myself about it more; and even now, it is only with extreme effort and chastisement of my indolence that I go on: but, unless I am struck with palsy, I do not seriously doubt my perseverance, until I find somebody able to take up the matter in the same mind, and with a better heart.

11. The laws required to be obeyed by the families living on the land will be,-with some relaxation and modification, so as to fit them for English people,-those of Florence in the fourteenth century. In what additional rules may be adopted, I shall follow, for the most part, Bacon, or Sir Thomas More, under sanction always of the higher authority which of late the English nation has wholly set its strength to defy that of the Founder of its Religion; nor without due acceptance of what teaching was given to the children of God by their Father, before the day of Christ, of which, for present ending, read and attend to these following quiet words.*

"In what point of view, then, and on what ground shall a man be profited by injustice or intemperance or other baseness, even though he acquire money or power?'

There is no ground on which this can be maintained.'

'What shall he profit if his injustice be undetected? for he who is undetected only gets worse, whereas he who is detected and punished has the brutal part of his nature silenced and humanized; the gentler element in him is liberated, and his whole soul is perfected and ennobled by the acquirement of justice and temperance and wisdom, more than the body ever is by receiving gifts of beauty, strength, and health, in proportion as the soul is more honourable than the body.'

'Certainly,' he said.

'Will not, then, the man of understanding, gather all that is in him, and stretch himself like a bent bow to this aim of life; and, in the first place, honour studies which thus chastise and deliver his soul in perfection; and despise others?'1

* The close of the ninth book of Plato's Republic. I use for the most part Mr. Jowett's translation, here and there modifying it in my own arbitrarily dogged or diffuse way of Englishing passages of complex significance.

[Jowett's version is: "The man of understanding will concentrate himself on this as the work of life. And, in the first place, he will honour studies which impress these qualities on the soul, and will disregard others." For other references to Jowett's translation, see Letter 82 (Vol. XXIX. p. 240 n.); and compare a letter to Norton of July 9, 1879 (in a later volume of this edition).]

'Clearly,' he said.

In the next place, he will keep under his body, and so far will he be from yielding to brutal and irrational pleasures,* that he will not even 1 first look to bodily health as his main object, nor desire to be fair, or strong, or well, unless he is likely thereby to gain temperance; but he will be always desirous of preserving the harmony of the body for the sake of the concord of the soul?'

'Certainly,' he replied, that he will, if he is indeed taught by the Muses.' 2

'And he will also observe the principle of classing and concord in the acquisition of wealth; and will not, because the mob beatify him, increase his endless load of wealth to his own infinite harm?'

'I think not,' he said.

'He will look at the city which is within him, and take care to avoid any change of his own institutions, such as might arise either from abundance or from want; and he will duly regulate his acquisition and expense in so far as he is able?'

'Very true.'

'And, for the same reason, he will accept such honours as he deems likely to make him a better man; but those which are likely to loosen his possessed habit, whether private or public honours, he will avoid?' Then, if this be his chief care, he will not be a politician?'

8

4

By the dog of Egypt, he will! in the city which is his own, though in his native country perhaps not, unless some providential accident should

occur.'

'I understand; you speak of that city of which we are the founders, and which exists in idea only, for I do not think there is such an one anywhere on earth?"

'In heaven,' I replied, there is laid up a pattern of such a city; and he who desires may behold this, and, beholding, govern himself accordingly. But whether there really is, or ever will be, such an one, is of no importance to him, for he will act accordingly to the laws of that city and of no other?'

'True,' he said."

* Plato does not mean here, merely dissipation of a destructive kind (as the next sentence shows), but also healthy animal stupidities, as our hunting, shooting, and the like."

1 [Here Jowett has "

that he will regard even health as quite a secondary matter; his first object will be not that he may be fair . . .”]

2

[Jowett's version is: "... has true music in him. And there is a principle of order (žúvrağı) and harmony in the acquisition of wealth; this also he will observe, and will not allow himself to be dazzled by the opinion of the world, and heap up riches to his own infinite harm."]

ἕξιν).]

[Jowett has ". . . likely to disorder his constitution" (úrew тhy iπáρxovσav

[See the title of this Letter.]

[For Ruskin's view of such sports, see Vol. VII. p. 340 n.; and compare Letters 45, 46, and 51 (below, pp. 156, 177, 286). See also Article V. in St. George's Creed (below, p. 419).]

NOTES AND CORRESPONDENCE

12. It is due to my readers to state my reasons for raising the price, and withdrawing the frontispieces, of Fors.1

The cessation of the latter has nothing to do with the price. At least, for the raised price I could easily afford the plates, and they would help the sale; but I cannot spare my good assistant's time in their preparation, and find that, in the existing state of trade, I cannot trust other people, without perpetual looking after them; for which I have no time myself. Even last year the printing of my Fors frontispieces prevented the publication of my Oxford lectures on engraving; and it is absolutely necessary that my Oxford work should be done rightly, whatever else I leave undone. Secondly, for the rise in price. I hold it my duty to give my advice for nothing; but not to write it in careful English, and correct press, for nothing. I like the feeling of being paid for my true work as much as any other labourer; and though I write Fors, not for money, but because I know it to be wanted, as I would build a wall against the advancing sea for nothing, if I couldn't be paid for doing it; yet I will have proper pay from the harbour-master, if I can get it. As soon as the book gives me and the publisher what is right, the surplus shall go to the St. George's fund. The price will not signify ultimately;-sevenpence, or teupence, or a shilling, will be all the same to the public if the book is found useful;-but I fix, and mean to keep to, tenpence, because I intend striking for use on my farms the pure silver coin called in Florence the "soldo," of which the golden florin was worth twenty (the soldo itself being misnamed from the Roman "solidus "); and this soldo will represent the Roman denarius, and be worth ten silver pence; and this is to be the price of Fors.

Then one further petty reason I have for raising the price. In all my dealings with the public, I wish them to understand that my first price is my lowest. They may have to pay more; but never a farthing less.

And

I am a little provoked at not having been helped in the least by the Working Men's College, after I taught there for five years, or by any of my old pupils there, whom I have lost sight of: (three remain who would always help me in anything 6), and I think they will soon begin to want Fors, now, and they shall not have it for sevenpence.

1 [See the Bibliographical Note, above, p. xxiii.]

[Ariadne Florentina; for the delay in its publication, see Vol. XXII. p. 463.] 3 [On the cost of Fors, see Letter 6, § 3 (Vol. XXVII. p. 99).]

[On the proposed, but never actually struck, coinage for St. George's farms, see Letter 58, §§ 14-16 (pp. 430-432); and on the "soldo," Vol. XV. p. 376.] 6 [Namely, 1854-1859: see Vol. V. pp. xxxvii. seq.]

[Ruskin refers no doubt to Mr. George Allen and Mr. William Ward (both pupils at the Working Men's College); while the third is probably Arthur Burgess, who, though he did not belong to the College, was an old pupil and general assistant

of Ruskin (see Vol. XIV. pp. 349 seq.).] 25

13. The following three stray newspaper cuttings may as well be printed now; they have lain some time by me. The first two relate to economy. The last is, I hope, an exaggerated report; and I give it as an example of the kind of news which my own journal will not give on hearsay. But I know that things did take place in India which were not capable of exaggeration in horror, and such are the results, remember, of our past missionary work, as a whole, in India and China.

I point to them to-day, in order that I may express my entire concurrence in all that I have seen reported of Professor Max Müller's lecture in Westminster Abbey,2 though there are one or two things I should like to say in addition, if I can find time.

14. "Those who find fault with the present Government on account of its rigid economy, and accuse it of shabbiness, have little idea of the straits it is put to for money and the sacrifices it is obliged to make in order to make both ends meet. The following melancholy facts will serve to show how hardly pushed this great nation is to find sixpence even for a good purpose. The Hakluyt Society was, as some of our readers may know, formed in the year 1846 for the purpose of printing in English for distribution among its members rare and valuable voyages, travels, and geographical records, including the more important early narratives of British enterprise. For many years the Home Office, the Board of Trade, and the Admiralty have been in the habit of subscribing for the publications of this society; and considering that an annual subscription of one guinea entitles each subscriber to receive without further charge a copy of every work produced by the society within the year subscribed for, it can hardly be said that the outlay was ruinous to the Exchequer. But we live in an exceptional period; and accordingly last year the society received a communication from the Board of Trade to the effect that its publications were no longer required. Then the Home Office wrote to say that its subscription must be discontinued, and followed up the communication by another, asking whether it might have a copy of the society's publications, supplied to it gratuitously. Lastly, the Admiralty felt itself constrained by the urgency of the times to reduce its subscription, and asked to have only one instead of two copies annually. It seems rather hard on the Hakluyt Society that the Home Office should beg to have its publications for nothing, and for the sake of appearance it seems advisable that the Admiralty should continue its subscription for two copies, and lend one set to its impoverished brother in Whitehall until the advent of better times."-Pall Mall Gazette.

15. "We make a present of a suggestion to Professor Beesly, Mr. Frederic Harrison, and the artizans who are calling upon the country to strike a blow for France. They must appoint a Select Committee to see what war really means.

1 [See above, § 7, p. 20.]

[See On Missions: a Lecture delivered in Westminster Abbey on December 3, 1873, by F. Max Müller, with an Introductory Sermon by A. P. Stanley, Dean of Westminster: 1873. For another reference to foreign missions, see Letter 60, § 8 (below, p. 468).]

3

[For Ruskin's interest in the Society's publications, see Letter 13, § 12 (Vol. XXVII. p. 236).]

[The reference here is to the agitation conducted in 1870-1871 by the Positivist leaders in this country (Professor Beesly, Mr. Harrison, Mr. R. Congreve and others, in conjunction with Mr. George Odger and other representatives of the working classes), with a view to inducing the Government of the day to take up arms on the side of France against Prussia. A "Remonstrance" to this effect was addressed to Mr. Gladstone; Professor Beesly published a pamphlet (A Word for

1

Special commissioners will find out for them how many pounds, on an average, have been lost by the families whose breadwinners have gone to Paris with the King, or to Le Mans with Chanzy. Those hunters of facts will also let the working men know how many fields are unsown round Metz and on the Loire. Next, the Select Committee will get an exact return of the killed and wounded from Count Bismarck and M. Gambetta. Some novelist or poet-a George Eliot or a Browning-will then be asked to lavish all the knowledge of human emotion in the painting of one family group out of the half-million which the returns of the stricken will show. That picture will be distributed broadcast among the working men and their wives. Then the Select Committee will call to its aid the statisticians and the political economists-the Leone Levis, and the John Stuart Mills. Those authorities will calculate what sum the war has taken from the wages fund of France and Germany; what number of working men it will cast out of employment, or force to accept lower wages, or compel to emigrate." (I do not often indulge myself in the study of the works of Mr. Levi or Mr. Mill;but have they really never done anything of this kind hitherto?) "Thus the facts will be brought before the toiling people, solidly, simply, truthfully. Finally, Professor Beesly and Mr. Harrison will call another meeting, will state the results of the investigation, will say, "This is the meaning of war,' and will ask the workmen whether they are prepared to pay the inevitable price of helping Republican France. The answer, we imagine, would at once shock and surprise the scholarly gentlemen to whom the Democrats are indebted for their logic and their rhetoric. Meanwhile Mr. Ruskin and the Council of the Workmen's National Peace Society have been doing some small measure of the task which we have mapped out. The Council asks the bellicose section of the operative classes a number of questions about the cost and the effect of battles. Some, it is true, are not very cogent, and some are absurd; but, taken together, they press the inquiry whether war pays anybody, and in particular whether it pays the working man. Mr. Ruskin sets forth the truth much more vividly in the letter which appeared in our impression of Thursday. Half the money lost by the inundation of the Tiber,' etc. (the Telegraph quotes the letter to the end).

"Before stating what might have been done with the force which has been spent in the work of mutual slaughter, Mr. Ruskin might have explained what good it has undone, and how. Take, first, the destruction of capital. Millions of pounds have been spent on gunpowder, bombs, round shot, cannon, needle-guns, chassepôts, and mitrailleuses. But for the war, a great part of the sum would have been expended in the growing of wheat, the spinning of cloth, the building of railway bridges, and the construction of ships. As the political economists say, the amount would have been spent productively, or, to use the plain words of common speech, would have been so used that, directly or indirectly, it would have added to the wealth of the country, and increased the fund to be distributed among the working people. But the wealth has been blown away from the muzzle of the cannon, or scattered among the woods and forts of Paris in the shape of broken shells and dismounted guns. Now, every shot which is fired is a direct loss to the labouring classes of France and Germany. King William on the one side,

France); Dr. J. H. Bridges another (Why we should Stand by France); and Mr. Congreve, a third (Positivist Considerations on the War). A public meeting of "the Committee of Sympathizers with France" was held at the Cannon Street Hotel on Tuesday, January 3. As a counterblast to this, the "Council of the Workmen's National Peace Society" issued a series of "Questions for the Working Men of Great Britain to ask themselves before they vote at public meetings in favour of a war policy to assist France."]

1

[Leone Levi (1821-1888), Professor of Commerce in King's College, London; author of numerous books on economics and mercantile law.]

[Compare Vol. XXVII. p. 41 n.]

[Printed in Vol. XVII. p. 547: see also Letter 33, § 19 (Vol. XXVII. p. 262).]