Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1884-03-20
John Rnskin's Last Lecture In London.

Lecturing at the London institution,
last evening, on the plague-cloud. Mr..
Ruskin said he was DESTROYS of drawing
attention to a series of cloud pheno-
mena which, so far as he could weigh
existing evidences, were peculiar to our
own time and had not hitherto received
any special notice from meteorologists.
Neither ancient nor modern poets re-
ferred to these storm or plague clouds.
and, so far as be could ascertain,
they had not been in the skies of Eng
land, France, or Italy prior to 1870. In
olden days, when the weather was fine
it was beautifully fine. and when it was
bad it was abominably bad; but then
there was an end to it. Now, however,
we had these plague-clouds for months
without intermission. In considering
the whole question of clouds they should
be careful of the advice of scientific
people who, if they endeavored to ex-
plain anything. would be sure to show
one of two things-either that they
know nothing to speak of about their
subject or that having seen one side of
1T, they had not troubled to 90 round to
the other. Newton, for instance, was
supposed To have explained why an
apple falls, but he never explained the
more difficult question, how the apple
got up there. Therefore. they would
not expect him to explain anything, but
merely to put few facts before them.
His first experience of the plague-cloud
was in 1871 when walking from Oxford
to Abingdon, and he then described it
as appearing to be composed of dead
mems souls, blown hither and thither
as if doubling which was the fittest
place for them. The scientific signs of
the plaguc-wind were briefly these: 1t
was wind OF darkness, the sky becom-
ing suddenly dark. 1t was malignant
quality of wind, unconnected with any
one quarter of the compass. 1t always
blew TREMENDOUSLY, making the trees
shudder, and it polluted as well as en-
HANGED the violence of all natural and
necessary storms If they wanted to
know what the sun looked like in one OF
these plague-clouds they had only to
throw bad half-crown into a basin of
soapy water. If he were asked the
meaning of these venomous clouds he
could tell them none according to their
modern belief. He could tell them what
meaning it would have borne to men of
olden time. For the last twenty years
England and all foreign nations, either
tempting her or following her, had bias
phemed the name of the deity delibera-
tely and openly, and every man by the
advice of his superior, had done as
much injustice to his brother as it was
in his power to do. The seers of old
predicted physical gloom, and we had
so much physical gloom the last few
years that it has been said that Eng
land was olonger the empire on which
the sun never set, but had become one
on which the sun never rose. What
was best to be done? Whether they
could bring back the sun or not, they
could bring back their own cheerfulness
their own honesty, their own tranquility
of mind. The paths of rectitude and
piety once regained, who should say
that the promise of old time would not
be found to hold good, and that the
windows of heaven being opened, bles-
sings would be poured outs that there
would not be room enough to receive
them. Mr.. Ruskin's lecture was illus
trated by some excellent diagrams. -
London telegraph, Fe6ruary 5.