But whoever reads Ruskin without knowledge of the man himself is likely to be so affected by his dogmatic way of putting things that the value of what he says is minimized.

For valuable assistance in the compilation of the notes, I am indebted to Mr. James R. Hulbert, of the

University of Chicago.

Chicago, 1906.

J. W. L.

INTRODUCTION

I.

RUSKIN'S LIFE.

John Ruskin (born 1819, died 1900) had a singular youth. Until he was seventeen and went to Oxford he was absolutely sheltered from the world, knowing almost no one outside of his own family. Even at

Oxford he lived under the careful eye of his mother, who left her home and husband in London to watch over her only son. Aware only of his own small circle, of which he was conscious all the while that he was the center; extremely precocious, with gifts and powers far above the ordinary;-living, in his own words, "a very small, perky, contented, conceited, Cock-Robinson-Crusoe sort of life," he fastened upon himself at this time a kind of shell ("conceit," he calls it, but it is not that), which he never wholly got rid of. And though he was personally the most gentle and generous of men, his writings show an almost querulous dogmatism which is repellent to those who do not know his life as wholehis consistent sweetness, sensitiveness, and modesty, and his passionate earnestness for what he believed to be the truth. It brought upon him abuse and ridicule, and plunged him into controversy which in the end wore down his body and wore out

his brain, so that he died a shattered and broken old man. Yet had he lacked the intensity of belief which plunged him into conflicts and extravagances of opinion, he would, probably, have lacked also the generous ardor which breathes from all his writings, and which makes them among the most vital things in English literature.

He was born in London of Scotch parentage, both his father and his mother having come from Edinburgh. His father, John James Ruskin, was a wholesale wine dealer, a man of quiet habits, great industry and prudence, and considerable education; and in particular, as his son wrote over his grave, "an entirely honest merchant." Although he began business without capital and with a considerable legacy of debts, by his straightforwardness and knowledge of details he became the head of his trade in London and amassed a comfortable fortune.

It was, however, Ruskin's mother who possessed, for good or bad, the greatest influence over the boy. If not of stronger character than her husband, she was more persistent, surer of herself. Ruskin himself says, "My father had the exceed

ingly bad habit of yielding to my mother in large things, and taking his own way in little ones." She was systematic, serene, devoted, but rigid in her views. She surrounded her husband and her delicate son with an atmosphere of peace which was for their physical welfare, but she quietly ruled the lives of both. "My judgment of right and wrong, and powers of independent action," says