The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1900-01-28
Ruskin sRomances
The Woman lie Married, the
Women He Did Not.


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With the death OF John Ruskin, the
last of the great authoritive voices Of
the Victorian era has passed away into
silence. With Carlyle and Newman he
formed great trinity that made the
profoundest impression on thoughtful
men Of the last generation and were
almost dictators in art, in morals and
the general conduct OF life It is safe to
say that they will never have any sue
cessors. The individual withers. The
race is more and more The armies Of
progress viii have leaders. indeed, but
none to whom commensurate power will
be intrasted none to whom such implicit
obedience viii be yielded. The age Of
the prophets has gone. probably forever.
The intellectual republic has been pro-
claimed
John Ruskin. the prose poet Of nature,
| was born or February S, 1878, in q smoky
suburb OF the London which he detested.
His father. John James Ruskin. was
! wine merchant, who starting life on no
capital and a considerable amount Of
inherited debts, succeeded first in paying
off those debts and next in building up
large fortune for himself.
In those charming fragments Of auto
biography which he called "Praeterita,"
Ruskin has told us how, when he came
( 10 be four or five years old, the father
could command post chaise and a pair,
by the help ef which with his wife and
child he went the round OF his country
! customers every summer. These annual
drives, through some OF the finest Eng
Hsh scenery, with passing glinses of
cathedrals. castles and ruined abbeys,
undoubtedly had a great influence upon
I the chflds future as lover Of both
nature and art.
For the rest his mother, who was
lady of somewhat severe character, kept
! the boyle was an only son-in complete
! Isolation from children of his own age
and with none of the toys or amusements
/ of ordinary childhood. She early drew
/ his mind to the reading Of the Bible and
Of the purest English masters, and he
! unconscfously imbibed from these studies
/ that love for sonorous simplicity which
/ afterward distinguished MS literary style.
! In 1892 his parents took him on tour
| through Switzerland and Itady, where
/ ne continued the observation Of archi-
! lecture begun among the cathedrals Of
! England. and for the first time recognized
/ the incompatible splendor of ancient art.
/ Fired with the ambition to become an
artist, on his return to England he took
/ lessons in drawing from Copley Fulding
and J. D. Harding. In 1896 he was ma
! circulated al Christ Church Oxford. Next
|. year he published in the Architectural
/ Magazine his first significant piece Of
/ prose criticism. IAN Introduction to the
Poetry of Architecture"
Meanwhile he was contributing poems
of rare promise and good performance to
rare promise and good performance to
Friendship Offering" In 1899 he won the
much coveted Newdigate prize by a poem
on the subject Of Salsette and Elephanta.
/ In 1910 he graduated.
His first important work. the first vol
ume of Modern Painters. by Graduate
OF Oxford" was published in 1S43, and
proved that the poet and the painter had
merged into the inspired critic OF itera-
ture and art.
That was period of intellectual unrest
and uDheaval. The contemporary can
mons. the contemporary conventions, were
awaiting the coming of a master hand
to destroy them and build new fabric
on their ruins Ruskin found the basis
of the new in the old. His book. primaT-
lily undertaken as critical defense and
explanation Of Turner. developed into an
acute analysis OF truth in painting and a
vigorous comparison between the old
masters of the later sixteenth and early
seventeenth centuries with the modern
English school greatly to the disadyan-
tage Of the latter It's vehement elo-
quence, its extraordinary charm Of style
arrested attention at once; its theories
were loudly decried and as loudly en-
dorsed. The English public split up into
rival camps, but the younger and more
progressive inteIligences were all on
Ruskin's side.
IN his recent. biography Of his father.
Mr. John ]. MiIlais has controverted the
common opinion that Ruskin assisted in
founding the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
In the formal sense this is true. The
P. R. B. sprang into being in 1919 as an
independent movement Of Milais, Hunt
and the Rossettis. None Of them knew
Rus<in ut the time Minais had never
even read mis- book. Nevertheless. it was
Rushin who had crystalized into shape
the scattered elements of protest against
the extant which dweIt in all thoughtful
the theories OF the -Raphaelites. And
it was he who now constituted himself
their champion and defender and finally
forced their acceptance upon the recall 1
citraut
The remaining four volumes Of Modern
Painters were written mainly in de-
veloDmeut and further analysis Of the
principles laid down in the first. principles
which had been adopted by the Pre-
RapbaeIitez. and which urged return to
nature and to an her moods and phases
in preference to idea: visions Of what she
occasionally might or ought TO j1pear. /
The second volume vas published in 1916. /
the third and fourth in 1856. the last IN
1850.
Many other works appeared in the IN
te-val Chief among them were The
Seven Lamps Of Architecture" 1919;
Notes on The Construction OF Sheep
folds" an essay on the church OF Eng
land 1871. and "Tha stones OF Venice"
three volumes. I5l-lS52
Next 10 the Modern Painters" the (
Stones os Venice" is RuSkjn's greatest /
and most significant achievement But {
some OF his modest work IS embodied in f
the short lectures which he published in .
book form under the titles Of Sesame (
ana Lilies 1855: The Ethics 81 Dust
The Crown II wHd olives" 1855. and /
THE Queen Of the Air" 1850
These booklets are 8 return - The sausr /
self which ne exhibited n hts Modern /.
Painters" and his Stones If Venice
But since 1S53 2 marked change had +
come IN The character and aim ot the !
greater portion a. MS writings He &c (