour of the Virgin.

164

Genesis xi, 4.

165

See pp. 225 ff.

166

In heartfelt trust Johannes Mooter and Maria Rubi had this house erected. May dear God shield us from all perils and misfortune; and let His blessing rest upon it during the journey through this wretched life up to heavenly Paradise where the pious dwell. There will God reward them with the Crown of Peace to all eternity.

167

Baptistery of Pisa, circular, of marble, with dome two hundred feet high, embellished with numerous columns, is a notable work of the twelfth century. The pulpit is a masterpiece of Nicola Pisano. Casa d'Oro at Venice is noted for its elegance. It was built in the fourteenth century. The Cathedral of Lisieux dates chiefly from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and contains many works of art. The Palais de Justice is of the fifteenth century. It was built for the Parliament of the Province.

168

This cathedral, destroyed in 1799, was one of the most beautiful in all Normandy.

169

Dante.

170

Coleridge's Ode to France.

171

Hubert Van Eyck [1366-1440]. The great Flemish master.

172

A hollowed moulding. [New Eng. Dict.]

173

Turner.

174

The tool of the engraver on copper.

175

See Paradise Lost, 6. 207 ff., and Hesiod's Theogony, 676 ff.

176

Henry V, 4. 3. 29.

177

Luke ii, 14.

178

"Forward go the banners of the King," or more commonly, "The royal banners forward go." One of the seven great hymns of the Church. See the Episcopal Hymnal, 94.

179

Dante, Inferno, 3. 60. "Who made through cowardice the great refusal." Longfellow's tr.

180

Lyridas, 109.

181

Nelson's famous signal at Trafalgar.

182

Milton's Il Penseroso, 170 ff.

183

Psalms i, 3.

184

As Slade Professor, Ruskin held a three years' appointment at Oxford.

185

This story comes from Pliny, Natural History, 35. 36; the two rival painters alternately showing their skill by the drawing of lines of increasing fineness.

186

This story comes from Vasari's Lives of the Painters. See Blashfield and Hopkins's ed. vol. 1, p. 61. Giotto was asked by a messenger of the Pope for a specimen of his work, and sent a perfect circle, drawn free hand.

187

Timothy vi, 10.

188

In Modern Painters, vol. 1.

189

The quotation is from Vasari's account of Angelico's Last Judgment (now in the Accademia at Florence). [Cook and Wedderbum.]

190

Song of Solomon i, 6.

191

Cf. Classical Landscape, pp. 92-93.

192

Isaiah, ii, 4; Micah iv, 3; Joel iii, 10.

193

The name of St. George, the "Earthworker," or "Husbandman." [Ruskin.]

194

Luke xxiv, 35.

195

Virgil, Æneid, 3, 209. seqq. [Ruskin.]

196

Acts xiv, 17.

197

Psalms i, 3.

198

Genesis xxiv, 15, 16 and xxix, 10; Exodus ii, 16; John iv, 11.

199

Osborne Gordon. [Ruskin.]

200

The Flamboyant Architecture of the Valley of the Somme, a lecture delivered at the Royal Institution, January 29, 1869.

201

The elaborate pediment above the central porch at the west end of Rouen Cathedral, pierced into a transparent web of tracery, and enriched with a border of "twisted eglantine." [Ruskin.]

202

Jeremiah xxxi, 29.

203

Delivered in the Town Hall, Bradford, April 21, 1864.

204

Matthew v, 6.

205

Scott's Lay of the Last Minstrel, canto 1, stanza 4.

206

The reference was to the reluctance of this country to take arms in defence of Denmark against Prussia and Austria. [Cook and Wedderburn.]

207

See, e.g., pp. 167 ff. and 270 ff.

208

Inigo Jones [1573-1652] and Sir Christopher Wren [1632-1723] were the best known architects of their respective generations.

209

Genesis xxviii, 17.

210

Matthew xxiv, 27.

211

Matthew vi, 6.

212

And all other arts, for the most part; even of incredulous and secularly-minded commonalties. [Ruskin.]

213

1 Corinthians i, 23.

214

For further interpretation of Greek mythology see Ruskin's Queen of the Air.

215

It is an error to suppose that the Greek worship, or seeking, was chiefly of Beauty. It was essentially of Rightness and Strength, founded on Forethought: the principal character of Greek art is not beauty, but design: and the Dorian Apollo-worship and Athenian Virgin-worship are both expressions of adoration of divine wisdom and purity. Next to these great deities, rank, in power over the national mind, Dionysus and Ceres, the givers of human strength and life; then, for heroic example, Hercules. There is no Venus-worship among the Greeks in the great times: and the Muses are essentially teachers of Truth, and of its harmonies. [Ruskin.]

216

Tetzel's trading in Papal indulgences aroused Luther to the protest which ended in the Reformation.

217

Matthew xxi, 12.

218

Jeremiah xvii, 11 (best in Septuagint and Vulgate). "As the partridge, fostering what she brought not forth, so he that getteth riches not by right shall leave them in the midst of his days, and at his end shall be a fool." [Ruskin.]

219

Meaning, fully, "We have brought our pigs to it." [Ruskin.]

220

Cf. Hamlet, 5. 1. 306.

221

Referring to a lecture on Modern Manufacture and Design, delivered at Bradford, March 1, 1859 published later as Lecture III in The Two Paths.

222

See Wordsworth's Rob Roy's Grave, 39-40.

223

1 Kings x, 27.

224

A beautiful ruin in Yorkshire.

225

Cf. Tennyson's The Brook.

226

Genesis vi, 2.

227

Deuteronomy xxxii, 5.

228

Daniel iii, 1.

229

Proverbs iii, 17.

230

Acts vii, 48.

231

Isaiah xl, 12.

232

I have sometimes been asked what this means. I intended it to set forth the wisdom of men in war contending for kingdoms, and what follows to set forth their wisdom in peace, contending for wealth. [Ruskin.]

233

See Wordsworth's poem, My heart leaps up when I behold.

234

See Genesis ii, 15, and the opening lines of the first selection in this volume.

235

Joshua ix, 21.

236

In his Discourses on Art. Cf. pp. 24 ff. above.

237

See The Two Paths, §§ 28 et seq. [Ruskin.]

238

References mainly to the Irish Land Question, on which Ruskin agreed with Mill and Gladstone in advocating the establishment of a peasant-proprietorship in Ireland.

239

Genesis iii, 19.

240

Ecclesiastes ix, 10.

241

Hebrews xi, 4.

242

During the famine in the Indian province of Orissa.

243

Athena, goddess of weaving.

244

Proverbs xxxi, 19-22, 24.

245

Jeremiah xxxviii, 11.

246

Matthew xxv, 43.

247

Matthew xxv, 43.

248

Revelation vi, 13.

249

Jeremiah xi, 8.

250

James iv, 14.

251

Psalms xxxix, 6 and Revelation xiv, 11.

252

Ecclesiastes ix, 10.

253

Psalms civ, 4.

254

Revelation i, 7.

255

Daniel vii, 10.

256

Dies Iræ, the name generally given (from the opening words) to the most famous of the mediæval hymns, usually ascribed to the Franciscan Thomas of Celano (died c. 1255). It is composed in triplets of rhyming trochaic tetrameters, and describes the Last Judgment in language of magnificent grandeur, passing into a plaintive plea for the souls of the dead.