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Advice of this sort does not commend itself to the "practical" man, who looks on education as the means to turning out craftsmen able to supply a given public demand. That, however, was not Mr. Ruskin's meaning of the word. He could not give recipes for the reconstruction of society; but he could point to the need of it; and, after all, a good diagnosis is the first step to a cure. And yet he was not idle in attempting to find some remedy. He had been making experiments in artistic education for many years at the Working Men's College; and now, from time to time, he was trying experiments in general education of another sort, much more pleasant, though no less practical.

About the end of October, 1859, I believe, he had been introduced by the Bishop of Oxford to a Miss Bell, who, with her partner Miss Bradford, kept a girls' school at Winnington Hall, near Northwich in Cheshire. It was not an ordinary school still less a pensionnat de demoiselles of the type described in "Le Crime de Sylvestre Bonnard," in which the pettiness and tyranny of

Ruskin used them at the Working Men's College as models to draw from. They were introduced into the Government School of Design after an inspection of the Great Ormond Street classes by the Marlborough House head-master.

1 The quotation at the head of that chapter is one marked with approval by Mr. Ruskin, who was greatly interested in the book on its appearance, not only for its literary charm and tender characterization, but "as finding there some image of himself" in the old Membre de l'Institut with his "bon dos rond" and his passion for missals, and Gothic architecture, and Benedictine monks, and

the worst kind of schoolmistress of let us hope - a bygone age are pilloried. The principles of Winnington were advanced; the theologyBishop Colenso's daughter was among the pupils. Friends and patrons whose names were thought to be an undeniable guarantee gave the place a high character. And the managers were pleased to invite the celebrated art-critic to visit whenever he traveled that way, whether to lecture at provincial towns, or to see his friends in the north, as he often used. And so between November, 1859, and May, 1868, after which the school was removed, he was a frequent visitor; and not only he, but other lions whom the ladies entrapped, mention has been made in print (in "The Queen of the Air") of Charles Hallé, whom Mr. Ruskin met there in 1863, and greatly admired.

Mr. Ruskin could not be idle on his visits; and as he is never so happy as when he is teaching somebody, he improved the opportunity by experiments in a system of education "tout intime et parfaitement incompatible avec l'organisation des pensionnats les mieux tenus," and yet permitted there for his sake. Among other things, he devised singing dances for a select dozen of the girls, with verses of his own writing, " noblement émues;" one, a maze to the theme of "Twist ye, twine ye," based upon the song in " Guy Manner

natural scenery; and his defiance of the Code Napoléon and the ways of the modern world; with many another touch for which one could have sworn he had sat to the painter.

ing," but going far beyond the original motive in its variations weighted with allegoric thought:

"Earnest Gladness, idle Fretting,
Foolish Memory, wise Forgetting;
And trusted reeds, that broken lie,
Wreathed again for melody. . . .

...

"Vanished Truth, but Vision staying;

Fairy riches, lost in weighing;
And fitful grasp of flying Fate,

Touched too lightly, traced too late."

Deep as the feeling of this little poem is, there is a nobler chord struck in the Song of Peace, the battle-cry of the good time coming; in the faith — who else has found it? - that looks forward to no selfish victory of narrow aims, but to the full reconciliation of hostile interests and the blind internecine struggle of this perverse world, in the clearer light of the millennial morning. "Thine arrows are sharp in the hearts of the King's enemies, whereby the people fall under thee." "Yea, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through Him that loved us."

"Put off, put off your mail, ye kings, and beat your brands to dust; A surer grasp your hands must know, your hearts a better trust: Nay, bend aback the lance's point, and break the helmet bar,— A noise is on the morning winds, but not the noise of war!

"Among the grassy mountain-paths the glittering troops increase: They come! they come ! - how fair their feet - they come that

publish peace;

Yea, Victory! fair Victory! our enemies' and ours,

And all the clouds are clasped in light, and all the earth with

flowers.

"Ah! still depressed and dim with dew, but yet a little while
And radiant with the deathless Rose the wilderness shall smile,
And every tender living thing shall feed by streams of rest,
Nor lamb shall from the fold be lost, nor nursling from the nest."

These dances were not mere play. They were taught as lessons, and practiced as recreation. "On n'apprend pas en s'amusant," says the villain of the story to M. Bonnard. “On n'apprend qu'en s'amusant," he replies, - vigorously underlined and side-lined by Mr. Ruskin. "Pour digérer le savoir, il faut l'avoir avalé avec appétit.” The art of teaching is to stimulate that appetite in a natural and healthy way. "On n'est pas sur la terre pour s'amuser et pour faire ses quatre cents volontés," says the objector, again; to which he answers: "On est sur la terre pour se plaire dans le beau et dans le bien, et pour faire ses quatre cents volontés quand elles sont nobles, spirituelles et généreuses. Une éducation qui n'exerce pas les volontés est une éducation qui déprave les âmes. Il faut"-here the pencilmarks are very thick - "il faut que l'instituteur enseigne à vouloir.”

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"Je crus voir," continues M. Bonnard, "que maître Mouche m'estimait un pauvre homme; and I observe that Mr. Ruskin's method of teaching, as illustrated in "Ethics of the Dust," has been variously pooh-poohed by his critics. It has seemed to some absurd to mix up theology, and crystallography, and political economy, and mythology, and moral philosophy, with the chat

ter of school-girls and the romps of the playground. But it should be understood, before reading this book, which is practically the report of these Winnington talks, that it is printed as an illustration of a method. The method is the kindergarten method carried a step, many steps, further. With very small children it is comparatively easy to teach as a mother teaches; but with children of larger growth it is not the first-comer who can replace the wise father, whose conversation and direction and example would form an ideal education. Still, an experiment like this was worth making. It showed that play-lessons need not want either depth or accuracy; and that the requirement was simply capacity on the part of the teacher.

The following letter from Carlyle was written in acknowledgment, I suppose, of an early copy of the book, of which the preface is dated Christmas, 1865

1

CHELSEA, 20 December, 1865. DEAR RUSKIN, - Don't mind the Bewick; the indefatigable Dixon has sent me, yesterday, the Bewick's "Life" as well (hunted it up from the "Misses Bewick " or somebody, and threatens to involve me in still farther bother about nothing) and I read the greater part of it last night before going to bed. Peace to Bewick: not a great man at all; but a very true of his sort, a well completed, and a very enviable, -living there in communion with the skies and woods and brooks, not here in do with the London Fogs, the roaring witchmongeries and railway yellings and howlings.

1 Bewick was being studied by Mr. Ruskin in connection with the problem of the pure line, for The Cestus of Aglaia.

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