His word was to be the law. The second thing was that having achieved so great a success in the domain of art, he thought that every other field of human endeavor and industry became his province. He began to write and speak on sociology and political economy, not as the scribes, but as one having authority. The result was that he was turned upon and derided, his judgment even in the things he so well knew was disabled, and the chair in which he had been seated by acclaim was taken away from him. It is not impossible that he will be again seated in that chair and be placed on a higher platform than before, but for the present and for a quarter of a century past he is and has been discredited both as critic and prophet. It was in the autumn of 1859 that Ruskin wrote the series of lectures or essays which have since been published under the title of "Unto This Last." They were the outcome of his reflections on the labor strikes then occurring in England. Thackeray was at that time engaged in launching the Cornhill Magazine, and in search for striking contributions, accepted these essays, from Mr. Ruskin. Their publication excited no end of condemnation in England, and after the first three had appeared Thackeray wrote to Rus kin saying that he could publish but one more, giving as his reason the general hostility to them of the reading public. In his preface to the published volume Mr. Ruskin says that when published in the Cornhill "they were reprobated in a violent manner by most of the readers they met with. Not a whit the less," he goes on to say, "I believe them to be the best that is to say, the truest, rightestworded and most serviceable-things I have ever written; and the last of them, having had especial pains spent on it, is probably the best I shall ever write." This, then, is the volume that became the turning point in Mr. Ruskin's career. A number of years had to elapse ere he was entirely dethroned, but the beginning of it all may be traced back to the publication of "Unto This Last" and Mr. Ruskin's challenge in the preface, that it was the best thing he had written and that thenceforth he would do battle for the principles he had laid down. Certainly a more remarkable spectacle than Mr. Ruskin fighting for what he deemed the right, against a people blinded, in his estimation, to their own most vital interests, has rarely been seen. Ajax defying the lightning is the nearest approach to it in mythical history, and in impuissance comes nearest to it in fact. "Unto This Last" undertook to elevate political economy from the region of the "dismal " to which Carlyle had assigned it into the region of imagination and ideality. It was not what is, but what ought to be, that Mr. Ruskin dealt with, and not so much what ought to be as what he thought ought to be, and upon this there was a wide difference of opinion. Political economy if it deals with anything deals with the realm of selfishness; in other words, with human nature as it is. This is really what makes it so "dismal," and upon the whole incomprehensible. Mr. Ruskin, in his aspiration to lead the world into a higher and better life, taught that the proper theory of political economy was unselfishness and he would have it extended so as to include politics, education and police regulations. In the old definition political economy was concerned only with material things, and commodities were wealth. Mr. Ruskin would have it that life is wealth and that ethics have as much to do with the science as material objects. Mr. Ruskin would construct an ideal monarchy just as Plato imagined an ideal republic, in which the king or the government would be a providence watching over and controlling all the people who, in a measure, would reside in the "happy valley." The name "Altruria " had not been invented for this ideal state of existence when Mr. Ruskin wrote, but that is the condition he aimed at in his writings on political economy. From the time of the publication of "Unto This Last" down to the period of his retirement from all controversy, Mr. Ruskin continued the battle for his pet theories, and it is in the papers he entitled "Fors Clavigera " that their best expression is to be found. This fanciful title means, according to his own definition, fortitude, fortune or force, bearing a club or a key. It is a series of letters addressed to workingmen, little read by them possibly as being, like the title, far over their heads, but worthy to be read by everybody, not for their argument, but for their superb English. They were published in periodical form and ran for several years. The work in effect is a criticism on modern life in England, and contains some of the most trenchant satire ever written, interspersed with the profoundest pathos and eloquence, while there is vast research into the meaning of words and things. It contains Mr. Ruskin's fullest and most mature teachings, and while they cannot be accepted in the present state of |