Moreover, he had the command of great wealth, yet no
temptation to be idle. The tale of Ruskin's industry for the next
fifty years is one that would be incredible if it were not true.
His brief and dim experience of married life seems hardly to have
affected him. As a critic of art and ethics, as the writer of
facile magnificent sentences, full of beauty and rhythm, as the
composer of word-structures, apparently logical in form but deeply
prejudiced and inconsequent in thought, he became one of the great
influences of the day, and wielded not only power but real
domination. The widespread delusion of the English educated
classes, that they are interested in art, was of Ruskin's making.
Then something very serious happened to him; a baffled passion of
extraordinary intensity, a perception of the realities of life, the
consciousness that his public indulged and humoured him as his
parents had done, and admired his artistic advice without paying
the smallest heed to his ethical principles--all these experiences
broke over him, wearied as he was with excessive strain, like a
bitter wave.
Pages:
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126