r's head, drawn in
the Edinburgh zoological gardens by Mr. Millais.

The last two lectures, on November 15 and 18, were on Painting; briefly
reviewing the history of landscape and the life and aims of Turner; and
finally, Christian art and Sincerity in imagination, which was now put
forth as the guiding principle of Pre-Raphaelitism.

Public opinion was violently divided over these lectures; and they were
the cause of much trouble at home. The fact of his lecturing at all
aroused strong opposition from his friends and remonstrances from his
parents. Before the event his mother wrote: "I cannot reconcile myself
to the thought of your bringing yourself personally before the world
till you are somewhat older and stronger." Afterwards, his father, while
apologizing for the word "degrading," is disgusted at his exposing
himself to such an interruption as occurred, and to newspaper comments
and personal references. The notion of an "itinerant lecturer"
scandalizes him. He hears from Harrison and Holding that John is to
lecture even at their very doors--in Camberwell. "I see small bills up,"
he writes, "with the lecturers' names; among them Mr. ---- who gets your
old clothes!" And he bids him write to the committee that his parents
object to his fulfilling the engagement. He postponed his lecture--for
ten years; but accepted the Presidency of the Camberwell Institute,
which enabled him to appear at their meetings without offence to any.

While staying at Edinburgh, Mr. Ruskin met the various celebrities of
modern Athens, some of them at the table of his former fellow-traveller
in Venice, Mrs. Jameson. He then returned home to prepare the lectures
for printing.

These lectures as published in April, 1854 were fiercely assailed by the
old school; but a more serious blow fell on him before that month was
out. His wife returned to her parents and instituted a suit against him,
to which he made no answer. The marriage was annulled in July. A year
later she married Millais.

In May (1854) the Pre-Raphaelites again needed his defence. Mr. Holman
Hunt exhibited the "Light of the World" and the "Awakening Conscience."
Ruskin made them the theme of two more letters to _The Times_;
mentioning, by the way, the "spurious imitations of Pre-Raphaelite work"
which were already becoming common. Starting for his summer tour on the
Continent, in the Simmenthal he wrote a pamphlet on the opening of the
Crystal Palace. There had been much rej