hands."

In common with Wordsworth Ruskin held that the love of Nature was
the greatest of educators. He believed that

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers.

The beauty and the everlasting marvel of Nature's works were, to him
as to the poet of the Lakes, the real road to knowledge:

Come forth into the light of things,
Let Nature be your teacher.

An education of not the brain alone, but of heart and hand as well,
all three working in co-operation, was necessary to raise man to the
level of an intelligent being.

Ruskin's teachings fared no better than those of Carlyle at first,
and though he is spoken of sometimes as being 'old-fashioned,' yet
his lesson is of the old-fashioned kind which does live and will live,
for, like Dickens, he knew how to appeal to the hearts of his readers.
He is one of the most picturesque writers in the language, a man of
great nobility of character and generous feelings, who had a
tremendous belief in himself and knew how to express his thoughts
in the most beautiful language. Some of his books, for example
_Sesame and Lilies_ and _Unto this Last_, are probably destined for
immortality.

CHAPTER XI: _Albert the Good_

The year 1861 was a black year for the Queen. On March 15th her mother,
the Duchess of Kent, died. She had been living for some time at
Frogmore, a pleasant house in the Windsor Home Park, and here in the
mausoleum erected by her daughter her statue is to be seen.

She was sincerely loved by every member of her household, and her
loss was felt as one affecting the whole nation. In the words of
Disraeli: "She who reigns over us has elected, amid all the splendour
of empire, to establish her life on the principle of domestic love.
It is this, it is the remembrance and consciousness of this, which
now sincerely saddens the public spirit, and permits a nation to bear
its heartfelt sympathy to the foot of a bereaved throne, and to
whisper solace to a royal heart."

The death of the Queen's' mother came as a great shock to the Prince
Consort. The Queen was, for a time, utterly unable to transact any
business, and this added to his already heavy burden of cares and
responsibilities.

In the following November the King of Portugal died. The Prince had
loved him like a son, and this fresh disaster told so severely upon
his health that he began to suffer much from sleeplessness. The
strain o