A Joy For Ever, by John Ruskin docx

BEINGTHE SUBSTANCE WITHADDITIONS OF TWO LECTURES ON THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF ART, Delivered at Manchester, July 10th and 13th, 1857... Political economymeans, in plain English, nothing m

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Title: A Joy For Ever

(And Its Price in the Market)

Author: John Ruskin

Release Date: November 30, 2006 [EBook

#19980]

Language: English

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A JOY FOR EVER ***

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BEINGTHE SUBSTANCE (WITH

ADDITIONS)

OF

TWO LECTURES

ON THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF ART,

Delivered at Manchester, July 10th and

13th, 1857.

BY

JOHN RUSKIN, LL.D.,

HONORARY STUDENT OF CHRISTCHURCH, AND HONORARY FELLOW

OF CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE,

1904.

[All rights reserved]

Printed by Ballantyne, Hanson & Co

At the Ballantyne Press

by some as the last clause of the linechosen from Keats by the good folks ofManchester, to be written in letters of gold

on the cornice, or Holy rood, of the greatExhibition which inaugurated the career of

so many,—since organized, by bothforeign governments and our own, toencourage the production of works of art,which the producing nations, so far fromintending to be their "joy for ever," onlyhope to sell as soon as possible Yet themotto was chosen with uncomprehendedfelicity: for there never was, nor can be,any essential beauty possessed by a work

of art, which is not based on theconception of its honoured permanence,and local influence, as a part of appointedand precious furniture, either in thecathedral, the house, or the joyfulthoroughfare, of nations which enter theirgates with thanksgiving, and their courtswith praise

"Their" courts—or "His" courts;—in the

mind of such races, the expressions aresynonymous: and the habits of life whichrecognise the delightfulness, confess alsothe sacredness, of homes nested round theseat of a worship unshaken by insolenttheory: themselves founded on an abidingaffection for the past, and care for thefuture; and approached by paths open only

to the activities of honesty, and traversedonly by the footsteps of peace

The exposition of these truths, to which Ihave given the chief energy of my life,will be found in the following pages firstundertaken systematically and in logicalsequence; and what I have since written

on the political influence of the Arts hasbeen little more than the expansion of

these first lectures, in the reprint of whichnot a sentence is omitted or changed.

The supplementary papers added contain,

in briefest form, the aphorisms respectingprinciples of art-teaching of which theattention I gave to this subject during thecontinuance of my Professorship at Oxfordconfirms me in the earnest and contentedre-assertion

John Ruskin,Brantwood,

April 29th, 1880.

to explain the points which could not besufficiently considered in the time I had at

my disposal in the lecture room

Some apology may be thought due to thereader, for an endeavour to engage hisattention on a subject of which noprofound study seems compatible with thework in which I am usually employed Butprofound study is not, in this case,necessary either to writer or readers,while accurate study, up to a certain point,

is necessary for us all Political economymeans, in plain English, nothing more than

"citizen's economy"; and its firstprinciples ought, therefore, to beunderstood by all who mean to take theresponsibility of citizens, as those ofhousehold economy by all who take theresponsibility of householders Nor are itsfirst principles in the least obscure: theyare, many of them, disagreeable in their

practical requirements, and people ingeneral pretend that they cannotunderstand, because they are unwilling toobey them: or rather, by habitualdisobedience, destroy their capacity ofunderstanding them But there is not one ofthe really great principles of the sciencewhich is either obscure or disputable,—which might not be taught to a youth assoon as he can be trusted with an annualallowance, or to a young lady as soon asshe is of age to be taken into counsel bythe housekeeper.

I might, with more appearance of justice,

be blamed for thinking it necessary toenforce what everybody is supposed toknow But this fault will hardly be foundwith me, while the commercial events

recorded daily in our journals, and stillmore the explanations attempted to begiven of them, show that a large number ofour so-called merchants are as ignorant ofthe nature of money as they are reckless,unjust, and unfortunate in its employment.The statements of economical principlesgiven in the text, though I know that most,

if not all, of them are accepted by existingauthorities on the science, are notsupported by references, because I havenever read any author on politicaleconomy, except Adam Smith, twentyyears ago Whenever I have taken up anymodern book upon this subject, I haveusually found it encumbered with inquiriesinto accidental or minor commercial

results, for the pursuit of which anordinary reader could have no leisure, and

by the complication of which, it seemed to

me, the authors themselves had been notunfrequently prevented from seeing to theroot of the business

Finally, if the reader should feel induced

to blame me for too sanguine a statement

of future possibilities in political practice,let him consider how absurd it wouldhave appeared in the days of Edward I ifthe present state of social economy hadbeen then predicted as necessary, or evendescribed as possible And I believe theadvance from the days of Edward I to ourown, great as it is confessedly, consists,not so much in what we have actuallyaccomplished, as in what we are now

enabled to conceive.

———

LECTURE I

PAGETHE DISCOVERY AND

Continuation of the previous Lecture; delivered July 13th, 1857.

" 8.—"SILK AND PURPLE" 193

"A JOY FOR EVER."

with other ages of this not yet very

experienced world, one of the mostnotable appears to me to be the just andwholesome contempt in which we hold

poverty I repeat, the just and wholesome

contempt; though I see that some of my

hearers look surprised at the expression Iassure them, I use it in sincerity; and Ishould not have ventured to ask you tolisten to me this evening, unless I hadentertained a profound respect for wealth

—true wealth, that is to say; for, ofcourse, we ought to respect neither wealthnor anything else that is false of its kind:and the distinction between real and falsewealth is one of the points on which Ishall have a few words presently to say toyou But true wealth I hold, as I said, ingreat honour; and sympathize, for the mostpart, with that extraordinary feeling of thepresent age which publicly pays thishonour to riches

2 I cannot, however, help noticing howextraordinary it is, and how this epoch of

ours differs from all bygone epochs inhaving no philosophical nor religiousworshippers of the ragged godship ofpoverty In the classical ages, not onlywere there people who voluntarily lived

in tubs, and who used gravely to maintainthe superiority of tub-life to town-life, butthe Greeks and Latins seem to have looked

on these eccentric, and I do not scruple tosay, absurd people, with as much respect

as we do upon large capitalists and landedproprietors; so that really, in those days,

no one could be described as purse proud,but only as empty-purse proud And noless distinct than the honour which thosecurious Greek people pay to theirconceited poor, is the disrespectfulmanner in which they speak of the rich; so

that one cannot listen long either to them,

or to the Roman writers who imitatedthem, without finding oneself entangled inall sorts of plausible absurdities; hardupon being convinced of the uselessness

of collecting that heavy yellow substancewhich we call gold, and led generally todoubt all the most established maxims ofpolitical economy

3 Nor are matters much better in theMiddle Ages For the Greeks and Romanscontented themselves with mocking at richpeople, and constructing merry dialoguesbetween Charon and Diogenes orMenippus, in which the ferryman and thecynic rejoiced together as they saw kingsand rich men coming down to the shore ofAcheron, in lamenting and lamentable

crowds, casting their crowns into the darkwaters, and searching, sometimes in vain,for the last coin out of all their treasuresthat could ever be of use to them.

4 But these Pagan views of the matterwere indulgent, compared with thosewhich were held in the Middle Ages,when wealth seems to have been lookedupon by the best men not only ascontemptible, but as criminal The purseround the neck is, then, one of theprincipal signs of condemnation in thepictured Inferno; and the Spirit of Poverty

is reverenced with subjection of heart, andfaithfulness of affection, like that of aloyal knight for his lady, or a loyal subjectfor his queen And truly, it requires some

boldness to quit ourselves of thesefeelings, and to confess their partiality ortheir error, which, nevertheless, we arecertainly bound to do For wealth issimply one of the greatest powers whichcan be entrusted to human hands: a power,not indeed to be envied, because it seldommakes us happy; but still less to beabdicated or despised; while, in thesedays, and in this country, it has become apower all the more notable, in that thepossessions of a rich man are notrepresented, as they used to be, by wedges

of gold or coffers of jewels, but by masses

of men variously employed, over whosebodies and minds the wealth, according toits direction, exercises harmful or helpfulinfluence, and becomes, in that alternative,

Mammon either of Unrighteousness or ofRighteousness.

5 Now, it seemed to me that since, in thename you have given to this greatgathering of British pictures, yourecognize them as Treasures—that is, Isuppose, as part and parcel of the realwealth of the country—you might not beuninterested in tracing certain commercialquestions connected with this particularform of wealth Most persons expressthemselves as surprised at its quantity; nothaving known before to what an extentgood art had been accumulated inEngland: and it will, therefore, I shouldthink, be held a worthy subject ofconsideration, what are the politicalinterests involved in such accumulations,

what kind of labour they represent, andhow this labour may in general be appliedand economized, so as to produce therichest results.

6 Now, you must have patience with me,

if in approaching the specialty of thissubject, I dwell a little on certain points ofgeneral political science already known

or established: for though thus, as Ibelieve, established, some which I shallhave occasion to rest arguments on are notyet by any means universally accepted;and therefore, though I will not lose time

in any detailed defence of them, it isnecessary that I should distinctly tell you

in what form I receive, and wish to arguefrom them; and this the more, because

there may perhaps be a part of myaudience who have not interestedthemselves in political economy, as itbears on ordinary fields of labour, butmay yet wish to hear in what way itsprinciples can be applied to Art I shall,therefore, take leave to trespass on yourpatience with a few elementary statements

in the outset, and with the expression ofsome general principles, here and there, inthe course of our particular inquiry

7 To begin, then, with one of thesenecessary truisms: all economy, whether

of states, households, or individuals, may

be defined to be the art of managinglabour The world is so regulated by thelaws of Providence, that a man's labour,well applied, is always amply sufficient

to provide him during his life with allthings needful to him, and not only withthose, but with many pleasant objects ofluxury; and yet farther, to procure himlarge intervals of healthful rest andserviceable leisure And a nation's labour,well applied, is, in like manner, amplysufficient to provide its whole populationwith good food and comfortablehabitation; and not with those only, butwith good education besides, and objects

of luxury, art treasures, such as these youhave around you now But by those samelaws of Nature and Providence, if thelabour of the nation or of the individual bemisapplied, and much more if it beinsufficient,—if the nation or man beindolent and unwise,—suffering and want

result, exactly in proportion to theindolence and improvidence—to therefusal of labour, or to the misapplication

of it Wherever you see want, or misery,

or degradation, in this world about you,there, be sure, either industry has beenwanting, or industry has been in error It isnot accident, it is not Heaven-commandedcalamity, it is not the original andinevitable evil of man's nature, which fillyour streets with lamentation, and yourgraves with prey It is only that, whenthere should have been providence, therehas been waste; when there should havebeen labour, there has beenlasciviousness; and wilfulness, when thereshould have been subordination.[1]

8 Now, we have warped the word

"economy" in our English language into ameaning which it has no businesswhatever to bear In our use of it, itconstantly signifies merely sparing orsaving; economy of money means savingmoney—economy of time, sparing time,and so on But that is a wholly barbaroususe of the word—barbarous in a doublesense, for it is not English, and it is badGreek; barbarous in a treble sense, for it

is not English, it is bad Greek, and it isworse sense Economy no more meanssaving money than it means spendingmoney It means, the administration of ahouse; its stewardship; spending orsaving, that is, whether money or time, oranything else, to the best possible

advantage In the simplest and clearestdefinition of it, economy, whether public

or private, means the wise management oflabour; and it means this mainly in threesenses: namely, first, applying your labour rationally; secondly, preserving its produce carefully; lastly, distributing its

produce seasonably

9 I say first, applying your labourrationally; that is, so as to obtain the mostprecious things you can, and the mostlasting things, by it: not growing oats inland where you can grow wheat, norputting fine embroidery on a stuff that willnot wear Secondly, preserving itsproduce carefully; that is to say, laying upyour wheat wisely in storehouses for thetime of famine, and keeping your

embroidery watchfully from the moth: andlastly, distributing its produce seasonably;that is to say, being able to carry your corn

at once to the place where the people arehungry, and your embroideries to theplaces where they are gay; so fulfilling inall ways the Wise Man's description,whether of the queenly housewife orqueenly nation: "She riseth while it is yetnight, and giveth meat to her household,and a portion to her maidens She makethherself coverings of tapestry, her clothing

is silk and purple Strength and honour are

in her clothing, and she shall rejoice intime to come."

10 Now, you will observe that in thisdescription of the perfect economist, or

mistress of a household, there is a studiedexpression of the balanced division of hercare between the two great objects ofutility and splendour: in her right hand,food and flax, for life and clothing; in herleft hand, the purple and the needlework,for honour and for beauty All perfecthousewifery or national economy isknown by these two divisions; wherevereither is wanting, the economy isimperfect If the motive of pomp prevails,and the care of the national economist isdirected only to the accumulation of gold,and of pictures, and of silk and marble,you know at once that the time must sooncome when all these treasures shall bescattered and blasted in national ruin If,

on the contrary, the element of utility

prevails, and the nation disdains to occupyitself in any wise with the arts of beauty ordelight, not only a certain quantity of itsenergy calculated for exercise in thosearts alone must be entirely wasted, which

is bad economy, but also the passionsconnected with the utilities of propertybecome morbidly strong, and a mean lust

of accumulation merely for the sake ofaccumulation, or even of labour merelyfor the sake of labour, will banish at lastthe serenity and the morality of life, ascompletely, and perhaps more ignobly,than even the lavishness of pride, and thelikeness of pleasure And similarly, andmuch more visibly, in private andhousehold economy, you may judgealways of its perfectness by its fair

balance between the use and the pleasure

of its possessions You will see the wisecottager's garden trimly divided betweenits well-set vegetables, and its fragrantflowers; you will see the good housewifetaking pride in her pretty table-cloth, andher glittering shelves, no less than in herwell-dressed dish, and her full storeroom;the care in her countenance will alternatewith gaiety, and though you will reverenceher in her seriousness, you will know herbest by her smile

11 Now, as you will have anticipated, I

am going to address you, on this and oursucceeding evening, chiefly on the subject

of that economy which relates rather to thegarden than the farm-yard I shall ask you

to consider with me the kind of laws by

which we shall best distribute the beds ofour national garden, and raise in it thesweetest succession of trees pleasant tothe sight, and (in no forbidden sense) to bedesired to make us wise But, beforeproceeding to open this specialty of oursubject, let me pause for a few moments toplead with you for the acceptance of thatprinciple of government or authoritywhich must be at the root of all economy,whether for use or for pleasure I said, afew minutes ago, that a nation's labour,well applied, was amply sufficient toprovide its whole population with goodfood, comfortable clothing, and pleasantluxury But the good, instant, and constantapplication is everything We must not,when our strong hands are thrown out of

work, look wildly about for want ofsomething to do with them If ever we feelthat want, it is a sign that all ourhousehold is out of order Fancy afarmer's wife, to whom one or two of herservants should come at twelve o'clock atnoon, crying that they had got nothing todo; that they did not know what to do next:and fancy still farther, the said farmer'swife looking hopelessly about her roomsand yard, they being all the whileconsiderably in disorder, not knowingwhere to set the spare handmaidens towork, and at last complaining bitterly thatshe had been obliged to give them theirdinner for nothing That's the type of thekind of political economy we practise toooften in England Would you not at once

assert of such a mistress that she knewnothing of her duties? and would you not

be certain, if the household were rightlymanaged, the mistress would be only tooglad at any moment to have the help of anynumber of spare hands; that she wouldknow in an instant what to set them to;—in

an instant what part of to-morrow's workmight be most serviceably forwarded,what part of next month's work mostwisely provided for, or what new task ofsome profitable kind undertaken; andwhen the evening came, and she dismissedher servants to their recreation or theirrest, or gathered them to the reading roundthe work-table, under the eaves in thesunset, would you not be sure to find thatnone of them had been overtasked by her,