CHAPTER

   I.  “Unto this last” (1860-1861)
  II.  “Munera Pulveris” (1862)
 III.  The limestone Alps (1863)
  iv.  “Sesame and lilies” (1864)
   V.  “Ethics of the dust” (1865)
  VI.  “The crown of wild olive” (1865-1866)
 VII.  “Time and tide” (1867)
VIII.  Agates, and Abbeville (1868)
  IX.  “The Queen of the air” (1869)
   X. Verona and Oxford (1869-1870)

BOOK IV

PROFESSOR AND PROPHET (1870-1900)

   I. First Oxford lectures (1870-1871)
  ii.  “Fors” Begun (1871-1872)
 III.  Oxford teaching (1872-1875)
  iv.  St. George and st. Mark (1875-1877)
   V.  “Deucalion” And “Proserpina” (1877-1879)
  VI.  The diversions of Brantwood (1879-1881)
 VII.  “Fors” Resumed (1880-1881)
VIII.  The recall to Oxford (1882-1883)
  IX.  The storm-cloud (1884-1888)
   X. DATUR Hora QUIETI (1889-1900)

THE LIFE OF JOHN RUSKIN

BOOK I

THE BOY POET (1819-1842)

THE LIFE OF JOHN RUSKIN

CHAPTER I

HIS ANCESTORS

If origin, if early training and habits of life, if tastes, and character, and associations, fix a man’s nationality, then John Ruskin must be reckoned a Scotsman.  He was born in London, but his family was from Scotland.  He was brought up in England, but the friends and teachers, the standards and influences of his early life, were chiefly Scottish.  The writers who directed him into the main lines of his thought and work were Scotsmen—­from Sir Walter and Lord Lindsay and Principal Forbes to the master of his later studies of men and the means of life, Thomas Carlyle.  The religious instinct so conspicuous in him was a heritage from Scotland; thence the combination of shrewd common-sense and romantic sentiment; the oscillation between levity and dignity, from caustic jest to tender earnest; the restlessness, the fervour, the impetuosity—­all these are the tokens of a Scotsman of parts, and were highly developed in John Ruskin.

In the days of auld lang syne the Rhynns of Galloway—­that hammer-headed promontory of Scotland which looks towards Belfast Lough—­was the home of two great families, the Agnews and the Adairs.  The Agnews, of Norman race, occupied the northern half, centring about their island-fortress of Lochnaw, where they became celebrated for a long line of hereditary sheriffs and baronets who have played no inconsiderable part