to poetry by wrong.' Most literary men have been
cradled into it by their irresistible feeling and aptitude for rhythm,
together with that general poetic sensibility which is rarely absent
from the nature of the literary artist. Certain it is that practice in
verse has always been recognised as the best of all preparation for work
in prose, and no doubt much of Mr. Ruskin's success as prose-producer
has been owing to his early devotion to the Muse.

He himself tells us, in the course of his tribute to his 'first editor'
(W. H. Harrison), that

'A certain capacity for rhythmic cadence (visible enough in all my
later writings), and the cheerfulness of a much-protected but not
foolishly-indulged childhood, made me early a rhymester.'

And he adds--the tribute was paid in 1878--

'A shelf of the little cabinet by which I am now writing is loaded
with poetical effusions which were the delight of my father and
mother, and which I have not got the heart to burn.'

A much fuller account of the poetic stages through which he passed in
childhood is given by Mr. Ruskin in his 'Praeterita,' where he tells us
of the six 'poems' he brought forth in his seventh year (1826), one of
them being on the subject of the steam-engine, and rejoicing in such
couplets as:

'When furious up from mines the water pours,
And clears from rusty moisture all the ores.'

Another, on the rainbow, was in blank verse and impressively didactic in
its tone. Then, when he was nine years old, he broke out with yet
another effusion, called 'Eudosia;' and when only eleven he began the
composition of an elaborate 'poetical' description of his various
journeyings, under the title of 'Iteriad.'

It is easy to understand how this fondness for the rhythmical was
fostered by the aforesaid parental admiration, and how it was still
further increased by the boy's admiration, successively, for Scott and
Byron. Certain early friendships held out to the young versifier the
prospect of publication, and thus it is that we find him, in his
sixteenth year, figuring as a contributor to 'Friendship's Offering and
Winter's Wreath: a Christmas and New Year's Present' for 1835. This was
the era of the old-fashioned 'annuals,' and 'Friendship's Offering' was
one of the most notable of its kind. In the issue for the year named we
note Barry Cornwall, John Clare, William Howitt, and H. F. Chorley among
the writers of whom the youthful Ruskin w