This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1913 Excerpt: ...inevitable distinction of rank, and the necessary obedience to authority." Ruskin honoured his countrymen too much to appeal to their baser passions. The Royal Military Academy, the " Shop," at Woolwich, has this motto, "Through obedience learn to command." For such is the law of every heroic nature. Ruskin was a lover ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1913 Excerpt: ...inevitable distinction of rank, and the necessary obedience to authority." Ruskin honoured his countrymen too much to appeal to their baser passions. The Royal Military Academy, the " Shop," at Woolwich, has this motto, "Through obedience learn to command." For such is the law of every heroic nature. Ruskin was a lover of his country in the best sense of the word, he loved her soil, he loved her people, he loved her art and literature. Even when he was writing of other lands and other times, she was always first in his thoughts, and when he wanted to give practical realization to his teaching, he did so under the aegis of her patron saint. He forsook his service of art in order to fly to her aid, like a burgher to the ramparts, in what he considered a time of national crisis. He gave his money and services to the vindication of Governor Eyre. His very prejudices were English, there was nothing cosmopolitan about him. His patriotism was not limited to the shores of these islands. Like Carlyle, he was an imperialist, for his soul was too great to be limited by formulas and pinchbeck calculations of profit and loss. Student of Venice, he not only perceived, but felt the possibilities of Empire, and the splendour of our destiny. The following passage, taken from his Inaugural Lecture at Oxford, speaks for itself, and is so memorable as to demand full quotation: "There is indeed a course of beneficent glory open to us, such as never was yet offered to any poor group of mortal souls. But it must be--it is with us now, ' Reign or Die.' And if it shall be said of this country, 'Fece per viltate, il gran rifuto, ' that refusal of the crown will be, of all yet recorded in history, the shamefullest and most untimely. "And this is what...
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