Part 2 (1/2)

[13] See p 147

[14] See p 121

[15] See p 122

[16] See p 149

[17] See p 122

[18] _The Mystery of Life_

[19] _Sesas' Treasuries,” ---- 25, 31

[20] _The Crown of Wild Olive_, ”War”

[21] ”Kings' Treasuries,” -- 32

SELECTIONS FROM MODERN PAINTERS

The five volumes of _Modern Painters_ appeared at various intervals between 1843 and 1860, from the time Ruskin enty-four until he was forty The first volume was published in May, 1843; the second, in April, 1846; the third, January 15, 1856; the fourth, April 14, 1856; the last, in June, 1860 As his knowledge of his subject broadened and deepened, we find the later volureatly in viewpoint and style from the earlier; but, as stated in the preface to the last volume, ”in the main aim and principle of the book there is no variation, from its first syllable to its last” Ruskin himself ht in preparation for his work in _Modern Painters_ was not from his ”love of art, but of ment he had obtained in art, he ascribed to his ”steady habit of always looking for the subject principally, and for the art only as theit” The first voluraduate of Oxford,” Ruskin ”fearing that Iif the reader knew my youth” The author's proud father did not allow the secret to be kept long The title Ruskin originally chose for the volume was _Turner and the Ancients_ To this Smith, Elder & Co, his publishers, objected, and the substitution of _Modern Painters_ was their suggestion The following is the title-page of the first voluinal edition:

MODERN PAINTERS: _Their Superiority_ _In the Art of Landscape Painting_ _To_ all _The Ancient Masters_ proved by examples of The True, the Beautiful, and the Intellectual, From the Works of Modern Artists, especially From those of JMW Turner, Esq, RA

By a Graduate of Oxford (Quotation from Wordsworth) London: Smith, Elder & Co, 65 Cornhill

1843

THE EARTH-VEIL

VOLUME V, CHAPTER I

”To dress it and to keep it”[22]

That, then, was to be our work Alas! ork have we set ourselves upon instead! How have we ravaged the garden instead of kept it--feeding our war-horses with its flowers, and splintering its trees into spear-shafts!

”And at the East a fla sword”[22]

Is its flaates that keep the way indeed passable no more? or is it not rather that we no more desire to enter?

For what can we conceive of that first Eden which we ht not yet win back, if we chose? It was a place full of flowers, we say Well: the flowers are always striving to groherever we suffer them; and the fairer, the closer There may, indeed, have been a Fall of Flowers, as a Fall of Man; but assuredly creatures such as we are can now fancy nothing lovelier than roses and lilies, which would grow for us side by side, leaf overlapping leaf, till the Earth hite and red with them, if we cared to have it so And Paradise was full of pleasant shades and fruitful avenues Well: what hinders us fro as much of the world as we like with pleasant shade, and pure blossooodly fruit? Who forbids its valleys to be covered over with corn till they laugh and sing? Who prevents its dark forests, ghostly and uninhabitable, fro the hills with frail-floreted snow, far away to the half-lighted horizon of April, and flushi+ng the face of all the autulow of clustered food? But Paradise was a place of peace, we say, and all the anientle servants to us Well: the world would yet be a place of peace if ere all peaceentle service should we have of its creatures if we gave the bird and beast, so long as we choose to contend rather with our fellows than with our faults, and , truly, the Flaates of Eden reh, till we have sheathed the sharper flaates of our own hearts

I have been led to see and feel this more and more, as I consider the service which the flowers and trees, which man was at first appointed to keep, were intended to render to him in return for his care; and the services they still render to him, as far as he allows their influence, or fulfils his own task towards theetation, considered, as indeed it is, as the means by which the earth becomes the companion of man--his friend and his teacher! In the conditions which we have traced in its rocks, there could only be seen preparation for his existence;--the characters which enable him to live on it safely, and to ith it easily--in all these it has been inanietation is to it as an iiven to meet the soul of man The earth in its depths must ree; but at its surface, which hus look upon and deal with, it : which breathes, but has no voice; h life without consciousness, to death without bitterness; wears the beauty of youth, without its passion; and declines to the weakness of age, without its regret