edition of his works, the philosopher calls attention to
his early views, declaring that he was "wholly mistaken" and
continuing: "I had been educated in the narrow doctrine of a narrow
sect, and had read history obliquely, as a sectarian necessarily
must."

Such are the blemishes which occasionally creep into the works of this
master mind. They are, however, merely spots on the sun, which do not
appear frequently enough to seriously dim the splendor of a critical
work which in my judgment surpasses in real value that of any English
scholar of the century. "Modern Painters," "The Stones of Venice,"
"The Seven Lamps," and his other works dealing with art are far more
than criticisms; they touch the sleeping soul, they fire the spirit
and awaken the conscience. They make the reader feel a new love for
nature and art alike, and with this pure and inspiring love comes the
desire for more knowledge. They appeal to the spiritual aspirations
even more than to the artistic impulses or the intellectual
apprehension. The moral exaltation which pervades his writings springs
from his profoundly philosophical and religious nature. In all his
work, as in his noble life, he has ever been moved by an intense
desire to uplift and dignify humanity and to impress upon the public
mind the subtle but positive effect for good exerted by true art. "I
have had," he tells us in "The Two Paths," "but one steady aim in all
I have ever tried to teach, namely, to declare that whatever was great
in human art was the expression of man's delight in God's work."

With Ruskin, life is august; its possibilities for good and evil are
never forgotten.

"Remember," he urges, "that every day of your life is ordaining
irrevocably for good or evil the custom and practice of your
soul; ordaining either sacred customs of dear and lovely
recurrence, or trenching deeper and deeper the furrows for seed
of sorrow. Now, therefore, see that no day passes in which you do
not make yourself a somewhat better creature.... You will find
that the mere resolve not to be useless, and the honest desire to
help other people, will in the quickest and delicatest ways
improve yourself."

The pleasure which springs from loyalty to duty is strenuously
insisted upon by Ruskin, and he, more than any other illustrious man
in our time, has reached such heights of unselfishness as to enable
him to fully appreciate the unalloyed pleasure w