The Life of John Ruskin

W. G. (William Gershom) Collingwood

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• Publié par: phuwyog
• Publié le: 01 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 13
• Langue: English

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The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Life of John Ruskin, by W. G. Collingwood This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net Title: The Life of John Ruskin Author: W. G. Collingwood Release Date: August 1, 2004 [eBook #13076] Language: English Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 ***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF JOHN RUSKIN*** E-text prepared by Jonathan Ingram, Wilelmina Mallière, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team THE LIFE OF JOHN RUSKIN by W.G. COLLINGWOOD M.A., F.S.A., LATE PROFESSOR OF FINE ART, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, READING. 1911 PREFACE TO THE SEVENTH EDITION This book in its first form was written nearly twenty years ago with the intention of contributing a volume to a series of University Extension Manuals. For that purpose it included a sketch of Ruskin's "Work," with some attempt to describe the continuous development of his thought. It had the advantage—and the disadvantage —of being written under his eye; that is to say, he saw as much of it as his health allowed; and it received his general approval. To explain my venturing upon the subject at all, I may perhaps be allowed to state that I became his pupil in 1872 (having seen him earlier), and continued to be in some relation to him—as visitor, resident assistant, or near neighbour—until his death. After his death the biographical part of my book was enlarged at the expense of the description of his writings; and in revising once more I have thrown out much relating to his works, chiefly because they are now accessible as they were not formerly. W.G.C. CONISTON, May 1911 CONTENTS BOOK I THE BOY POET (1819-1842) I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. X. HIS ANCESTORS THE FATHER OF THE MAN (1819-1825) PERFERVIDUM INGENIUM (1826-1830) MOUNTAIN-WORSHIP (1830-1835) THE GERM OF "MODERN PAINTERS" (1836) A LOVE-STORY (1836-1839) "KATA PHUSIN" (1837-1838) SIR ROGER NEWDIGATE'S PRIZE (1837-1839) "THE BROKEN CHAIN" (1840-1841) THE GRADUATE OF OXFORD (1841-1842) BOOK II THE ART CRITIC (1842-1860) I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. X. "TURNER AND THE ANCIENTS" (1842-1844) CHRISTIAN ART (1845-1847) "THE SEVEN LAMPS" (1847-1849) "STONES OF VENICE" (1849-1851) PRE-RAPHAELITISM (1851-1853) THE EDINBURGH LECTURES (1853-1854) THE WORKING MEN'S COLLEGE (1854-1855) "MODERN PAINTERS" CONTINUED (1855-1856) "THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF ART" (1857-1858) "MODERN PAINTERS" CONCLUDED (1858-1860) BOOK III HERMIT AND HERETIC (1860-1870) I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. X. "UNTO THIS LAST" (1860-1861) "MUNERA PULVERIS" (1862) THE LIMESTONE ALPS (1863) "SESAME AND LILIES" (1864) "ETHICS OF THE DUST" (1865) "THE CROWN OF WILD OLIVE" (1865-1866) "TIME AND TIDE" (1867) AGATES, AND ABBEVILLE (1868) "THE QUEEN OF THE AIR" (1869) VERONA AND OXFORD (1869-1870) BOOK IV PROFESSOR AND PROPHET (1870-1900) I. FIRST OXFORD LECTURES (1870-1871) II. "FORS" BEGUN (1871-1872) III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. X. OXFORD TEACHING (1872-1875) ST. GEORGE AND ST. MARK (1875-1877) "DEUCALION" AND "PROSERPINA" (1877-1879) THE DIVERSIONS OF BRANTWOOD (1879-1881) "FORS" RESUMED (1880-1881) THE RECALL TO OXFORD (1882-1883) THE STORM-CLOUD (1884-1888) DATUR HORA QUIETI (1889-1900) THE LIFE OF JOHN RUSKIN P. 12 BOOK I THE BOY POET (1819-1842) CHAPTER I HIS ANCESTORS If origin, if early training and habits of life, if tastes, and character, and associations, fix a man's nationality, then John Ruskin must be reckoned a Scotsman. He was born in London, but his family was from Scotland. He was brought up in England, but the friends and teachers, the standards and influences of his early life, were chiefly Scottish. The writers who directed him into the main lines of his thought and work were Scotsmen—from Sir Walter and Lord Lindsay and Principal Forbes to the master of his later studies of men and the means of life, Thomas Carlyle. The religious instinct so conspicuous in him was a heritage from Scotland; thence the combination of shrewd common-sense and romantic sentiment; the oscillation between levity and dignity, from caustic jest to tender earnest; the restlessness, the fervour, the impetuosity—all these are the tokens of a Scotsman of parts, and were highly developed in John Ruskin. In the days of auld lang syne the Rhynns of Galloway—that hammer-headed promontory of Scotland which looks towards Belfast Lough—was the home of two great families, the Agnews and the Adairs. The Agnews, of Norman race, occupied the northern half, centring about their island-fortress of Lochnaw, where they became celebrated for a long line of hereditary sheriffs and baronets who have played no inconsiderable part in public affairs. The southern half, from Portpatrick to the Mull of Galloway, was held by the Adairs (or, as formerly spelt, Edzears) who took their name from Edgar, son of Dovenald, one of the two Galloway leaders at the Battle of the Standard. Three hundred years later Robert Edzear—who does not know his descendant and namesake, Robin Adair?—settled at Gainoch, near the head of Luce Bay; and for another space of 300 years his children kept the same estate, in spite of private feud, and civil war, and religious persecution, of which they had more than their share. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, John Adair, the laird of Little Genoch, was married to Mary Agnew, a near kinswoman of the celebrated Sir Andrew, colonel of the Scots Fusiliers at Dettingen. The exact relationship of Mary Agnew to "the bravest man in the British army" remains undecided, but letters still extant from the Lady Agnew of the day address her as "Dear Molly," and end, "Your affectionate cousin" or "kinswoman." Her son Thomas succeeded his father in 1721, and, retiring with his captaincy, settled on the estate. He married Jean, daughter of Andrew Ross of Balsarroch and Balkail, a lady noted for her beauty, her wit, and her Latin scholarship, and a member of a family which has given many distinguished men to the army and navy. Among them Admiral Sir John Ross, the Arctic explorer, Sir Hew Dalrymple, and Field-Marshal Sir Hew Dalrymple Ross, were all her great-nephews, and her son, Dr. John Adair, was the man in whose arms Wolfe died at the taking of Quebec; it is he who is shown in Benjamin West's picture supporting the General. Dr. Adair's sister Catherine, the daughter of Thomas Adair and Jean Ross, married the Rev. James Tweddale, minister of Glenluce from 1758 to 1778, representative of an old Covenanting family, and holder of the original Covenant, which had been confided to the care of his great-aunt Catherine by Baillie of Jarviswood on his way to execution in the "killing time." The document was sold with his library at his death, P. 13 P. 14 his children being