Page:Dictionary of National Biography. Sup. Vol III (1901).djvu/335

 case in the fellows' buildings—in which he placed many of his choicest pictures, drawings, minerals, and manuscripts, were 'an artistic Mecca,' and an intellectual centre of the highest kind ' (see 'Ruskin at Corpus' in the Pelican Record, June and December 1894). Among Ruskin's disciples at Oxford was Mr. Mallock, who has given a good picture of him under the figure of Mr. Herbert—the only character sketch in 'The New Republic' which is not a caricature. Prince Leopold was a constant attendant at Ruskin's lectures, and Ruskin stayed with him at Windsor Castle in January 1878. The prince was one of the trustees for the Ruskin drawing school, and in his first public address (on 'University Extension,' at the Mansion House, 19 Feb. 1879) paid a high tribute to 'the privilege of Professor Ruskin's teaching and friendship.' One of the methods which Ruskin adopted for gathering a circle of ardent young men around him was the subject of much sarcastic comment. This was the road-digging experiment at Hinksey. A cynical don was fond of describing the strange adventures which befell him and his horse when they unwittingly attempted to ride along the Ruskin road. No one was more alive to the humorous side of the affair than Ruskin himself. The road, he used laughingly to admit, was about the worst, in the three kingdoms, and for any level places in it he gave the credit to his gardener, whom he incontinently summoned from Brantwood. But this experimental application of 'the gospel of labour' attracted a good deal of attention. In later years Ruskin used to talk of Tolstoi as his successor, and Tolstoi on his side spoke of Ruskin as one of the greatest men of the age (Cornhill, June 1892). Among the road-diggers was Arnold Toynbee [q. v.], and upon him 'intercourse with Ruskin had a stimulating effect more durable than the actual improvement of the road near Hinksey' (, Arnold Toynbee). 'I tell you,' said Ruskin at the close of one of his Oxford lectures, 'that neither sound art, policy, nor religion, can exist in England until, neglecting, if it must be, your own pleasure gardens and pleasure chambers, you resolve that the streets which are the habitation of the poor, and the fields which are the playgrounds of their children, shall be restored to the rule of the spirits, whosoever they are, in earth and heaven, that ordain and reward, with constant and conscious felicity, all that is decent and orderly, beautiful and pure.' It was the conviction of this truth that led shortly afterwards to Toynbee's work in the East-end, and to the various university 'settlements' which grew out of it. Ruskin's influence has been considerably spread by Ruskin societies, unions, and guilds in various parts of the country. In Oxford a hall for working men is called by his name, and in Tennessee a Utopian settlement.

Under the double strain of his work at Oxford and of that of St. George's guild Ruskin's health broke down. During all this period he was also largely engaged in writing letters to the press on polemical subjects and in a polemical temper. He was like the living conscience of the modern world, and felt acutely the wrongs and wrongdoings of others. In no age could his sensitive heart have escaped these sorrows. 'Le pauvre enfant, il ne sait pas vivre' was the verdict of his Swiss guide upon him. In an earlier age he might have become a saint. In his own age he spent himself, his time, and his wealth in trying to illuminate and ennoble the lives of others. He was well aware that the dispersal of his energies in so many directions militated against full success in any. Yet he craved in moments of weariness for immediate and tangible results. He was disappointed that more of his friends did not come forward and enrol themselves under St. George's banner. 'It is not my work that drives me mad,' he once said, 'but the sense that nothing comes of it.' The strain upon his nervous system was increased by a private sorrow. He was deeply attached to a young Irish lady, Miss Rose La Touche (the 'Rosie' of 'Præterita,' vol. iii.) She had been introduced to him as a young girl in 1858; he had taught her drawing and hoped in after years to make her his wife. In 1872 she decided that it was impossible. Religious differences were among the obstacles. She was a strict evangelical. A little work of prose and verse published by her in 1870 is expressive of a deeply religious but somewhat morbid temperament. She fell into ill-heath and died in 1875. In Ruskin's writing three phases in religious feeling may be distinguished. He was brought up in the strictest sect of evangelicalism. In middle life he outgrew this early faith, and though he never lost his conviction of a personal God his views were widely tolerant. In the writings of his middle period he seldom made any appeal to Christian sanctions. The virtue which he taught was that of the Greeks, 'whose notion of heroism was giving one's life for a kiss and not getting it.' From 1875 onwards he resumed in his writings, under the stress of heightened feeling, a more definitely Christian standpoint. Of