but also I don't care: and in this carelessness am wiser than you, because I do know this-that if you will look into the Etruscan room of the British Museum, you will find there an Etruscan Demeter of any time you pleaseB.C., riding on a car whose wheels are of wild roses: that the wild rose of her time is thus proved to be precisely the wild rose of my time, growing behind my study on the hillside; and for my own part, I would not give a spray of it for all Australasia, South America, and Japan together. Perhaps, indeed, apples have improved since the Hesperides' time; but I know they haven't improved since I was a boy, and I can't get a Ribston Pippin, now, for love or money. 12. Of Pippins in Devonshire, of cheese in Cheshire, believe me, my good friend, though I trust much more than you in the glorified future of both,-you will find no development in the present scientific day;-of Asphodel of Apples none demonstrable; but of Eves? From the ductile and silent gold of ancient womanhood to the resonant bronze, and tinkling-not cymbal, but shall we say-saucepan, of Miss Frances Power Cobbe, there is an interval, with a vengeance; widening to the future. You yourself, I perceive, have no clear insight into this solidified 2 1 [A bronze statuette, No. 602 in the Museum collection; figured on Plate XII. of the Catalogue of the Bronzes, Greek, Roman, and Etruscan, in the Department of Greek and Roman Antiquities, British Museum, by H. B. Walters, 1899. The following note in Ruskin's diary (March 3, 1876) mentions this, and other objects which had attracted his notice : "Brit. Mus.-Saw sceptre of Tarentum with Corinthian capital. Golden rings of Camirus: opposed beasts, griffin to chimæra; the chimæras perfect in contorted force, wrought with points and knots. One, with round petasus, as opposed to a pawing, horse-headed griffin. "Attic rings; one, gross, of cattle; another, of a sheep-the wool marked by incised dots; held down between crocus and vine. "Etruscan bronze statue with iron centre, splitting, and lambent drapery. Chariot of Demeter with pure roses for wheels. Roses and stars in early Greek vases confused. "Etruscan and Camirus gold quite undistinguishable in dotted-dew workmanship." Most of the objects thus noted may be seen in "The Room of Gold Ornaments" and "The Etruscan Saloon."] 2 [Ruskin takes Miss Frances Power Cobbe (1822-1904), the well-known writer on political and religious subjects, as representative of the "advanced" woman. With one of her principal activities, the movement against Vivisection, he was, however, in full sympathy.] 2 dispersion of the lingering pillar of Salt,' which had been good for hospitality in its day; and which yet would have some honour in its descendant, the poor gleaning Moabitess, into your modern windily progressive pillar of Sand, with "career open to it" indeed other than that of wife and mother-good for nothing, at last, but burial heaps. But are you verily so proud of what has been already achieved? I will take you on your own terms, and study only the evolution of the Amazonian Virgin. Take first the ancient type of her, leading the lucent Cobbes of her day, "florentes aere catervas" : 4 66 Bellatrix, non illa colo, calathisve Minervae Illam omnis tectis agrisque effusa juventus Turbaque miratur matrum et prospectat euntem, Velet honos leves humeros, ut fibula crinem With this picture, will you compare that so opportunely furnished me by the author of The Angel in the House,* of the modern Camilla, in "white bodice, "white bodice, purple kneebreeches, which she had borrowed from an Ethiopian serenader, red stockings, and shoes"? From this sphere of Ethiopian aspiration, may not even the divinely emancipated spirit of Cobbe cast one glance-" Backward, Ho"? 13. But suppose I grant your Evolution of the Japanese Rose, and the Virginian Virago, how of other creatures? of other things? I don't find the advocates of Evolution much given to studying either men, women, or roses; I perceive them to be mostly occupied with frogs and lice. Is there a Worshipful Batrachianity-a Divine Pedicularity? * Article III. of Correspondence [p. 633]. 1 [Genesis xix. 26.] 2 Ruth ii. 2.] [See Letter 12, § 14 (Vol. XXVII. p. 208).] [Virgil, Eneid, vii. 804.] [Virgil's description of Camilla (Eneid, vii. 805, 806, 812-817). For other references to Camilla, see Vol. XIX. p. 329 n.] "2 66 -Stay, I see at page 8741 that Pantheism is "muddled sentiment"; but it was you, my dear boy, who began the muddling with your Japanese horticulture. Your Humanity has no more to do with roses than with rose-chafers or other vermin; but I must really beg you not to muddle your terms as well as your head. We, who have thought and studied," do not admit that " humanity is an aggregate of men." An aggregate of men is a mob, and not Humanity"; and an aggregate of sheep is a flock, and not Ovility; and an aggregate of geese is- -perhaps you had better consult Mr. Herbert Spencer and the late Mr. John Stuart Mill for the best modern expression,-but if you want to know the proper names for aggregates, in good old English, go and read Lady Juliana's list in The Book of St. Albans.3 66 14. I do not care, however, to pursue questions with you of these "concrete developments." For, frankly, I conceive myself to know considerably more than you do, of organic Nature and her processes, and of organic English and its processes; but there is one development of which, since it is your special business to know it, and I suppose your pleasure, I hope you know much more than I do (whose business I find by no means forwarded by it, still less my pleasure)-the Development of Law. For the concrete development of beautifully bewigged humanity, called a lawyer, I beg you to observe that I always express, and feel, extreme respect. But for Law itself, in the existent form of it, invented, as it appears to me, only for the torment and taxation of Humanity, I entertain none 1 5 [Of the Contemporary Review, vol. 27.] 2["We, means we old people; the phrase adopted from Mr. Harrison. The 'humanity is an aggregate' is his assertion."-MS. note in Author's copy.] 3 ["Of Hart, Hinde, Bucke, and Doe, you shall ever say, a heard; of Roes you shall ever terme a beuie; of wilde Swine a sounder; of Wolues a rowt" (p. 30 of the 1595 edition of The Gentlemans Academie; or, The Booke of St. Albans). For other references to the book, see Vol. XXV. pp. 175, 314.] 4 [Mr. Harrison, it may be noted, was secretary to the Royal Commission for Digesting the Law, 1869-1870; Professor of Jurisprudence and International Law to the Inns of Court, 1877-1889.] 5 [See Letter 1, § 6 (Vol. XXVII. p. 18).] whatsoever. I I may be wrong, and I don't want to be wrong; and you, who know the law, can show me if I am wrong or not. Here, then, are four questions of quite vital importance to Humanity, which if you will answer to me positively, you will do more good than I have yet known done by Positivism. (1.) What is "Usury" as defined by existing Law? (2.) Is Usury, as defined by existing law, an absolute term, such as Theft, or Adultery? and is a man therefore a Usurer, who only commits Usury a little, as a man is an Adulterer who only commits Adultery a little? 66 (3.) Or is it a sin incapable of strict definition, or strictly retributive punishment; like Cruelty"? and is a man criminal in proportion to the quantity of it he commits? (4.) If criminal in proportion to the quantity he commits, is the proper legal punishment in the direct ratio of the quantity, or inverse ratio of the quantity, as it is in the case of theft? 15. If you will answer these questions clearly, you will do more service to Humanity than by writing any quantity of papers either on its Collective Development or its Abstract Being. I have not touched upon any of the more grave questions glanced at in your paper, because in your present Mercutial temper1 I cannot expect you to take cognizance of anything grave. With respect to such matters, I will "ask for you to-morrow," not to-day. But here to end my Fors with a piece of pure English,-are two little verses of Sir Philip's, merry enough, in measure, to be set to a fandango if you like. I may, perhaps, some time or other, ask you if you can apply them personally, in address to Mr. Comte. For the nonce I only ask you the above four plain questions of English law; and I adjure you, by the soul of every Comes reckoned up in unique Comte 2 1 [See Romeo and Juliet, Act iii. sc. 1, part of Mercutio's speech: to-morrow, and you shall find me a grave man."] "Ask for me [From the paraphrase of Psalm lxxi. ; lines 2006-2017 in Rock Honeycomb, where, in his notes, Ruskin again alludes to the " 'gay measure." The version is one of those now commonly attributed to Sidney's sister.] |