nine closely printed octavo volumes, or his history of Scotland. And this list entirely omits numerous essays, reviews, and notes upon various subjects. It is well to realize something of the extent of Scott's work before attempting to pass critical judgment upon it. One of the great services which Ruskin renders to those who read him at all faithfully is in enlarging their range of interests. Certainly, no one seriously ignorant of Walter Scott could continue to read Ruskin without a sense of shame. The life-long influence which Scott exercised upon Ruskin is a matter of common knowledge. Yet it might appear from superficial observation that the two men were very unlike. The country gentleman from Abbotsford, entertaining lavishly, creating novels rapidly, apparently to fill his purse and to amuse the public, seems different from that passionate other, who, as life advanced, felt increasingly called upon to utilize his whole strength of mind and body to correct what he deemed to be the abuses of his generation. It appears hard to reconcile the spirit of the man who declares that "Rokeby does and must go forward, or my trees and enclosures might, perchance, stand still" 10 with that which prompted the promulgator of the doctrine that "There is no Wealth but Life"." Scott, feverishly jeopardiz ing his own and his family's fortune to add new and incongruous turrets to Abbotsford and to increase an estate already large, appears not akin to Ruskin when the latter says: "In actual life, let me assure you, .. the first 'wisdom of calm' is to plan, and resolve to labour for, the comfort and beauty of a home such as, if we could obtain it, we would quit no more. Not a compartment of a model lodginghouse, not the number so-and-so of Paradise Row; but a cottage all of our own, with its little garden, its pleasant view, its surrounding fields, its neighbouring stream, its healthy air and clean kitchen, parlours, and bedrooms. Less than this no man should be content with for his nest; more than this few should seek." 12 10 Familiar Letters of Sir Walter Scott (Houghton Mifflin, 1894) i, 243. "Ruskin's Works, xvii, 105. (The references to Ruskin in this paper are uniformly to E. T. Cook's and Alexander Wedderburn's Library Edition.) 12 Ruskin's Works, xxii, 263. Yet there are resemblances, also, which occur to one without too great reflection. There are coincidences in the lives of the two men. Ruskin's parents were grandchildren of one John Ruskin, of Edinburgh. Both they and he spent much time in Scotland. Frederick Harrison says of Ruskin: "He talked with a lowland accent, and his dominant tone of mind was a mysterious amalgam of John Knox, Carlyle, and Walter Scott." By the time Ruskin was twenty-one he had suffered three serious illnesses, and one must marvel at the great body of work he produced when one considers the number of times his labors were completely interrupted by brain-storm or other affliction. All this recalls Scott's early lameness, and the degree to which gout, stomach complaint, and incipient apoplexy disturbed his work in later years. The amount of writing done by both men was tremendous. Scott's work has been roughly outlined and seen to be large in bulk, and one remembers as readily that Ruskin was the author of more than eighty distinct works upon a great variety of subjects. Both men were able to work under great tension and nervous strain. One of the pleasant things to remember about Ruskin is his theory regarding the relation which should exist between master and servant, and the added fact that this theory was made a working principle of his life, so that the domestics in his household were completely devoted to him. It is interesting, also, to learn that a similar theory and practice were found with Scott. His servants were his staunchest friends in the time of his financial losses. The following passage from Lockhart will illustrate. When he visited Abbotsford in 1827, the butler, he says "instead of being the easy chief of a large establishment, was now doing half the work of the house, at probably half his former wages. Old Peter, who had been for five-andtwenty years a dignified coachman, was now ploughman in ordinary, only putting his horses to the carriage upon high and rare occasions; and so on with all the rest that remained of the ancient train. And all, to my view, seemed happier than they had ever been before. Their good conduct had given every one of them a new elevation in his own mind— 13 Harrison: John Ruskin, p. 4. and yet their demeanour had gained, in place of losing, in 14 Scott and Ruskin expressed similar ideas about the things of ultimate value in the world. Scott's may be illustrated from remarks recorded by Lockhart from a conversation which the novelist had with Maria Edgeworth in Ireland. Lockhart had just said something to the effect that many poets and novelists seemed to regard life and the world merely as material for art. "A soft and pensive shade came over Scott's face as he said-'I fear you have some very young ideas in your head: are you not too apt to measure things by some reference to literature-to disbelieve that anybody can be worth much care who has no knowledge of that sort of thing, or taste for it? God help us! what a poor world this would be if that were the true doctrine! I have read books enough, and observed and conversed with enough of eminent and splendidly cultivated minds, too, in my time; but, I assure you, I have heard higher sentiments from the lips of poor uneducated men and women, when exerting the spirit of severe yet gentle heroism under difficulties and afflictions, or speaking their simple thoughts as to circumstances in . the lot of friends and neighbours, than I ever yet met with out of the pages of the Bible. We shall never learn to feel and respect our real calling and destiny, unless we have taught ourselves to consider everything as moonshine, compared with the education of the heart."15 Akin to this idea are words by Ruskin upon education, in Fors Clavigera:— "It is taken for granted, that any education must be good; that the more of it we get, the better; that bad education means only little education; and that the worst thing we have to fear is getting none. Alas, that is not at all so. 14 Lockhart: Life of Walter Scott, v, 151. 15 Ibid., iv, 294. Getting no education is by no means the worst thing that can happen to us. One of the pleasantest friends I ever had in my life was a Savoyard guide, who could only read with difficulty, and write scarcely intelligibly, and by great effort. He knew no language but his own-no science, except as much practical agriculture as served him to till his fields. But he was, without exception, one of the happiest persons, and on the whole, one of the best, I have ever known.'' 16 But Ruskin's own testimony as to his kinship with Scott is best. In the appendix to Fors Clavigera one may find the following passage: "I should not venture to say anything to you of Scott, or of any other great man, unless I knew myself to be in closer sympathy with them than you can generally be yourselves; but observe, in claiming this sympathy I do not claim the least approach to any equality of power. I had sympathy with Tintoret, with Scott, with Turner, with Carlyle as a child with its father or mother, not as friend with friend. What they feel, I, in a feeble and inferior way, feel also; what they are, I can tell you, because in a poor and weak way I am like them of their race-but no match for them. It has curiously happened to me also to have been educated in many particulars under the same conditions as Scott, and often in the same places. My father was a high school lad of Edinburgh; the first picture I ever saw with conscious eyes was of Edinburgh Castle; the earliest patriotic delight I can remember, in my life, distinctly, is the delight of crossing the Tweed into Scotland; and I was educated-to all intents and purposes-by my Puritan mother and aunt, first by thorough training in the Bible, and secondly by being let loose into Homer and Scott."" 17 Ruskin was, then, in many ways, exactly the kind of man to be attracted by Scott. He could no more remember when he did not know the Waverley Novels than when he did not know the Bible. 18 He translated half The Monastery into jingling rhyme when he was ten years old. This early acquaintance with Scott is pleasantly described in Valle Crucis: 16 Ruskin's Works, xxvii, 60. 17 Ibid., xxix, 539. 18 Ibid., xxviii, 348. "Among the circumstances of my early life which I count most helpful, and for which I look back with more than filial gratitude to my father's care, was his fixed habit of stopping with me, on his business journeys, patiently at any country inn that was near a castle, or an abbey, until I had seen all the pictures in the castle, and explored, as he always found me willing to do, all the nooks of the cloister. In these more romantic expeditions, aided and inspired by Scott, and never weary of re-reading the stories of The Monastery, The Abbot, and The Antiquary, I took an interest more deep than an ordinary child; and received impressions which guided and solemnized the whole subsequent tenor of my life."'19 Numerous references in his letters of mature years show that Scott's fascination for Ruskin was a life-long one and that he never ceased to read him. Indeed, he declared that it was one of the griefs of his old age that he knew Scott by heart.20 Ruskin's collection of manuscripts by Sir Walter Scott was the content of his library of which he was perhaps most proud. He bids his dearest friends "take their Scott from the inner shelf in their heart's library which all true Scotsmen give him." He would like all girls whatever to bathe in Scott daily, as a sort of ever-rolling, ever-freshening sea.22 A young student belonging to the working classes had Waverley recommended to him by Ruskin as appropriate reading, with careful directions for its perusal.23 Ruskin felt that the best in his own manner of writing was learned from Byron and Scott.24 He is even envious of Sir Walter at times. For example, he writes in Fors Clavigera: "Sir Walter Scott's life, in the full strength of it at Ashestiel, and early at Abbotsford, with his literary work done by ten, or at latest twelve in the morning; and the rest of of the day spent in useful work with Tom Purdie in his woods, is a model of wise moral management of mind and body, for men of true literary power; but I had neither the country training of body, nor have the natural strength of brain, which can reach this ideal in anywise. Sir Walter 19 Ibid., xxxiii, 227. 20 Ibid., xxxiv, 606. 21 Ibid., xxv, 296. 23 Ibid., xxviii, 495. |