John Ruskin 1819–1900

Abstract

Ruskin was born in 1819 and survived until the end of the century, so the years of his teaching and writing encompassed the far briefer lives of T. H Green and Arnold Toynbee. He was half a century younger than Owen, and most of his important work was published well before Samuel Barnett went to Whitechapel. Ruskin was neither philosopher nor social reformer — not, at least, if social reform implies reconstruction of political institutions or of the machinery of government. He was a prophet and a preacher. ‘Of all men now alive Ruskin has the best talent for preaching’ was Carlyle’s judgement, and George Eliot venerated him as one of the greatest teachers of the age who spoke with the inspiration of a Hebrew prophet.¹ ‘The works of Ruskin’, Collingwood believed, ‘have found their way among all classes, and his thoughts, more or less understood, and often unacknowledged, have become a part of the national mind’ ²

The essential thing for all creatures is to be made to do right.

(Essays on Political Economy)

It is not, truly speaking, the labour that is divided; but the men.

(‘The Nature of Gothic’)