Homepage
Login
Profile
BookClubs
dmBox
Read Ebook: The Crown of Wild Olive also Munera Pulveris; Pre-Raphaelitism; Aratra Pentelici; The Ethics of the Dust; Fiction Fair and Foul; The Elements of Drawing by Ruskin John
Font size:
Background color:
Text color:
Add to tbrJar First Page Next Page
Ebook has 1394 lines and 150553 words, and 28 pages
ETHICS OF THE DUST.
THE VALLEY OF DIAMONDS 1
THE PYRAMID BUILDERS 21
THE CRYSTAL LIFE 31
THE CRYSTAL ORDERS 43
CRYSTAL VIRTUES 56
CRYSTAL QUARRELS 70
HOME VIRTUES 82
CRYSTAL CAPRICE 98
CRYSTAL SORROWS 111
THE CRYSTAL REST 125
NOTES 143
FICTION--FAIR AND FOUL 153
ELEMENTS OF DRAWING.
ON FIRST PRACTICE 233
SKETCHING FROM NATURE 293
ON COLOUR AND COMPOSITION 331
ELEMENTS OF DRAWING.
FIGURE PAGE
PERSONAE.
OLD LECTURER
FLORRIE, on astronomical evidence presumed to be aged 9.
ISABEL " 11.
MAY " 11.
LILY " 12.
KATHLEEN " 14.
LUCILLA " 15.
VIOLET " 16.
DORA " 17.
EGYPT " 17.
JESSIE " 18.
MARY " 20.
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
I have seldom been more disappointed by the result of my best pains given to any of my books, than by the earnest request of my publisher, after the opinion of the public had been taken on the 'Ethics of the Dust,' that I would "write no more in dialogue!" However, I bowed to public judgment in this matter at once, ; but in reprinting the book, I would pray the readers whom it may at first offend by its disconnected method, to examine, nevertheless, with care, the passages in which the principal speaker sums the conclusions of any dialogue: for these summaries were written as introductions, for young people, to all that I have said on the same matters in my larger books; and, on re-reading them, they satisfy me better, and seem to me calculated to be more generally useful, than anything else I have done of the kind.
The summary of the contents of the whole book, beginning, "You may at least earnestly believe," at p. 130, is thus the clearest exposition I have ever yet given of the general conditions under which the Personal Creative Power manifests itself in the forms of matter; and the analysis of heathen conceptions of Deity, beginning at p. 131, and closing at p. 138, not only prefaces, but very nearly supersedes, all that in more lengthy terms I have since asserted, or pleaded for, in 'Aratra Pentelici,' and the 'Queen of the Air.'
And thus, however the book may fail in its intention of suggesting new occupations or interests to its younger readers, I think it worth reprinting, in the way I have also reprinted 'Unto this Last,'--page for page; that the students of my more advanced works may be able to refer to these as the original documents of them; of which the most essential in this book are these following.
This sentence, however, it must be observed, regards only the general conditions of action in the children of God, in consequence of which it is foretold of them by Christ that they will say at the Judgment, "When saw we thee?" It does not refer to the distinct cases in which virtue consists in faith given to command, appearing to foolish human judgment inconsistent with the Moral Law, as in the sacrifice of Isaac; nor to those in which any directly-given command requires nothing more of virtue than obedience.
One license taken in this book, however, though often permitted to essay-writers for the relief of their dulness, I never mean to take more,--the relation of composed metaphor as of actual dream, pp. 23 and 104. I assumed, it is true, that in these places the supposed dream would be easily seen to be an invention; but must not any more, even under so transparent disguise, pretend to any share in the real powers of Vision possessed by great poets and true painters.
BRANTWOOD:
PREFACE
The following lectures were really given, in substance, at a girls' school ; which in the course of various experiments on the possibility of introducing some better practice of drawing into the modern scheme of female education, I visited frequently enough to enable the children to regard me as a friend. The lectures always fell more or less into the form of fragmentary answers to questions; and they are allowed to retain that form, as, on the whole, likely to be more interesting than the symmetries of a continuous treatise. Many children took part, at different times, in the conversations; but I have endeavoured, without confusedly multiplying the number of imaginary speakers, to represent, as far as I could, the general tone of comment and enquiry among young people.
It will be at once seen that these Lectures were not intended for an introduction to mineralogy. Their purpose was merely to awaken in the minds of young girls, who were ready to work earnestly and systematically, a vital interest in the subject of their study. No science can be learned in play; but it is often possible, in play, to bring good fruit out of past labour, or show sufficient reasons for the labour of the future.
DENMARK HILL:
FOOTNOTES:
I do not mean, in saying 'imaginary,' that I have not permitted to myself, in several instances, the affectionate discourtesy of some reminiscence of personal character; for which I must hope to be forgiven by my old pupils and their friends, as I could not otherwise have written the book at all. But only two sentences in all the dialogues, and the anecdote of 'Dotty,' are literally 'historical.'
THE ETHICS OF THE DUST.
OLD LECTURER . Come here, Isabel, and tell me what the make-believe was, this afternoon.
ISABEL . Such a dreadful one! Florrie and I were lost in the Valley of Diamonds.
L. What! Sindbad's, which nobody could get out of?
ISABEL. Yes; but Florrie and I got out of it.
L. So I see. At least, I see you did; but are you sure Florrie did?
Add to tbrJar First Page Next Page