The Sun.
London, England, 1856-07-21 00:00:00

JOHN RUSKIN.

Modern Painters. Vols. 111. and IT. By John
Ruskin, M.A. Smith, Elder, and Co.
In all seriousness, let us say at once that we do
Iconscientiously believe Mr. John Ruskin to be one
of those rare individuals to whom an especial
' mission" has been entrusted. And, more than
this, we believe him, at the same time, to be one
who—reverently conscious of that " mission "
strenuously endeavours, to the very uttermost of
his capacity, to fulfil it. Let it be observed, how-
ever, at once that, while we speak thus, we are by no
means among those who may henceforth be termed
Ruskinites. We have the highest admiration for
our author's abilities. We appreciate his genius in
some of its more delicate, certainly in most of its
more obvious, characteristics. But we discover
ourselves differing in opinion from him repeatedly.
We often and often find it impossible to arrive at
the same conclusions with those he so earnestly
and eloquently proclaims to be incontrovertible.
We have the highest respect for his judgment, but
we can't for the fife of us believe in its infallibility.
Neither for that matter, it should be borne in mind,
does he himself. His intellect is by far too sane
for that ! As ho reminds his readers in the candid
and manly Preface adorning the third volume of
his great work "Modern Painters"—the phrase
"I think so," or "it seems so to me," is to be imt
with in its pages continually. Insomuch indeed
i that as lie here observes of himself rather
forcefully (the emphasis of the italics even, being
his own), ".E am slot dogmatic." And so far iu truth
—whatever his many bitter personal antagonists
may intimate to the contrary—John Ruskin is not
a dogmatist. A hoarse laugh of derision may be
raised at this, but the fact still continues so never-
theless. Wherever a thing cannot be positively
stated in regard to painting as " a truth," our
author honestly avows it simply as "an opinion."
And there are truths, surely, in painting ,as there
are truths in any other arts, as there are truths in
science, as there are truths in philosophy. To
talk of dogmatism in regard to the enunciation of
which would be simply absurd and preposterous.
Mr. Ruskin says, however, exactly what we are
here trying to articulate, as plainly as possible, in
words than which none could be distinguished by
more admirable lucidity or explicitness.: " There
are,."-he observes, "laws of truth and right in
painting just as fixed as those of harmony in music,
or of affinity in chemistry"—adding a little further
on that it would be as ridiculous for a person to
speak hesitatingly about laws of painting, who has'
conscientiously given his time to their ascertain.
ment, as it would be for Mr. Faraday to announce
in a dubious manner that iron had an affinity for
oxygen, and to put the question to the vote of his
audience whether it had or not." Admirable !
This is the true reductio ad absurdum. And as-
uredly it would be ridiculous to charge
Professor Faraday with dogmatism as a Che-
mist, or an Electrician, or a Metallurgist,
because ho simply states the truths of science
instead of timorously suggesting those truths
as matters of opinion, worthy perhaps of
casual examination some time by his miscellaneous
auditory ! As ridiculous (not a jot more so, how 7
ever), as it would be to tax with dogmatism the
simple enunciation of the " laws of truth and
right" in painting, whether the enunciation come
from Mr. Ruskin, the Oxford Graduate, or from
Mr. Leslie, the Royal Academician. Such an
enunciation (no matter by whom made) cannot be
dogmatical—any more than it can be dogmatical
co assert that two and two make four, or to assert
that white light is divisible by the prism into the
three primary colours of red, blue, and yellow !
Thickly " sown" as Mr. Ruskin's writings are,
therefore, in all matters of mere " opinion," with
such modest phrases (distinctly disclaiming any-
thing at all like the ex cathedra coxcombry of
pragmatic authority) as " I think so," and " it
seems so to me "—let us hear no more of this non-
sensical gabble about the dogmatism of the Oxford
Graduate. Dogmatic, again we repeat, he is not.
He states the truths of art, the laws of truth in
painting, states them plainly, so that even a
blockhead may recognise them l He puts for-
ward at other moments his opinions upon art,
his ideas in regard to the aims and the methods of
painting, suggesting those opinions, suggesting
those ideas, earnestly •no doubt, with all his
heart and soul in their utterance, with
all the graces of his rhetoric, and all the
fervour of his enthusiasm, but still merely sug-
gesting them ! He is too conscientious a thinker,
ever deliberately to confuse one with the other :
the laws of truth in art and mere matters of indi-
vidual opinion. Wherefore, again we say, it is
sheer absurdity to talk of Mr. Ruskin s a perverse
1,;,
and crotchetty dogmatist. He is ) more this
than he is, what some really still seem t fancy him,
a mere tyro in art, as some actually yet call him, a
mere amateur in matters of painting. If there is_
one man in this country who has thoroughly edu-
cated himself for the office of a professional critic,
and a competent professional critic, upon tho sub-
ject of pictures, that man we do not hesitate to
say, that man we cannot in reason for one instant
hesitate to say, is John Ruskin. Already (he tells
us in this Preface to vol. iii.) he has given ten
years of his life to the single purpose of enabling
himself to judge rightly of Art, spending them, he
adds, in "labour as earnest and continuous as
men usually undertake to gain position or accumu-
late fortune." There was something chivalric in
the mere awakening of his innate capacities as au
Art-Critic—when he suddenly startled the world of
Art-Critics in England with the youthful outpour-
ings of his enthusiasm. Volume One of the re-
markable work under consideration, was penned
with burning haste, under the generous
impulse of putting an end, if possible, to
those odious and insensate revilings of Turner,
—(incomparably the greatest landscape painter that
ever lived !)—by which, as Mr. Ruskin here ex-
presses it, with an evident sense on his part still of
mingled .scorn and indignation towards the assail-
ants of Turner, the public at large were prevented
from honouring the great artist's genius, and that
too at the very time when his powers were in their
fullest maturity ! A noble effort—and one which
happily proved, as we all of us remember, in a very
eminent degree successful. Insomuch that the
Oxford Giaaluato finds himself nowadays anything
rather than in a minority as an appreciator of Tur-
ner's mid-career masterpieces ! Volume Two fol-
lowed in duo course, confirming tho victory achieved
by Volume One, though lacking, we still cannot
but think, much of that divine afflatus iii the
way of poetic description which in the earlier por-
tions of the work secured to the young and until
then unheard-of Oxford Graduate a brilliant and
almost instantaneous, and although instantaneous,
we believe in a great measure enduring, reputation.
Scarcely, however, was that second volume issued
from the press when the hero of the production
was attacked by disease, his artistic powers
betraying towards the close of 1845 very
perceptible declension—in alluding to which cir-
cumstances, now, Mr. Ruskin remarks in his pre-
face to this continuation of Modern Painters, " I
saw that nothing remained for me to write, but
his epitaph." Another volume (the fifth), a volume
announced to appear in the ensuing autumn will
bring the chef cl'ceuvres of John Ruskin to its con-
clusion. Already its scope and purpose, even
Nithout the aid of that terminal instalment, is
at this moment, we conceive sufficiently appa-
rent. It constitutes the elaborated exponent not
merely of the individual views of its author upon
art generaliy, but of those more important laws of
painting, the value of which is as much beyond the
limits of exaggeration as their validity is altogether
removed beyond the reach of scepticism. It re-
veals the most comprehensive and eclectic capacity
of appreciation for the true and the beautiful
wherever discoverable—without regard to time or
country, to schools or styles, to prejudices or pre-
dilections. It embraces among its conspicuous
objects an earnest and dispassionate survey of the
various recent or still living painters. It carries
the artist back irresistibly to the primal school of
all—the study of Nature. Other works of note
our author has produced, no doubt, eminently
entitled to consideration. He has displayed the
most searching keenness of observation in " The
Seven Lamps of Architecture ;" the most catholic
taste in various departments in his Lectures on
" Painting and Architecture ;" the most fervid
eloquence (as usual)in his three noble volumes about
the " Stones of Venice ;" much controversial hardi-
hood in his " Notes on the Construction of Sheep-
folds ;" undiminished 'antiquarian ardour in his
essay on "The Opening of the Crystal Palace ;" a
really charming adroitness of fancy in his fairy tale
of " The Ling of the Golden River; or, the Black
Brothers ;" and a very daring determination to
think and speak independently in his rather me-
morable treatise upon the subject of " Pre-Raphae-
litism." Besides which he is now bringing out
annually what he feels (reasonably enough, we con-
ceive) that he ought to bring. out annually, viz.,
" Notes upon the Principal Pictures exhibited in
the Rooms of the Royal Academy," as well to in,
the apartments of other contemporaneous art-ex-
hibitions in London and Westminster. This last-
mentioned enterprise (recently announced by Mr.
Ruskin to be henceforth among the gobjects of his
life) being his periodical contribution, as an Art
Critic, towards the education of the taste and judg-
ment upon matters of art, of his fellow-country-
men. Yet the work, par excellence, among all the
various and remarkable works yet given to the
world by the genius and industry of John Ruskin,
we take this notable production, at once the eat-
' hest and the latest among all his notable I roduc-
'•ltions, to be—this encyclopuadic treatise upon art,
entitled " Modern Painters. A treatise upon
i Art, chiefly remarkable, we cannot but think, as

u.~ ••-++

constituting in reality a tribute to Nature I
tribute of admiration expressed at one moment.
analytically-, at another synthetically, .but always
poetically, always with an enraptured sense of the"
majesty of the True, and of the witchery of the
Beautiful.

THE POST OFFICE DIRECTORY
OF DEVONSHIRE AND CORNWALL.
KELLY AND COMPANY. 1856.

[SECOND NOTICE.]
A very conspicuous feature in this remarkabla
compilation is the elaborate catalogue—engrossing
pages mix. to xliv. inclusively—of the Cornish and
Devonshire Mines. Giving them alphabetically.
Comprising, under each title, a minute:account of
its actual condition, of its geographical situation,
and of its internal organisation. Ranging from the
Alfred Consols Mine, in the parish of Phillack, to
the Yeoland Consuls Mine in the parish of Buck.
laud Monachurum. Giving the names of the prin-
cipal officers entrusted with the management.
Relating, in many instances, how the mine
is worked. Telling us by what length of lease
they are, one and all, hold, and at what amount of
royalty. And so forth. Every reasonable precau-
tion appears to have been taken with a view to the
prevention of error : a matter of extraordinary im-
portance as well as of extraordinary difficulty
amidst such a mass of statistics, arranged novs-
sarily not in a tabular form but in successive para.
graphs. . . . Another List of very consider-
able interest to a different class of applicants to
the Directory for information—interesting, indeed,
less to the " Iron men " of the West than to its
" Debilitated Cousins" and " Sir Leicester
Dadlocks " generally—is the catalogue of the
Principal Seats in Devonshire—followed in due
course, later on in tbe volume, by another (a
briefer list), enumerating the Principal Seats in
Cornwall. The latter beginning with Acton Castle,
nearPerranutho, and ending with W hitefield-houses
near Stoke Climsland. The former commencing
with A-la-Ronde near Withecombe Raleigh, and
concluding with Youlston Park, the seat of Sir A.
Chichester. The maps are wonderfully crowded
but at the same time singularly legible. A more
searching examination of the volume only reveals,
we have found, more and more plainly the varied
merits of the compilation, both in regard to accu-
racy of detail and comprehensiveness of arrange-
ment.