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 JOHN RUSKIN. 
 
 COMPILED BY ROSE PORTEI 
 
 New York: 
 
 .■' \/^ 
 ANSON D. r. RANDOLPH A COltlPAB^ 
 
 38 Wes,t Twenty-third StreetiV^^ L^<% y/' 
 
 \\ 
 

 COPYRIGHT, 1888, BY 
 ANSON D. F. RANDOLPH & COMPANY. 
 
Remember— 
 
 Literature does its duty in raising our fancy to the height of 
 Zi)hat tnay be nohle^ honesty and felicitous in actual life; in giving 
 us the companionship of the wisest fellow-spirits of every age and 
 country^ and in aiding the communication of clear- thoughts and 
 faithful purposes. 
 J 
 
The whole difference between a man of genius and other men, is 
 that the first remains in great part a child, seeing with the large eyes 
 of children, in perpetual wonder, not conscious of much knowledge, 
 — conscious, rather of infinite ignorance, and yet infinite power ; a 
 fountain of eternal admiration, delight, and creative force \vithin 
 him meeting the ocean of visible and governable things around him. 
 
 All men are to be men of genius in their degree, .... rimlets or 
 rivers, it does not matter, so that their souls be clear and pure. 
 
 5 
 
Work is only done well when it is done with a will ; and no man 
 has a thoroughly sound will unless he knows he is doing what he 
 should, and is in his place. 
 
 There is no action so shght nor so mean, but it may be done to a 
 great purpose, and ennobled thereby ; nor is any purpose so great but 
 that slight actions may help it, and may be done so as to help it 
 much, most especially that chief of all purposes, the pleasing God. 
 6 
 
That virtue of originality that men so strive after, is not newness 
 as they vainly think,— there is nothing new— it is only genuineness : 
 it all depends on this single glorious faculty of getting to the spring 
 of things and working out from that ; it is the coolness, and clearness, 
 and deliciousness of the water fresh from the fountain-head, opposed 
 to the thick, hot, unrefreshing drainage from other men's meadows. 
 
^fwity; xx{ Tasta, 
 
 Our purity of taste is best tested by its universality, for if we 
 can only admire this thing or that, we may be sure that our cause 
 for liking is of a finite and false nature. But if we can perceive 
 beauty in everything of God's doing, we may argue that we have 
 reached the true perception of its universal laws. 
 
 True taste is for ever growing, learning, reading, worshipping. 
 .... And it finds whereof to feed, and whereby to grow in all 
 things. 
 
So long as men shall receive earthly gifts from God, of all that 
 they have His tithe must be rendered to Him, or in so far, and in so 
 much He is forgotten : of the skill and of the treasure, of the 
 strength and of the mind, of the time and of the toil, offering must 
 be made reverently : and if there be any difference between the Le- 
 vitical and the Christian offering, it is that the latter may be just so 
 much the wider in its range as it is less typical in its meaning, as it 
 is thankful instead of sacrificial. 
 
The et^0:8$. 
 
 Remember that Christ Himself never says anythmg about holding 
 by His Cross. He speaks a good deal of bearing it ; but never 
 for an instant of holding by it. It is His Hand, not His Cross, 
 which is to save either you, or St. Peter, when the waves are rough. 
 
 *' Taking up one's Cross." — It means simply that you are to go the 
 road which you see to be the straight one ; carrying whatever you 
 find is given you to carry, as well and stoutly as you can. 
 
Silence t^gavMng WxKi^k. 
 
 The moment a man can really do his work, he becomes speech- 
 less about it. All words become idle to him — all theories. — Does a 
 bird need to theorize about building its nest, or boast of it when 
 built ? 
 
 That journey of life's conquest, in which hills over hills, and Alps 
 on Alps arose and sank — do you think you can make another tread 
 it painlessly, by talking ? Why, you cannot even carry us up an Alp, 
 by talking. You can guide us up it, step by step, no otherwise, — 
 even so, best silently. 
 
^n^^X Baauttj. 
 
 They who are as the angels of God in Heaven, yet cannot be con- 
 ceived as so assimilated that their different experiences and affec- 
 tions upon earth shall there be forgotten and effectless ; the child 
 taken early to his place cannot be imagined to wear there such a 
 body, nor to have such thoughts, as the glorified apostle who has 
 finished his course and kept the faith on earth. And so whatever 
 perfections and lilceness of love we may attribute to either the tried 
 or the crowned creature, there is the difference of the stars among 
 them. 
 
See that no day passes in which you do not mate yourself a 
 somewhat better creature ; and in order to do that, find out first 
 
 what you are now Try to get strength of heart enough to 
 
 look yourself fairly in the face, in mind, as well as body. 
 
 You will find that the mere resolve not to be useless, and the hon- 
 est desire to help other people, will, in the quickest and delicatest 
 ways, improve yourself. 
 
 «3 
 
The Bible, 
 
 The real meaning, in its first power, of the word Bible, is not, 
 book merely : but * Bibliotheca,' Treasury of Books Con- 
 sider what other group of historic and didactic literature has a range 
 
 comparable with it Think if you can match that table of 
 
 contents, in any other — I do not say ' book,' but literature ? 
 
 The Bible is indeed a deep book, where depth is required, that is 
 to say, for deep people. But it is not intended particularly for pro- 
 found persons. And therefore the main and leading idea of the 
 Bible, is on its surface ; needing nothing, but we all might give — 
 attention. 
 
True Uio. 
 
 This do, and thou shalt live ; nay, in stricter and more piercing 
 sense, This de, and thou shalt live ; to show mercy is nothing — the 
 soul must be full of mercy; to be pure in act is nothing— thou 
 shalt be pure in heart also. 
 
 Connect the words * charity ' and * labor ' under the general term of 
 ' bearing the cross.' " If any man will come after me, let him deny 
 himself— for charity— and take up his cross— of pain — and follow 
 
 It is only for those who have obeyed the law sincerely, to say how 
 far the hope held out to them by the law-giver has been fulfilled. 
 X5 
 
The highest knowledge always involves a more advanced percep* 
 tion of the fields of the unknown ; and, therefore, it may most truly 
 be said, that to know anything well involves a profound sensation o! 
 ignorance, while yet it is equally true that good and noble knowl- 
 edge is distinguished from vain and useless knowledge chiefly by its 
 clearness and distinctness, and by the rigorous consciousness of 
 what is known and what is not. 
 
 There was always more in the world than men could see, walked 
 they ever so slowly. 
 
Stijl^. 
 
 Your own character will form your style ; your own zeal wUl 
 direct it ; your own obstinacy or ignorance may limit or exagger- 
 ate it. 
 
 Greatness of style consists in the habitual choice of subjects of 
 thought which involve wide interests and profound passions, as op- 
 posed to those which involve narrow interests aud slight passions. 
 The style is greater or less in exact proportion to the nobleness of 
 the interests and passions involved in the subject. 
 17 
 
In the measure in which a Christian trusts Christ, obeys the Fa- 
 ther, and consents with the Spirit, he becomes inspired in feeling, 
 act, word, and reception of word, according to the capacities of his 
 nature. He is not gifted with higher ability, nor called into new 
 offices, but enabled to use his granted natural powers, in their ap- 
 pointed place, to the best purpose. A child is inspired as a child, 
 and a maiden as a maiden ; the weak, even in their weakness, and 
 the wise only in their hour. 
 
Tb^ Early Jtg^s txf ©bristianity:* 
 
 In the early ages of Christianity there was little care taken to 
 analyze character. One momentous question was heard over the 
 whole world : " Dost thou believe in the Lord with all thine heart ? " 
 There was but one division among men, — the great division between 
 the disciple and adversary. The love of Christ was all, and in all. 
 .... And in their pure, early, and practical piety they saw there 
 was no need for codes of morality, or systems of metaphysics. 
 J 19 
 
Faitb and IMixvt 
 
 The early Christians felt that virtue, like sin, was a subtle uni- 
 versal thing ; . . . . diverse according to the separate framework of 
 every heart in which it dwelt ; but one and the same always in its 
 proceeding from the love of God, as sin is one and the same in 
 proceeding from hatred of God And, through faith, work- 
 ing by love, they know that all human excellence would be developed 
 in due order ; but that, without faith, neither reason could define, 
 nor effort reach, the lowest phase of Christian virtue. 
 
ip[^atr^n and jpi^U, 
 
 In the utmost solitudes of Nature, the existence of Hell seems to 
 me as legibly declared by a thousand spiritual utterances, as that of 
 Heaven. It is well for us to dwell with thankfulness on the unfold- 
 ing of the flower, and the falling of the dew, and the sleep of the 
 green fields in the sunshine ; but the blasted trunk, the moaning of 
 the bleak winds, the solemn solitudes of moors and seas, the continual 
 fading of all beauty into darkness, and of all strength into dust, 
 have these no language for us ? 
 
spiritual IfridD. 
 
 The moment that in our pride of heart, we refuse to accept the 
 condescension of the Almighty, and desire Him, instead of stooping 
 to hold our hands, to rise up before us into His glory, — we hoping 
 that by standing on a grain of dust or two of human knowledge 
 higher than our fellows, we may behold the Creator as He rises — 
 God takes us at our word ; He rises into His own invisible and in- 
 conceivable majesty : He goes forth upon the ways which are not 
 our ways, and retires into the thoughts which are not our thoughts ; 
 — and we are left alone. 
 
He is not a preaching Saint, still less a persecuting one ; not even 
 an anxious one. Of his prayers we hear little ; of his wishes, noth- 
 ing. What he does always, is merely the right thing at the right 
 moment ; — rightness and kindness being in his mind one ; an ex- 
 tremely exemplary Saint to my mind. In his gentleness was his 
 strength. What distinguished him was his sweet, serious, unfailing 
 serenity : no one ever saw him angry, or sad, or gay ; there was 
 nothing in his heart but piety to God, and pity for men. 
 23 
 
I trust that some day the language of Types will be more read 
 and understood by us than it has been for centuries ; and when this 
 language, a better one than either Greek or Latin, is again recog- 
 nized amongst us, we shall find, or remember, that as the other vis- 
 ible elements of the universe — its air, its water, and its flame — set 
 forth, in their pure energies, the life-giving, purifying, and sanctify- 
 ing influences of the Deity upon His creatures, so the earth, in its 
 purity, sets forth His eternity and His Truth. 
 24 
 
Without ignobly trusting the devices of artificial memory— far less 
 slighting the power of resolute and thoughtful memory— young read- 
 ers will find it extremely useful to note any coincidence or hnks of 
 nuaber which may serve to secure in their minds what may be 
 called Dates of Anchorage, round which others, less important, may 
 swing at various cable's lengths. 
 
 By right discipline we can increase our strength. 
 »5 
 
What Christ's life z's, what His commands are, and what His judg- 
 ment wz7/ be, not what He once did, nor what He once suffered, but 
 what He is now doing — and what He requires us to do ; that is the 
 pure, joyful, beautiful lesson of Christianity ; and the fall from that 
 faith, and all the corruptions of its abortive practice, may be summed 
 up briefly as the habitual contemplation of Christ's death instead of 
 His Life, and the substitution of His past suffering for our present 
 
 duty. 
 
 26 
 
The JleUgixrt): ni Faith and f^ny-^. 
 
 If striving with all your might to mend what is evil, near and 
 
 around, you would fain look for a day when some Judge of all 
 
 the Earth shall wholly do right : — if parting from the companions 
 
 that have given you all the best joy you had on Earth, you desire 
 
 ever to see their eyes again and clasp their hands : — if preparing 
 
 yourselves to lie down beneath the grass in silence and loneliness, 
 
 you would care for the promise to j'^ou, of a time when you should 
 
 see God's light again, and know the things you have longed to 
 
 know, — and walk in the peace of Everlasting Love, — t/ten^ the Hope 
 
 of these things to you is religion, the Substance of them in your Ufe 
 
 is Faith. 
 
 27 
 
Wmh an;d jpLap:p:toB88. 
 
 It may be proved, with much certainty, that God intends no man 
 to live in this w^orld without working : but it seems to me no less 
 
 evident that He intends every man to be happy in his work 
 
 Now in order that people may be happy in their work, these three 
 things are needed : They must be fit for it ; they must not do too 
 
 much of it ; and they must have a sense of success in it So 
 
 that in order that a man maybe happy, it is necessary that he should 
 not only be capable of his work, but a good judge of his work. 
 
Tnta 3fi^o;gi^a$8. 
 
 The healthy sense of progress, which is necessary to the strength 
 and happiness of men, does not consist in tlie anxiety of a struggle 
 to attain higher place or work, but in gradually perfecting the man- 
 ner, and accomplishing the ends, of the life which we have chosen, 
 or which circumstances have determined for us. 
 
 Without the resolution in your hearts to do good work, so long as 
 your right hands have motion in them : and to do it whether the 
 issue be that you die or live, no life worthy the name will ever be 
 possible to you, while in once forming the resolution that your work 
 is to be well done, life is really won, here and for ever. 
 29 
 
gt[ime jp[ii:);d^rBiJ. 
 
 Crime cannot be hindered by punishment ; it will always find some 
 shape or outlet, unpunishable or unclosed. Crime can only be truly 
 hindered by letting no man grow up a criminal — ^by taking away the 
 will to commit sin ; not by mere punishment of its commission. 
 Crime, small and great, can only be truly stayed by education — not 
 the education of the intellect only, which is on some men wasted, 
 and for others mischievous : but education of the heart, which is 
 alike good and necessary for all. 
 
 30 
 
In general, pride is at the bottom of all great mistakes. All the 
 other passions do occasional good, but whenever pride puts in its 
 word, everything goes wrong, and what it might be desirable to do 
 quietly and innocently, it is morally dangerous to do proudly. 
 
 Whenever pride has any share in the work, even knowledge and 
 
 light may be ill pursued Every rightly constituted mind 
 
 ought to rejoice, not so much in knowing anything clearly, as in 
 feeling that there is infinitely more which it cannot know. 
 31 
 
Iducaf.ixxt):. 
 
 " What he layeth out, it shall be paid him again," is quite literally- 
 true in matters of education ; no money-seed can be sown with so 
 sure and large returns at harvest-time as that ; only of this money- 
 seed, more than of flesh-seed, it is utterly true, "That which thou 
 sowest is not quickened, except it dte.''^ You must forget your 
 money, and every other material interest, and educate for education's 
 sake only ! or the very good you try to bestow will become venomous, 
 and that and your money will be lost together. 
 32 
 
TmB gbarity;. 
 
 You know how often it is difficult to be wisely charitable, to do 
 good without multiplying the sources of evil. You know that to 
 give alms is nothing unless you give thought also ; and that there- 
 fore, it is written, not " blessed is he \.\idX feedeth the poor," but 
 "blessed is he that considereih the poor." And you know that a 
 little thought and a little kindness are often worth more than a great 
 deal of money. This charity of thought is not merely to be exercised 
 toward the poor ; it is to be exercised toward all men. 
 33 
 
3ft5aca 
 
 Which of us feels or knows that he wants peace ? — There are two 
 ways of getting it^ if you do want it. The first is wholly in your own 
 
 power ; to make yourselves nests of pleasant thoughts What 
 
 fairy palaces we may build of beautiful thought — proof against all 
 adversity. Bright fancies, satisfied memories, noble histories, faith- 
 ful sayings, treasure-houses of precious and restful thoughts, which 
 care cannot disturb, nor pain make gloomy, nor poverty take away 
 from us — homes built without hands, for our souls to live in. 
 34 
 
Whenever you hear a man dissuading you from attempting to do 
 well, on the ground that perfection is "Utopian," beware of that 
 man. Cast the word out of your dictionary altogether. There is no 
 
 need of it. Things are either possible or impossible If the 
 
 thing is impossible, you need not trouble yourself about it ; if possi- 
 ble, try for it. It is very Utopian to hope for the entire doing away 
 with drunkenness and misery ; but the Utopianism is not our bus- 
 iness—the work is. It is Utopian to hope to give every child the 
 knowledge of God ; but the Utopianism in not our business— the 
 
 vooi'k is. 
 
 35 
 
Tvn-^ Stt^^iigih* 
 
 The true strength of every human soul is to be dependent on as 
 many nobler as it can discern, and to be depended upon, by as many 
 inferior as it can reach 
 
 As the first order of Wisdom is to know thyself — though the least 
 creature that can be known— so the first order of Charity is to be suf- 
 ficient for thyself, though the least creature that can be sufficed : 
 and thus contented and appeased, to be girded and strong for the 
 ministry to others. If sufficient to thy day is the evil thereof, how 
 much more should be the good ! 
 
 36 
 
iBt^sibility;. 
 
 By sensibility I mean natural perception of beauty, fitness, and 
 rightness ; or of what is lovely, decent, and just : faculties depend- 
 ent much on race, and the primal signs of fine breeding in man ; 
 but cultivable also by education, and necessarily perishing without it. 
 True education has, indeed, no other function than the development 
 of these faculties, and of the relative will. It has been the great 
 error of modern intelligence to mistake science for education. You 
 do not educate a man by telhng him what he knew not, but by mak- 
 ing him what he was not. 
 
 37 
 
Custom has no real influence upon our feelings of the beautiful, 
 except in dulling and checking them. You see the broad blue sky 
 every day over your heads ; but you do not for that reason deter- 
 mine blue to be more or less beautiful than you did at first ; you are 
 accustomed to see stones as blue as the sapphire, but you do not for 
 that reason think the sapphire less beautiful than other stones. The 
 blue color is everlastingly appointed by the Deity to be a source of 
 
 delight. 
 
 38 
 
No human actions ever were intended by the Maker of men to be 
 
 guided by balances of expediency, but by balances of justice 
 
 I have said balances of justice, meaning, in the term justice, to in- 
 clude affection, — such affection as one man owes to another. All 
 right relations between master and operative, and all their best in- 
 terests, ultimately depend on these. 
 
 Twenty people can gain money for one who can use it ; and the 
 vital question, for individual and for nation, is never " how much do 
 they make ? " but, " to what purpose do they spend ? " 
 39 
 
BxxxKks and 3|aadit);g» 
 
 Life being very short, and the quiet hours of it few, we ought 
 
 to waste none of them in reading valueless books No book 
 
 is worth anything which is not worth viztcJi ; nor is it serviceable, 
 until it has been read, and re-read, and loved, and loved again ; and 
 marked, so that you can refer to the passages you want in it, as a 
 soldier can seize the weapon he needs in an armory, or a house-wife 
 bring the spice she needs from her store. 
 40 
 
Tb0 ^alu^ txt 'Utj.ixh^. 
 
 Books ! — the value of them consists first, in their power of pre- 
 serving and communicating the knowledge of facts — ^secondly, in 
 their power of exciting vital or noble emotions and intellectual 
 action. 
 
 We talk of food for the mind, as of food for the body ; now a 
 
 good book contains such food inexhaustibly Bread of flour 
 
 is good ; but there is bread, sweet as honey, if we would eat it, in a 
 good book ; and the family must be poor indeed, which, once in 
 their lives, cannot, for such multipliable barley-loaves pay their bak- 
 er's bills. 
 
 .4* 
 
Tb$ W(x\\} Itxxib. 
 
 If we always spoke of "The Holy Book" instead of "Holy 
 Bible," it might come into more heads than it does at present that 
 the Word of God, by which the heavens were of old, and by which 
 they are now kept in store, cannot be made a present to anybody in 
 morocco binding ; nor sown on any wayside by help either of steam 
 plough or steam press ; but is nevertheless being offered to us daUy, 
 and by us with contumely refused ; and sown in us daily, and by us 
 as instantly as may be, choked. 
 
 42 
 
We are too much in the habit of considering happy accidents 
 •• special Providences "; and thinking that when any great work 
 needs to be done, the man who is to do it will certainly be pointed 
 out by Providence Whereas all the analogies of God's oper- 
 ations in other matters prove the contrary of this And there 
 
 cannot be a doubt in the mind of any person accustomed to take 
 broad and logical views of the world's history, that its events are 
 ruled by Providence in precisely the same manner as its harvests, 
 .... and that according to the force of our industry, and wisdom 
 of our husbandry, the ground will bring forth to us figs or thistles. 
 J 43 
 
Education enables us to consult with the wisest and the greatest 
 men on all points of earnest difficulty. It enables us to use books 
 rightly, and to go to them for help : to appeal to them, when our 
 own knowledge and power of thought fail ; to be led by them into 
 wider sight, purer conception than our own, and receive from them 
 the united sentence of the judges and councils of all time against 
 our solitary and unstable opinion. 
 44 
 
Marriage— when it is marriage at aU— is only the seal which marks 
 the vowed transition of temporary into untiring semce, and of fitful 
 into eternal love. 
 
 We are foolish in speaking of the " superiority" of one sex to the 
 other, as if they could be compared in similar things. Each has 
 what the other has not : each completes the other, and is completed 
 by the other : they are in nothing alike, and the happiness and per- 
 fection of both depends on each asking and receiving from the other 
 what the other only can give. 
 
Mi^n and W0mt)n. 
 
 The man's power is active, progressive, defensive. He is eminent- 
 ly the doer, the creator, the discoverer, the defender. His intellect 
 
 is for speculation and invention But the woman's power is 
 
 for rule, and her intellect is not for invention or creation, but for 
 sweet ordering, arrangement, and decision. She sees the qualities 
 
 of things, their claims and their places A woman, in any 
 
 rank of life, ought to know whatever her husband is likely to know, 
 but to know it in a different way. His command of it should be 
 foundational and progressive, hers, general, and accomplished for 
 
 daily and helpful use. 
 
 46 
 
WDimatily; Beauty;* 
 
 The perfect loveliness of a woman's countenance can only consist 
 in that majestic peace which is founded in the memory of happy and 
 useful years,— full of sweet records ; and from the joining of this 
 with that yet more majestic childishness which is still full of change 
 and promise : — opening always — modest at once, and bright, with 
 hope of better things to be won, and to be bestowed. There is no 
 old age where there is still that promise — it is eternal youth. 
 47 
 
God appoints to every one of His creatures a separate mission, and 
 if they discharge it honorably, and faithfully follow that Light which 
 is in them, withdrawing from it all cold and quenchless influence, there 
 will assuredly come of it such burning as, according to its appointed 
 mode and measure, shall shine before men, and be of service con- 
 stant and holy. Degrees infinite of lustre there must always be, but 
 the weakest among us has a gift, however seemingly trivial, which is 
 peculiar to him, and which worthily used, will be a gift also to his 
 
 race for ever. 
 
 48 
 
^txxxnv^inQ &ttd.. 
 
 We treat God with irreverence by banishing Him from our 
 
 thoughts, not by refening to His will on slight occasions 
 
 There is nothing so small but that we may honor God by asking His 
 guidance of it, or insult Him by taking it into our own hands ; and 
 what is true of the Deity is equally true of His Revelation. We use 
 it most reverently when most habitually ; our insolence is in ever 
 acting without reference to it, our true honoring of it is in its uni- 
 versal appUcation The snow, the vapor, and the stormy wind 
 
 fulfil His Word. Are our acts and thoughts lighter and wider than 
 these — that we should forget it ? 
 
Jfuman Batut^^* 
 
 It is constantly said that human nature is heartless. Do not be- 
 lieve it. Human nature is kind and generous ; but it is narrow and 
 blind, and can only with difficulty conceive anything but what it im- 
 mediately sees and feels. People would instantly care for others as 
 wen as themselves if only they could imagine others as well as them- 
 selves It is impossible to speak adequately of the moral 
 
 power of the imagination Every man holds in his conceptive 
 
 faculty a kingdom which may be peopled vdth active thoughts and 
 lovely presences, or left waste for the springing up of dark desires. 
 
Among the children of God, while there is always that fearful 
 and bowed apprehension of His majesty, and that sacred dread of 
 all offence to Him, which is called the fear of God, yet of real and 
 essential fear there is not any, but clinging of confidence to Him, 
 as their Rock, Fortress, and Deliverer, and perfect love, and casting 
 out of fear, so that it is not possible that while the mind is rightly 
 bent on Him there should be dread of am-thing either earthly or 
 supernatural. 
 
 J 
 
ipiumat); 3S6autt|» 
 
 They err grossly who think of the right development even of the 
 intellectual type as possible, unless we look to the higher sources of 
 
 beauty first And so the ideal of the features, as the good 
 
 and perfect soul is seen in them, is not to be reached by imagina- 
 tion, but by the seeing and reaching forth of the better part of the 
 soul to that of which it must first know the sweetness and goodness 
 
 in itself The great reasoners are self-command, and trust 
 
 unagitated, and deep-looking Love and Faith, which, as she is 
 above Reason, best holds the reins of it from her high seat. 
 
 52 
 
ILixv^ ixi iS^M and Wm%. 
 
 He who loves not God, nor his brother, cannot love the grass 
 beneath his feet, and the creatures that fill those spaces in the uni- 
 verse which he needs not, and which live not for his uses ; nay, he 
 has seldom grace to be grateful even to those that love him and 
 serve him, while, on the other hand, none can love God, and his 
 human brother, without loving all things which his Father loves, nor 
 without looking upon them every one as in that respect his brethren 
 also, and perhaps worthier than he, if in the under concords they 
 have to fill, their part is touched more truly. 
 53 
 
3|.^$t and ?^ax)^Mn:^$8, ' 
 
 Whether in one or other form, whether the faithfulness of man 
 whose path is chosen as in the Thermopylffi camp ; or the happier 
 faithfuhiess of children in the good giving of their Father, as in the 
 '* stand still and see the salvation of God " of the Red Sea shore, 
 there is rest and peacefulness, the "standing still" in both, the 
 quietness of action determined, of spirit unalarmed, of expectation 
 unimpatient ; beautiful, even when based only, on the self-command 
 or the uncalculating love of the creature, but more beautiful yet 
 when the rest is one of humility instead of pride, and the trust no 
 more in the resolution we have taken, but in the Hand we hold. 
 54 
 
la^mttj. 
 
 The only Unity which by any means can become grateful or 
 
 an object of hope to men, and whose types therefore in material 
 
 things can be beautiful, is that on which turned the last words and 
 
 prayer of Christ before His crossing of the Kedron brook. " Neither 
 
 pray I for thee alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me 
 
 through their word, that they all may be one, as Thou, Father, art 
 
 in Me, and I in Thee." And so there is not any matter, nor any 
 
 spirit, nor any creature, but it is capable of a unity of some kind 
 
 with other creatures. 
 
 55 
 
The unity of spirits is partly in their sympathy, and partly in their 
 giving and taking, and always in their love ; and these are their 
 delight and their strength, for their strength is in their co-working 
 and army fellowship, and their delight is in the giving and receiving 
 of alternate perpetual currents of good, their inseparable dependency 
 on each other's being, and their essential and perfect depending on 
 their Creator's ; and so the unity of earthly creatures is their power 
 and their peace, .... the living power of trust, and the living 
 power of support, of hands that hold each other and are still. 
 56 
 
I rather believe that in periods of new effort and violent change, 
 disappointment is a wholesome medicine : and that in the secret of it, 
 as in the twilight so beloved by Titian, we may see the colors of things 
 with deeper truth than in the more dazzling sunshine. 
 
 The more that my life disappointed me, the more solemn and 
 wonderful it became to me ; for I saw that both my own failure, and 
 such success in petty things, as in its poor triumph seemed to me 
 more than failure, came from the want of sufficiently earnest effort 
 to understand the whole law and meaning of existence and to bring 
 it to a noble and due end. 
 
 57 
 
Art, History, and Philosophy, are each but one part of the Heaven- 
 ly Wisdom, which sees not as man seeth, but with Eternal Charity ; 
 and because she rejoices not in Iniquity, tJierefore rejoices in the 
 Truth. 
 
 Under all sorrow, there is the force of virtue ; over all ruin, the 
 restoring charity of God. To these alone we have to look ; in these 
 alone we may understand the past, and predict the future. 
 58 
 
halite xxf KnnvcU&gi^. 
 
 Knowledge is mental food, and is exactly to the spirit what food 
 
 is to the body Therefore, with respect to knowledge, we are 
 
 to reason and act exactly as with respect to food. 
 
 The increase of knowledge, merely as such, does not make the 
 soul larger or smaller, in the sight of God. All the knowledge 
 man can gain is as nothing, but that the soul, for which the great 
 scheme of redemption was laid, be it ignorant or be it wise, is all in 
 all : and in the activity, strength, and well-being of this soul lies the 
 difference in God's sight between one man and another. 
 59 
 
Thfi Sift nt 3ffiace. 
 
 The great call of Christ to men, is accompanied by the promise of 
 rest : and the death-bequest of Christ to men is "peace." 
 
 You may assuredly find peace, if you are resolved to do that which 
 your Lord has plainly required — and content that He should want no 
 more of you than to do Justice, to love Mercy, and to walk humbly 
 with Him. 
 
 The world would be a place of peace if we were all peace-makers. 
 
 60 
 
The true and great sciences, more especially natural history, make 
 men gentle and modest in proportion to the largeness of their ap- 
 prehension and just perception of the infinitenecs of the things they 
 can never know. And this, it seems to me, is the principal lesson 
 we are intended to be taught by the book of Job ; for there God has 
 thrown open to us the heart of a man most just and holy, and ap- 
 parently perfect in all things possible to human nature except humil- 
 ity. For this he is tried ; and we are shown that no suffering, no 
 self-examination, however honest, however stem, no searching out 
 of the heart by its own bitterness, is enough to convince man of his 
 nothingness before God : but that the sight of God's creation will 
 
 doit. 
 
 6i 
 
J|.aal Exijtx^^xrt^xxU. 
 
 All real and wholesome enjoyments possible to man have been just 
 as possible to him, since first he was made of the earth, as they are 
 now ; and they are possible to him chiefly in peace. To watch the 
 corn grow, and the blossoms set ; to draw hard breath over plough- 
 share or spade ; to read, to think, to love, to hope, to pray,— these 
 are the things that make men happy ; they have always had the 
 power of doing these, they never zui7/ have power to do more. The 
 world's prosperity or adversity depends upon our knowing and teach- 
 ing these few things : but upon iron, or glass, or electricity, or steam, 
 in no wise. 
 
 63 
 
The HLimitatixrt): of Facts. 
 
 You never can get at the literal limitation of living facts. They 
 disguise themselves by the very strength of their life : get told again 
 and again in different ways by all manner of people : — the literalness 
 of them is turned topsy-turvy, inside-out, over and over again : — 
 then the fools come and read them wrong side upwards, or else, they 
 say there never was a fact at all. Nothing delights a true blockhead 
 so much as to prove a negative : — to show that everybody has been 
 wrong. — Fancy the delicious sensation, to an empty-headed creature, 
 of fancying for a moment that he has emptied everybody else's head 
 as well as his own I 
 
 63 
 
3|ed6mp;tixit):. 
 
 All redemption must begin in subjection, and in the recovery of 
 the sense of Fatherhood and authority, as all ruin and desolation 
 beg-an in the loss of that sense. The lost son began by claiming his 
 rights. He is found when he resigns them. 
 
 He himself has sinned, as distinguished from righteous persons. 
 .... That is the hard lesson to learn, and the beginning of faith- 
 ful lessons. All right and fruitful humility and purging of heart, 
 and seeing of God is in that. 
 
 64 
 
Th^ Beauty ni jp[0Un;ess. 
 
 Perfect the day shall be, when it is of all men understood that the 
 beauty of Holiness must be in labour as well as in rest. Nay ; more, 
 if it may be in labour ; in our strength, rather than in our weakness ; 
 and in the choice of what we shall work for through the six days, 
 and may know to be good at their evening time, than in the choice 
 of what we pray for on the seventh of repose or reward. 
 
 All one's life is a music, if one touches the notes rightly and in 
 time. 
 
Bttdy and BtjLul. 
 
 Body and Soul — the man is made of both : they are to be raised 
 
 and glorified together I would insist upon the whole man 
 
 being in his work : the body musi be in it. Hands and habits must 
 be in it, whether we will or not ; but the nobler part of the man may 
 often not be in it. And that nobler part acts principally in love, 
 reverence, and admiration, together with those conditions of thought 
 that arise out of them. For we usually fall into much error by con- 
 sidering the intellectual powers as having dignity in themselves, and 
 separable from the heart : whereas the truth is, that the intellect 
 becomes noble and ignoble according to the food we give it. 
 66 
 
spiritual lAU. 
 
 Everything which man rightly accomplishes is indeed done by Di- 
 vine help, but under a consistent law which is never departed from. 
 Tlie strength of the spiritual life within us may be increased or 
 lessened by our own conduct ; it is summoned on different occasions 
 by our will, and dejected by our distress, or our sin ; hvt it is always 
 equally human, and equally Divine. We are men, and not mere 
 animals, because a special form of it is with us always ; we are 
 nobler and baser men, as it is with us more or less, but it is never 
 given to us in any degree which can make us more than men 
 J 67 
 
Is there but one day of judgment ? Why, for us every day is a 
 day of judgment, — every day is a Dies Ir.-c and writes its irrevocable 
 verdict in the flame of the West. Think you that judgment waits 
 till the doors of the grave are opened ? It waits at tlie doors of your 
 houses — it waits at the corners of your streets ; we are in the midst 
 of judgment, the insects that we ciiish are our judges, the moments 
 we fret away are our judges, the elements that feed us, judge, as they 
 minister, and the pleasures that deceive us, judge as they indulge. 
 68 
 
Tho Wrxrk of Mctx 
 
 Let us for our lives do the work of men, while we bsar the form 
 
 of them "The work of men,"— and what is that ?— Well, 
 
 we may any of us know veiy quickly, on the condition of being 
 wholly ready to do it 
 
 "Wliatever our station in life may be, those of us who mean to ful- 
 fil our duty, ought first to hve on as little as we can ; and secondly, 
 to do all the wholesome work for it we can, and to spend all we can 
 spare in doing all the good we can. 
 69 
 
The function of ornament is to make you happy. Now in what 
 are you rightly happy ? Not in thinking of what you have done 
 yourself : not in your own pride, not your own birth ; not in your own 
 being, or your own will, but in looking at God ; watching what He 
 does ; what He is ; and obeying His law ; and yielding yourself to 
 His will. You are made to be happy by ornaments : therefore they 
 must be the expression of all this : not copies of your own handi- 
 work, not boastings of your own grandeur : not heraldries, not 
 King's arms, nor any creature's arms, but God's Arm seen in His 
 
 work. 
 
 70 
 
3flagian$m. 
 
 The charge of plagiarism is hardly ever made but by plagiarists, 
 and persons of the unhappy class who do not believe in honesty but 
 on evidence. 
 
 Touching plagiarism in general, it is to be remembered that all 
 men who have sense and feeling are being continually helped : they 
 are taught by every person whom they meet, and enriched by every- 
 thing that falls in their way. The greatest is he who has been oft- 
 enest aided Yet nothing that is truly great can ever be alto- 
 gether borrowed ; and he is commonly the wisest, and is always 
 the happiest, who receives simply, and without envious question, 
 whatever good is offered him, with thanks to its immediate giver. 
 71 
 
Ji880;ciatiTO ftxv^^v. 
 
 I believe that mere pleasure and pain have less associative power 
 than duty performed or omitted, and that the great use of the asso- 
 ciative faculty is not to add beauty to material things, but to add 
 force to the conscience. But for this external and all-powerful wit- 
 ness, the voice of the inward guide might be lost in each particular 
 instance, almost as soon as disobeyed Therefore it has re- 
 ceived the power of enhsting external and unmeaning things in its 
 aid, and transmitting to all that is indifferent, its own authority to 
 reprove or reward, so that, as we travel the way of life, we have 
 the choice, according to our working, of turning all the voices of 
 nature into one song of rejoicing, or into a crying out of her stones, 
 and a shaking of her dust against us. 
 73 
 
Inscriptions. 
 
 Inscriptions in churches, in rooms, and on pictures, are often de- 
 sirable, but they are not to be considered as architectural or pictorial 
 ornaments ; they are, on the contrary, not to be suffered except when 
 their intellectual office introduces them. Place them, therefore, 
 where they will be read, and there only : and let them be plainly 
 written, and not turned upside down, nor wrong end first. It is an 
 ill sacrifice to beauty to make that illegible, whose only merit is in 
 its sense. Write the Commandments on the church walls where 
 they may be plainly seen, but do not put a dash and a tail to every 
 
 letter. 
 
 73 
 
Th$ Mx} and Hptxw^r txt l^^vi^v^no^. 
 
 TJiis is the thing which I know — and which, if you labour faithfully, 
 you shall know also,. — that in Reverence is the chief joy and power of 
 life ; — Reverence for what is pure and bright in your own youth ; for 
 what is true and tried in the age of others : for all that is gracious 
 among the living, great among the dead, — and marvellous in the 
 Powers that cannot die. 
 
 74 
 
ardcr and Kindness. 
 
 These are the two essential instincts of humanity : the love of 
 Order and the love of Kindness. By the love of order, the moral 
 energy is to deal with the earth, and to dress it, and to keep it : and 
 with all rebellious and dissolute forces in lower creatures, or in our- 
 selves. By the love of doing kindness, it is to deal rightly with all 
 surrounding life. And then, grafted on these, we are to make every 
 other passion perfect ; so that they may, every one, have full strength 
 and yet be absolutely under control, 
 J 75 
 
When the active life is nobly fulfilled and the mind is raised above 
 it in clear and calm beholding of the world around us — the simplest 
 forms of Nature are strangely animated by the sense of the Divine 
 Presence : the trees and flowers seem all, in a sort, children of God. 
 .... And all the common uses and palpably visible forms of things 
 become subordinate in our minds to their inner glory, — to the myste- 
 rious voices in which they talk to us about God, and the thoughtful 
 and typical aspects by which they witness to us of holy truth, and fill 
 us with obedient, joyful, and thankful emotions. 
 76 
 
Sxxd in l:atW3» 
 
 The work of the Great Spirit of nature is as deep and unapproach- 
 able in the lowest as in the noblest objects ; the Divine mind is as 
 visible in its full energy of operation on every lowly bank and mould- 
 ering stone, as in the lifting of the pillars of heaven and settling the 
 foundations of the earth ; and to the rightly perceiving mind there is 
 the same infinity, the same majesty, the same power, the same unity, 
 and the same perfection, manifest in the casting of the clay as in the 
 scattering of the cloud, in the mouldering of the dust as in the kind- 
 ling of the day-star. 
 
 77 
 
The truth of Nature is a part of the truth of God : to him who 
 does not search it out, darkness, as it is to him who does, infinity. 
 
 The teaching of Nature is as varied and infinite as it is constant. 
 .... Her finest touches are things which must be watched for ; 
 her most perfect passages of beauty are the most evanescent. She 
 is constantly doing something beautiful for us, but it is something 
 
 which she has not done before and will not do again She 
 
 always tells a story, however hintedly and vaguely. 
 78 
 
The Sli^. 
 
 The sky is for all— bright as it is, it is not " too bright, nor good 
 for human nature's daily food "; it is fitted in all its functions for 
 the perpetual comfort and exalting of the heart, for the soothing it 
 and purifying it from dross and dust. Sometimes gentle, sometimes 
 capricious, sometimes awful, never the same for two minutes to- 
 gether ; almost human in its passions, almost spiritual in its tender- 
 ness, almost divine in its infinity, its appeal to what is immortal in 
 us, is as distinct as its ministry of chastisement or of blessing to 
 
 what is mortal is essential. 
 
 7<J 
 
You may take any single fragment of any cloud in the sky, and 
 you will find it put together as if there had been a year's thought 
 over the plan of it, arranged with the most studied inequality— with 
 the most delicate symmetry— with the most elaborate contrast, a 
 picture in itself. 
 
 Where Poussin or Claude have three similar masses, Nature has 
 fifty cloud pictures, made up each of millions of minor thoughts — 
 fifty aisles penetrating through angelic chapels to the Shechinah of 
 the blue — fifty hollow ways among bewildered hills .... but all 
 unlike each other, except in beauty. 
 80 
 
Bistant ©Itrttds* 
 
 Look at the clouds, and watch the delicate sculpture of their ala- 
 baster sides, and the rounded lustre of their magnificent rolling. 
 They are meant to be beheld far away : they are shaped for their 
 place, high above your head. 
 
 When near us, clouds present only subdued and uncertain colors ; 
 but when far from us, and struck by the sun on their under surface 
 — so that the greater part of the light they receive is reflected — they 
 become golden, purple, scarlet, and intense fiery white, mingled in 
 all kinds of gradations. 
 
3|ato-©toud8. 
 
 We habitually think of the rain-cloud only as dark and gray ; not 
 knowing that we owe to it perhaps the fairest though not the most 
 
 dazzling of the hues of heaven Often the rain-clouds in the 
 
 dawn form soft level fields, which melt imperceptibly into the blue ; 
 or when of less extent, gather into apparent bars, crossing the sheets 
 of broader cloud above ; and all these bathed throughout in an un- 
 speakable light of pure rose-color, and purple, and amber, and blue ; 
 
 not shining, but misty-soft No clouds form such skies, none 
 
 are so tender, various, inimitable. 
 82 
 
IstxvB xxi l:atwB. 
 
 AU true lovers of natural beauty hold it in reverence so deep, that 
 they would as soon think of climbing the pillars of the choir Beau- 
 vais for a gymnastic exercise, as of making a play-ground of Alpine 
 snow; and they would not risk one hour of their joy among the 
 hiU meadows on a May morning, for the fame or fortune of having 
 stood on every pinnacle of the silver temple, and beheld the king- 
 doms of the world from it. 
 
 All Nature ; with one voice,-with one glory, is set to teach you 
 reverence for the life communicated to you from the Father of 
 Spirits. 
 
 83 
 
The laftnite ^anety; txt Mature. 
 
 The truths of Nature are one eternal change — one infinite variety. 
 There is no bush on the face of the globe exactly like another bush ; 
 — there are no two trees in the forest whose boughs bend into the 
 same network, nor two leaves on the same tree which could not 
 be told one from the other, nor two waves in the sea exactly alike. 
 
 Nothing can be natural which is monotonous, nothing true which 
 
 only tells one story It is one of the principles of Nature that 
 
 she will not have one line nor color, nor one portion, nor atom of 
 space without a change in it. There is not one of her shadows, 
 tints, or lines, that is not in a state of perpetual variation. 
 84 
 
All rivers, small or large, agree in one character : they like to lean 
 a little on one side ; they cannot bear to have their channels deepest 
 in the middle, but will always, if they can, have one bank to sun 
 themselves upon, and another to get cool under ; one shingly shore 
 to play over ; . . . . and another steep shore under which they can 
 pause and purify themselves, and get the strength of their waves fully 
 together for due occasions. Rivers in this way are just like wise men, 
 who keep one side of their life for play, and another for work ; and 
 can be brilliant, and chattering, and transparent when they are at 
 ease, and yet take deep counsel on the other side. 
 8s 
 
Th:3 Hissitxn ixi tbe UniUt. 
 
 There is hardly a roadside pond or pool which has not as much 
 landscape z'n it as above it. It is not the brown, muddy, dull thing 
 we suppose it to be : it has a heart like ourselves, and in the bottom 
 of that there are the boughs of the tall trees, and the blades of the 
 shaking gras?, and all manner of hues, of variable, pleasant light out 
 of the sky : nay, the ugly gutter, that stagnates over the drain bars, 
 in the heart of the foul city, is not altogether base : down in that, if 
 you will look deep enough, you may see the dark, serious blue of far- 
 off sky, and the passing of pure clouds. 
 86 
 
What infinite wonderfulness there is in vegetation, considered, as 
 indeed it is, as the means by which the earth becomes the companion 
 of man — his friend and his teacher ! . . . . Vegetation is as an im- 
 perfect soul, given to meet the soul of man 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 service they still render to him, as far as he allows their influence, 
 or fulfills his own task toward them. 
 87 
 
^ S:ecxKnd Id^n. 
 
 What can we conceive of that first Eden which we might not yet 
 win back, if we chose ? — It was a place full of flowers, we say. Well : 
 the flowers are always striving to grow wherever we suffer them ; and 
 
 the fairer, the closer 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 were white 
 
 and red with them, if we cared to have it so What hinders us 
 
 from covering as much of the world as we like with pleasant shade, 
 and pure blossom, and goodly fruit ? Who forbids its valleys to be 
 covered over with com till they laugh and sing ? 
 88 
 
SxtijM flnvjms. 
 
 Under the dark quietness of the undisturbed pines, there spring 
 up, year by year, such company of joyful flowers as I know not the 
 
 like of among all the blessing:s of the earth And all come forth 
 
 in clusters crowded for very love There was the wood anem- 
 one, star after star, closing now and then into nebulje : and there 
 was the oxalis, troop by troop, like virginal processions of the Mois 
 
 de Marie And ever and anon, a blue gush of violets and 
 
 cowslip-bells in sunny places : and in the more open ground the 
 vetch, and comfrey, and mezereon, and the small sapphire buds of 
 the Polygola Alpiua, and the wild strawberry, just a blossom or 
 two, all showered amidst the golden softness of deep, warm, amber- 
 colored moss. 
 
 89 
 
Tb^ BrtiBat): jptertt. 
 
 That sentence of Genesis, " I have given thee every green herb for 
 meat," has a profound symbohcal as well as literal meaning. It is 
 not merely the nourishment of the body, but the food of the soul 
 that is intended. The green herb is, of all nature, that which is 
 most essential to the healthy spiritual hfe of man. Most of us do not 
 need fine scenery ; the precipice and the mountain peak are not in- 
 tended to be seen by all men But trees and fields and flowers 
 
 were made for all. God has connected the labor which is essential to 
 the bodily sustenance with the pleasures which are the healthiest for 
 the heart : and when He made the ground stubborn, He made its 
 herbage fragrant and its blossoms fair. 
 90 
 
Gather a single blade of grass, and examine for a minute, quietly, 
 its narrow, sword-shaped strip of fluted green. Nothing, as it seems 
 
 there, of notable goodness or beauty And yet think of it well, 
 
 and judge whether of all the gorgeous flowers that beam in summer 
 air, and of all strong and goodly trees, pleasant to the eyes and good 
 for food — ^there be any by man so deeply loved, by God so highly 
 
 graced, as that narrow point of feeble g^eeu Consider what 
 
 we awe merely to the meadow-grass, to the covering of the dark 
 ground by that glorious enamel, by the companies of those soft, and 
 countless, and peaceful spears. 
 
 J 9» 
 
ThB Fields. 
 
 The fields ! Follow but for a little time the thoughts of all that 
 we ought to recognize in those words. All spring and summer is in 
 them — the rests in noonday heat, the joy of flocks and herds,— the 
 power of all shepherd life and meditation, the life of sunlight upon 
 the world, falling in emerald streaks, and falling in soft blue shad- 
 ows — pastures beside the pacing brooks — soft banks, and knolls of 
 lowly hills — thymy slopes of down overlooked by the blue line of 
 lifted sea — crisp lawns all dim with early dew, or smooth in evening 
 warmth of barred sunshine, dinted by happy feet, and softening in 
 their fall the sound of loving voices ; all these are summed in those 
 simple words ; and these are not all. 
 93 
 
Observe, the peculiar characters of the grass, which adapt it espe- 
 cially for the ser^-ice of man, are its humility and cheerfulness. Its 
 humility, in that it seems created for lowest service-appointed to be 
 trodden on, and fed upon. Its cheerfulness, in that it seems to ex- 
 ult under all kinds of violence and suffering. You roU it, and it is 
 stronger the next day ; you mow it, and it multiplies its shoots, as 
 if it were grateful ; you tread upon it, and it only sends up richer 
 perfume. 
 
 Spires of the fine gjasses .... mysterious evermore, not only 
 with dew in the morning, or mirage at noon, but with the shaking 
 threads of fine arborescence, each a little belfry of grain bells all 
 a-chime. 
 
 93 
 
I^icb^ns and HCtxssBS. 
 
 Lichens and Mosses — meek creatures ! the first mercy of the earth, 
 veiling with hushed softness its dintless rocks ; creatures full of pity, 
 covering with strange and tender honor the scarred disgrace of ruin, 
 — laying quiet finger on the trembling stones to teach them rest. . . . 
 And as the earth's first mercy, so they are its last gift to us. When 
 all other service is vain, from plant and tree, the soft mosses and 
 gray lichens take up their watch by the head-stone. The woods, 
 the blossoms, the gift-bearing grasses have done their part for a 
 time, but these do service forever. Trees for the builder's yard, 
 flowers for the bride's chamber, com for the granary, moss for the 
 grave. 
 
Th3 Hissixrt): txi tba M:t);utxtait);$. 
 
 Without mountains the air could not be purified, nor the flowing 
 of the rivers sustained, and the earth must have become for the most 
 part desert plain, or stag^nant marsh. But the feeding of the rivers 
 and the purifying of the winds are the least of the services appointed 
 to the hills. To fill the thirst of the human heart for the beauty of 
 God's working, — to startle its lethargy with the deep and pure agi- 
 tation of astonishment, are their higher missions. They are a great 
 and noble architecture ; first giving shelter, comfort, and rest, and 
 covered also with mighty sculpture and painted legend. 
 95 
 
Thie Spirit xxf th^ jptiUs. 
 
 The spirit of the hills is action ; that of the lowlands, repose, . , . 
 There is an expression and a feeling about all the hill lines of Na- 
 ture not to be reduced to line and rule — not to be measured by 
 angles or described by compasses — not to be chipped out by the 
 geologist, or equated by the mathematician. It is intangible, incal- 
 culable, — a thing to be felt, not understood — to be loved, not com- 
 prehended — a music of the eyes, a melody of the heart, whose truth 
 is known only by its sweetness. 
 
 96 
 
Consider the difference produced in the whole tone of a landscape 
 color by the introduction of purple, violet, and deep ultramarine 
 
 blue, which we owe to mountains In some sense a person 
 
 who has never seen the rose-color of the rays of dawn crossing a 
 blue mountain twelve or fifteen miles away, can hardly be said to 
 know what tenderness in color means at all ; bright tenderness he 
 may, indeed, see in the sky or in a flower, but this grave tenderness 
 of the far-away hill- purples he cannot conceive. 
 
 The higher mountains have their scenes of power and vastness, 
 their blue precipices, and cloud-like snows. 
 97 
 
A very old forest tree is a thing subject to the same laws of nature 
 as ourselves ; it is an energetic being ; liable to and approaching 
 death ; .... it is always telling us about the past, never pointing 
 to the future 
 
 Tree-worship may have taken a dark form when associated with 
 the Draconian one ; or opposed as in Judea, to a purer faith ; but in 
 itself, I believe it is always healthy, aiod though it retains little defi- 
 nite hieroglyphic power in subsequent religion, it becomes instead 
 of symbolic, real : the flowers and trees are themselves beheld and 
 beloved, with a half-worshipping delight, which is always noble and 
 
 healthful. 
 
 98 
 
Th^ Sanctity txi ^txXtxt. 
 
 God has employed color in His creation as the unvarying accom- 
 paniment of all that is purest, most innocent, and most precious 
 
 The ascertainment of the sanctity of color is not left to human sagac- 
 ity. It is distinctly stated in Scripture. Blue, purple, and scarlet, 
 Avith white and geld, as appointed in the Tabernacle ; this chord is 
 the fixed base of all coloring with the workmen of every great age. 
 .... All men completely organized and justly tempered enjoy 
 color ; it is meant for the perpetual comfort and delight of the human 
 heart : it is richly bestowed on the highest works of creation, and the 
 eminent sign and seal of perfection in them. 
 J 99 
 
FlXKWei^s as g^mfoiitos. 
 
 Flowers seem intended for the solace of ordinary humanity : chil- 
 dren love them : quiet, tender, contented ordinary people love them 
 as they grow ; luxurious and disorderly people rejoice in them gath- 
 ered. They are the cottager's treasure : and in the crowded town, 
 mark, as with a little broken fragment of rainbow, the windows of- 
 the workers in whose heart rests the covenant of peace. Passionate 
 or religious minds contemplate them with fond, feverish intensity. 
 .... To the child and the girl, the peasant and the manufacturing 
 operative, to the grisette and the nun, the lover and monk, they ai-e 
 precious always. 
 
" Let the dry land appear :'• .... try to foUow the finger of God, 
 as it engraved upon the stone tables of the earth the letters and the 
 law of its everlasting form ; as gulf by gulf the channels of the deep 
 were ploughed, and cape by cape the lines were traced with Divine 
 foreknowledge of the shores that were to limit the nations ; and chain 
 by chain the mountain waUs were lengthened forth, and their founda- 
 tions fastened for ever : and the compass was set upon the face of 
 the depth : and the fields and the highest parts of the dust of the 
 world were made : and the right hand of Christ first strewed the 
 snow on Lebanon, and smoothed the slopes of Calvary. 
 
In color it is not red, but rose-color, which is most beautiful, 
 neither such actual green as we find in summer foliage, but such 
 gray-green as that into which nature modifies her distant tints, or 
 such pale green and uncertain as we see in sunset sky, and in the 
 cleft of the glacier, and the chrysoprase, and the sea foam. And so 
 of all colors : they may be deep and full, but there is a solemn mod- 
 eration even in their very fullness, and a holy reference beyond and 
 out of their own nature to great harmonies by which they are gov- 
 erned, and in obedience to which is their glory. The very brilliancy 
 and real power of all is dependent on the chastening of it, as of a 
 voice on its gentleness, an action on its calmness, and as all moral 
 vigor on self-command. 
 
The Influence xrl Batu^^e. 
 
 Instead of supposing the love of nature necessarily connected with 
 the faithlessness of the age, I believe it is connected properly with 
 the benevolence and liberty of the age ; that it is precisely the most 
 healthy element which distinctively belongs to us ; and that out of 
 it, cultivated no longer in levity or ignorance, but in earnestness 
 and as a duty, results will spring of an importance at present incon- 
 ceivable ; and lights arise, which, for the first time in man's history, 
 will reveal to him the true nature of his hfe, the true field for his en- 
 ergies, and the true relations between him and his Maker. 
 103 
 
*Inflmit|. 
 
 Infinity — It is of all visible things the least mateiial, the least 
 finite, the farthest withdrawn from the earth prison-house, the most 
 typical of the nature of God, the most suggestive of the glory of His 
 dwelling-place. For the sky of night, though we may know it 
 boundless, is dark, it is a studded vault, a roof that seems to shut us 
 in and down : but the bright distance has no limit— we feel its infin- 
 ity as we rejoice in its purity of light. 
 
 The infinity of God is not mysterious, it is only unfathomable : 
 not concealed, but incomprehensible : it is a clear infinity, the dark- 
 ness of the pure, unsearchable sea. 
 104 
 
Of all inorganic substances, acting in their own proper nature, 
 and without assistance or combination, water is the most wonaerful. 
 If we think of it as the source of all the changefulness and oeauty of 
 clouds ; as the instrument by which the earth was modelled into sym- 
 metry, and its crags chiselled into grace : then in the form of snow ; 
 in the foam of the torrent— in the morning mist, in the broad lake 
 and glancing river ; finally in that which is to all human minds tlie 
 best emblem of unwearied, unconquerable power, the wild, various, 
 fantastic, tameless unity of the sea ; what shall we compare to this 
 mighty, this universal element, for glory and for beauty ? It is like 
 trying to paint a soul. 
 
 MS 
 
Jt ?at.b; lfrDp:ar:ed. 
 
 How seldom do we enough consider, as we walk beside the mar- 
 gins of our pleasant brooks, how beautiful and wonderful is that 
 ordinance, of which every blade of grass that waves in their clear 
 water is a perpetual sign, that the dew and rain fallen on the face 
 of the earth shall find no resting-place : shall find on the contrary 
 
 paths prepared for them And the gateways of guarding 
 
 mountains opened for them in cleft and chasm, none letting them 
 in their pilgrimage, and from far off the great heart of the sea 
 
 calling them to itself. 
 
 io6 
 
Time and Beca^. 
 
 In the hand of the great Architect of the mountains, time and 
 decay are as much the instruments of His purpose as the forces by 
 which He first led forth the troops of the hills in leaping flocks :— 
 the lightning and the torrent, and the wasting and weariness of in- 
 numerable ages all bear their part in the working out of one consist- 
 ent plan : and the Builder of the temple for ever stands beside His 
 work appointing the stone that is to fall, and the pillar that is to be 
 abased, and guiding all the seeming wildness of chance and change, 
 into ordained splendors, and foreseen harmonies. 
 107 
 
gtaad and Itril. 
 
 This I know — and this may by all men be known — that no good 
 or lovely thing exists in this world without its correspondent dark- 
 ness ; and that the universe presents itself continually to mankind 
 under the stern aspect of warning or of chioce, the good and the evil 
 
 set on the right hand and the left And where the beauty and 
 
 wisdom of the Divine working are most manifested, there also are 
 manifested most clearly the terror of God's wrath, and inevitable- 
 
 ness of His power So to the end of time it will be : to the 
 
 end the cry will still be heard along the Alpine winds, " Hear, oh ye 
 mountains, the Lord's controversy." 
 
3f.ep:ijs^' after Bestt^uotimi. 
 
 As we pass beneath the hills which have been shaken by earth- 
 quake and torn by convulsion, we find that periods of perfect repose 
 succeeded those of destruction. The pools of calm water lie beneath 
 their fallen rocks, the water-hlies gleam, and the reeds whisper 
 among their shadows : the village rises over the forgotten graves, 
 and its church-tower, white through the storm-twilight, proclaims a 
 renewed appeal to His protection in whose hand " are all the cor- 
 ners of the earth, and the strength of the hills is His also," 
 109 
 
Mtx^^U^^n^^iUQ. 
 
 With respect to that sore temptation of novel-reading, it is not the 
 badness of a novel we should dread, but its over-wrought interest. 
 .... Even the best romance becomes dangerous if by its excite- 
 ment it renders the ordinary course of life uninteresting, and in- 
 creases the morbid thirst for useless acquaintance with scenes in 
 
 which we shall never be called upon to act Novels should be 
 
 chosen not for what is ouf of them, but for what is t'n them. 
 
 That literature is best which points out in common life and famil- 
 iar things the objects for hopeful labour, and for humble love. 
 
Self-Jttinibilatio;^. 
 
 The power of the Masters is shown by their self-annihilation. It 
 is commensurate with the degree in which they themselves appear not 
 in their work. The harp of the minstrel is untruly touched if his 
 o\vn glory is all that it records. Every great writer may be at once 
 known by his guiding the mind far from himself, to the beauty 
 which is not of his creation, and the knowledge which is past his 
 finding out. 
 
 I have always found that the less we speak of our intentions, the 
 more chance there is of our realizing them. 
 
The mn ni GnXixv,. 
 
 Of all God's gifts to the sight of man, color is the holiest, the 
 
 most divine, the most solemn What would the world and 
 
 our own existence become if the blue were taken from the sky, and 
 the gold from the sunshine, and the verdure from the leaves, and the 
 crimson from the blood which is the life of man, the flush from the 
 cheek, the darkness from the eye, the radiance from the hair ? — If 
 we could but see, for an instant, white human creatures living in a 
 
 white world — we would soon feel what we owe to color The 
 
 purest and most thoughtful minds are those which love color the 
 most. 
 
'^ulganttj. 
 
 The higher a man stands, the more the word "vulgar" becomes 
 unintelligible to him. 
 
 There is never vulgarity in a whole truth however commonplace. 
 It may be unimportant or painful. It cannot be vulgar. Vulgarity 
 is only in concealment of truth, or in affectation. 
 
 Men become vulgar precisely in proportion as they are incapable 
 of sympathy, of all that, in deep insistence on the common, but most 
 accurat: term, may be called the "tact " or touch-faculty of body and 
 soul, .... that fineness and fulness of sensation, beyond reason, 
 the guide and sanctifier of reason itself. 
 
3|xi:yal ^t);ad$. 
 
 People will discover at last that royal roads to anything can no 
 more be laid in iron than they can in dust ; that there are, in fact, 
 no royal roads to anywhere worth going to : .... do we want to 
 be strong ? — we must work. To be hungry ? — we must starve. To 
 be happy ? — we must be kind. To be wise ? — we must look and 
 think; no changing of place at a hundred miles an hour, nor making 
 of stuffs a thousand yards a minute, will make us one whit stronger, 
 happier, or wiser. 
 
Tb^ figbt Spirit ttxv Wixvh. 
 
 We have certain work to do for our bread, and that is to be done 
 strenuously : other work to do for our delight, and that is to be done 
 heartily : neither is to be done by halves or shifts, but with a will ; 
 and what is not worth this effort is not to be done at aU. There is 
 dreaming enough, and earthiness enough in human existence with- 
 out our turning the few glowing moments of it into mechanism ; 
 and since our Ufe must at the best be but a vapor that appears but 
 for a little time and then vanishes away, let it at least appear as a 
 cloud in the height of Heaven, not as the thick darkness that broods 
 over the blast of the Furnace, and roUing of the Wheel. 
 J IIS 
 
&0d a 3|o.U8X)h0ld S0d. 
 
 Our God is a household God as well as a Heavenly One : He has 
 an altar in every man's dwelling 
 
 If men lived like men indeed, their houses would be temples, which 
 we should hardly dare to injure, and in which it would make us holy 
 to be permitted to live. 
 
 This is the true nature of home — it is the place of Peace : the 
 shelter, not only from all injury, but from all terror, doubt, and 
 
 division. In so far as it is not this, it is not home But so far 
 
 as it is a sacred place watched over by Household Gods, before 
 whose faces none may come but those whom they can receive with 
 love — so far it fulfils the praise of home. 
 ii6 
 
Tba Stonj ni a Building. 
 
 Every human action gains in honor, in gjace, in all true magnifi- 
 cence, by its regard to things that are to come Therefore, 
 
 when we build, let us think that we build forever. Let it not- be 
 for present delight, nor for present use alone : let it be such work as 
 
 our descendants will thank us for And will say as they look 
 
 upon the labour and wrought substance, " See ! this our fathers did 
 for us." For, indeed, the greatest glory of a building is not in its 
 stones, or in its gold. Its glory is in its a^e, and in that deep sense 
 of voicefulness, of stem watching, of mysterious sympathy, which 
 we feel in walls that have long been washed by the passing waves of 
 
 humanity. 
 
 X17 
 
Do what you can, and confess frankly what you are unable to do ; 
 neither let your effort be shortened for fear of failure, nor your con- 
 fession silenced for fear of shame And while in aU things 
 
 that we see, or do, we are to derive perfection, and strive for it, we 
 are nevertheless not to prefer mean victory to honorable defeat ; not 
 to lower the level of our aim that we may more surely enjoy the 
 complacency of success. 
 
 It is not a question of how much we are to do, but of how it is to be 
 done : it is not a question of doing; more, but of doing better. 
 ii8 
 
JfXKlitical Icxxn^mtj. 
 
 There is no wealth but Life. Life, including all its powers of 
 love, of joy, and of admiration. That country is the richest which 
 nourishes the greatest number of noble and happy human beings : 
 that man is richest who, having perfected the functions of his own 
 life to the utmost, has also the widest helpful influence, both personal, 
 and by means of his possessions, over the lives of others. A strange 
 political economy : the only one, nevertheless, that ever was or can 
 be : all political economy founded on self-interest being but the ful- 
 filment of that which once brought schism into the Policy of angels, 
 and ruin into the Economy of Heaven. 
 119 
 
The Sixirii txf Salf-SacnfiDa. 
 
 " I left not only parents and kindred, but the accustomed luxuries 
 of delicate life.'''' These words of St. Jerome's throw full light on 
 what to our less courageous temper, seems the exaggerated reading 
 by the early converts of Christ's words to them — " He that lovtth 
 father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me." We are 
 content to leave, for much lower interests, either father or mother, 
 and do not see the necessity of any farther sacrifice. We should know 
 more of ourselves and of Christianity if we oftener sustained what 
 St. Jerome found the more searching trial. 
 
 I20 
 
The UqU ai the WnvU. 
 
 What we are to pray for is the Light of the World : . . . . the 
 Light "that lighteth every man that coineth into the world.'''' You 
 will find that it is no metaphor— nor has it ever been so. To the 
 Persian, the Greek, and the Christian, the sense of the power of the 
 God of Light, has been one and the same. That power is not merely 
 in teaching or protecting, but in the enforcement of purity of body, 
 and of equity or justice in the heart now, and here, actual purity in 
 the midst of the world's foulness, practical justice in the midst of 
 the world's iniquity. 
 
jpiigb ^vt 
 
 High art consists neither in altering, nor in improving nature ; 
 but in seeking throughout nature for *' whatsoever things are lovely, 
 and whatsoever things are pure"; in loving them, in displaying to 
 the utmost of the painter's power such loveUness as is in them, and 
 directing the thoughts of others to them by winning art, or gentle 
 emphasis. 
 
 The characteristic of great art is that it includes the largest possible 
 quantity of Truth in the most perfect possible harmony. 
 
 Great art is pre-eminently the expression of the spirits of great 
 
 pn 
 
 men 
 
 123 
 
Jtrt unlike Bmmi)^. 
 
 The Arts, as regards teachableness, differ from the Sciences in 
 this, that their power is founded not merely on facts which can be 
 communicated, but on dispositions which require to be created. . 
 The more beautiful the Art, the more it is essentially the work of 
 
 people who feel themselves wrong Whenever the arts and 
 
 labours of Hfe are fulfilled in the spirit of striving against mis-rule, 
 and doing whatever we have to do honorably and perfectly, they 
 invariably bring happiness, as much as seems possible to the nature 
 of man. 
 
 T "3 
 
great ^vt 
 
 Remember always you have two characters in which all greatness 
 of Art consists. First, the earnest and intense seizing of natural 
 facts ; then the ordering those facts by strength of human intellect, 
 so as to make them, for all who look upon them, to the utmost 
 serviceable, memorable, and beautiful, and thus great Art is nothing 
 else than the type of strong and noble life. 
 
 In human life you have the two fields of rightful toil for ever dis- 
 tinguished, yet for ever associated : Truth first,— plan or design 
 founded thereon, so in Art you have the same two fields.— Truth 
 first, — plan or design founded thereon. 
 
 124 
 
A general law, of singular importance in the present day, a law 
 of common-sense is— not to decorate things belonging to purposes 
 of active and occupied life. Wherever you can rest, then decorate ; 
 where rest is forbidden, so is beauty. You must not mix ornament 
 with business, any more than you may mix play. Work first, and 
 then rest ; work first, and then gaze, but do not use golden plough- 
 shares, nor bind ledgers in enamel. Do not thrash with sculptured 
 flails ; nor put bas-reliefs on millstones. 
 125 
 
iSrmt^t) and Unv^, 
 
 By simply obeying the orders of the Founder of your reUgion, all 
 grace, graciousness, or beauty and favour of gentle life, will be 
 given to you in mind and body, in work and in rest. The Grace of 
 Christ exists, and can be had if you will, .... and as you know 
 more and more of the created world, you will find that the true will 
 of its Maker is that its creatures should be happy : — that He has 
 made everything beautiful in its time and its place, and that it is 
 chiefly by the fault of men, when they are allowed the liberty of 
 thwarting His laws, that Creation groans or travails in pain. 
 126 
 
Remember, it is not so much in buying- pictures, as in detng pic- 
 tures, that you can encourage a noble school. The best patronage 
 of Art is not that which seeks for the pleasure of sentiment in a 
 vague ideality, nor for beauty of form in marble image : but that 
 which educates your children into living heroes, and binds down the 
 flights and the fondnesses of the heart into practical duty and faith- 
 ful devotion. 
 
 127 
 
grrtxwirrg ix% St[a€B. 
 
 A Spirit does actually exist which teaches the ant her path, the 
 bird her building, and men, in an instinctive and marvellous way, 
 
 whatever lovely acts and noble deeds are possible to them I 
 
 pray you with all earnestness to prove and know within your hearts, 
 that all thing's lovely and righteous are possible for those who believe 
 in their possibility, and who determine that, for their part, they will 
 make every day's work contribute to them. Let every morning be to 
 you as the beginning of life, and every setting sun be to you as its 
 close ; then let every one of these short lives leave its sure record of 
 some kindly thing done for others, some goodly strength or knowl- 
 edge gained for yourselves. 
 
 128 
 

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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
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