The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1900-04-05
Paper Read Before the Cha,ta,1qua Circle.

Paper Read Before the Cha,tauqua Circle.
SavonarOla was messenger and de-
llvered message of reform. Daniel
Manin, the FIorentine lawyer, was a
messenger and delivered to his country
message of national salvation.
Michael Angelo was messenger and
delivered to the world his message of
sculpture and architecture.
But will endeavor to present a
message delivered to the nineteenth
century by that renowned pen painter,
that pure prose poet of Nature, John
Ruskin. Reynolds, Turner's, Land
seer's, Leighton's and Mallais' paint
ings, are monuments of art that make
these painters illustrious, so long as
their productions are preserved in the
national art gallery in London; but in
that higher art nobility of mind
John Ruskin has raised a monument
in the field of literature that shall
shine like the consultations of heaven
when England's historic Abbeys shall
have crumbled in the dust.
Does not high appreciation of the
beauties of nature arrest the attention
when journeying through rugged scen~
cry, beholding in the distance the
mountains rise in majestic grandeur?
On entering the valley below, is there
not a desire arising to move on, behold
ing mighty river winding here and
there as it flows magnificently to the
sea?
So as we journey with Ruskin,
through the rustic scenery of his
works, do we not behold mountains of
intellect rise equal if not grander than
the Ioftiest mountains we ever saw or
heard of?-as we wind on, do we not
become mentally intoxicated as we
drink of the river of thought that flows
from the well-spring of his noble mind i?
Who among all the masters, can
reach that highwater mark of prose, as
he describes to us in word painting,
"The Sea Boats Song" in his "Harbors
of England?" That song surpasses
anything ever written about the sea
by those sea poets, Byron and Shelley.
In that noble paragraph there is truth,
originality and music. His describing
the look of wild sea, suggests the
very music of it's roar, the gigantic
fury of it's surf, the fitful lashing of
the waves.
But what is the message he brought
to the century? 1t is a message on
beauty. What are the homes of Eng
land today compared to the homes in
the early days of the century? To
whom do they owe their present pic
turesque and stately appearance? Con-
trast the motives of the English work.
mans mind today, to their motives in
the early days of the century. Who
has been the master that educated the
minds of these hewers of stone, these
miners, these weavers, these ship
builders of England? John Ruskin.
Has he not given them and the toll
ers of the world guide ?-not to the
attainment of titled names or the
amassing of vast fortunes, (which
grant are worthy of the greatest effort,
provided they are acquired without the
expense of their less favored fellow
men); but guide to that higher ambi-
tion-might of heart, might of mind,
which is indeed the very
greatness of life.
To the young men of England and
the world, did he not labor to educate
them to this greatness by choosing the
society of the great minds, the silent
statesmen, poets and truest friends
books? To the young women of Eng
land and the world, did he show them
the way to society, that plague Of
cowardice and imposturep" MOI but
to that higher ambition, the treasures
of home; to see that theshomeis the