not give us the same report of his person; but the man is in his books, because his mind and his heart are there. Few authors have put themselves more completely into their writings than Ruskin has done. His own personal history and opinions, his manner of life, the inmost soul of the man, are revealed to the attentive reader of his books, as in the case of almost no other author. He is sympathetic and confidential, touched with egotism, and always open and responsive to whatever influences life may bring to him.

Ruskin has the strong and insistent personality of genius, and he will not dress, live, or think in the manner of other men. He has given little heed to the conventional beliefs of his time in art, morals, or religion, preferring to follow his own convictions of truth and duty. His personality is impressed on his every word and act, and stands forth as a magnetic and commanding presence above all his work of every kind. In "Fors Clavigera" he has described his own life and his own purposes in that racy and magnetic style which he knows so well how to use when roused by indignation or contempt. "Because," he says, "I have passed my life in alms-giving,

not in fortune-hunting; because I have labored always for the honor of others, not my own, and have chosen rather to make men look to Turner and Luini, than to form or exhibit the skill of my own hand; because I have lowered my rents and assured the comfortable lives of my poor tenants, instead of taking from them all I could force for the roofs they needed; because I love a wood walk better than a London street, and would rather watch a sea-gull fly than shoot it, and rather hear a thrush sing than eat it; finally, because I never disobeyed my mother, and because I have honored all women with solemn worship, and have been kind even to the unkind and evil; therefore the hacks of English art and literature wag their heads at me, and the poor wretch who pawns the dirty linen of his soul daily for a bottle of sour wine and a cigar talks of the effeminate sentimentality of Ruskin."

II.

It

RUSKIN is one of the most beautiful of English prose writers. There is a magic touch and impress to his style, so easy and clear is it, while it is sonorous and musical, ornate and eloquent. charms by its very richness and its ease, as it comes pouring forth from a full and noble nature. If Tennyson has given new capacity and variety to English poetry, Ruskin has done no less for English prose. His style is stately in form, the diction is rich with beauty and magnificence, and the purpose is always lofty and pure. He writes as one who gives his whole heart to what he says, who pours his words forth in a flood, with majestic intensity and the splendor of power. He has the gift of graceful utterance, so that every sentence is rounded and complete, happy in form, and instinct with charm. He has passion and energy, exuberance of nature and of words, a

sensitive appreciation of beauty and purity alike, and a magnificent imagination. No English author is more eloquent than he, or more capable of sustained flights of impassioned, magnetic, and powerful writing. Others may have a greater capacity for producing a deep and mighty effect, but no one adds this quality to his charm of style, his wealth of imagination, and his ability to draw the reader into the magnetic influence of his thought. His books are not like a flower garden, wherein we are impressed with the color and the variety of beauty, arranged with a pleasing effect; but a great park, where all is stately and impressive, delicate and delightful, with the naturalness of nature herself. There are no mere ornaments, no petty decorations, in his writing; only the majesty, and the sweep, and the glory of nature and the loftiest themes.

A free and a strong imagination Ruskin has, that would have made him a great poet had he possessed the other qualities necessary. Its sweep is too wide and commanding for poetry, and only finds its fit expression in his eloquent and majestic prose. Cramped by the exigencies of poetry, he finds adequate outlet for his nature in the prose of his flowing and impassioned

descriptions of nature, and in his appeals for human obligation and obedience.

His mind is too discursive for poetry, too impetuous and unrestrained. He rushes eagerly on when he has a thought to utter, with little order and system, careless of logical sequence if he can but give his ideas and his emotions full expression. He lacks concentration, logical power, and philosophic insight. His is the prose of emotion and imagination, more than of logic and reason. There is no continuity, no system, no orderly unfolding of a distinct purpose, in his "Modern Painters"; and the same is true in a large measure of all his writings. He often loses in power by the use of too many words; and he does not adequately impress his thought on the world, because of his failure to give it a logical and a compact statement. Whatever comes to his mind at any moment he turns aside to, however irrelevant it may be. Especially in his lectures is the reader annoyed with his habit of wandering far and wide. His style has lost in charm in his later writings, though it has gained in ease and familiarity.

Keenly sensitive, tenderly sympathetic, and highly impressionable Ruskin is in every touch