nomic views were, and what his relations to the
industrial and social problems of his time, most readers of our author
know, are mainly to be found in "Fors Clavigera," a series of letters to
working-men, covering the years 1871-84, and in his early essays on
political economy, "Unto this Last" (1860), and "Munera Pulveris"
(1863). "Unto this Last" appeared in its original form in the pages of
the "Cornhill Magazine," then edited by Thackeray, and our author speaks
confidently of it as embodying his maturest and worthiest thoughts on
social science. The work, which will be found the key to Ruskin's
economic gospel, embraces four essays, treating successively of the
responsibilities and duties of those called to fill all offices of
national trust and service; of the true sources of a nation's riches; of
the right distribution of such riches; and of what is meant by the
economic terms,--value, wealth, price, and produce. Under these several
heads, Ruskin expresses his conviction that co-operation and government
are in all things the law of life, while the deadly things are
competition and anarchy. Whatever errors the book[3] contains--and the
author's unconscious arrogance and dogmatism made him blind to them--his
views were set forth with his accustomed vigor and eloquence, and in
the honest belief that he was more than fundamentally right. It was for
such helpful work as this, and what he accomplished in the kindred
volume, "Munera Pulveris," which first appeared in "Fraser's Magazine,"
that Ruskin for the time dropped his revelations in art to let a new
world of thought into the "dismal science" of political economy,
confound its old-time instructors, and gird at the evils of the
age,--the greed, selfishness, and petty bargaining spirit of industrial
and commercial life. Nor in conducting such a crusade as this was Ruskin
abandoning his old and less controverted gospel of art. He was but
carrying into new and barren fields the high ideals he had hitherto
counselled his age to emulate and heed, and in his sympathy with labor
seeking to bring into its world the comeliness of beauty and the cheer
of prosperity, comfort, and happiness. In "Time and Tide" (1867), and
more at length in "Fors Clavigera," Ruskin reiterates his message to
labor, to get rid of ever-environing misery by realizing what are the
true sources of happiness,--pleasure in sincere and honest work,
inspired by intelligence, culture, religion, and right livi