the higher belief in a divine spirit, indistinguishable at first, and among simple folk always, from the material breath in the nostrils of man; but leading up to healthy views of morality and sincere faith in Omnipresent Deity, not far remote in its practical outcome from that which we have received from the Hebrews.

In the next chapter he worked out, as a sequel to his lecture, two groups of animal-myths: those connected with birds, and especially the dove, as type of Spirit, and those connected with the serpent in its various significances. These two studies were continued, more or less, in "Love's Meinie" and in the lecture printed in "Deucalion," as the third group, that of plant-myths, was carried on in "Proserpina." The volume contained also extracts from the lecture on the Architecture of the Valley of the Somme, and two numbers of the "Cestus of Aglaia,” and closed with a paper on the Hercules of Camarina, read to the South Lambeth art school on March 15th. This study of a Greek coin had already formed the subject of an address at the Working Men's College, and anticipated the second course of Oxford lectures. For the rest, "The Queen of the Air" is marked by its statement, more clearly than before in Mr. Ruskin's writing, of the dependence of moral upon physical life, and of physical upon moral science. He speaks with respect of the work of Darwin and Tyndall; but, as formerly in the Rede lecture, and afterwards in the

"Eagle's Nest," he claims that natural science should not be pursued as an end in itself, paramount to all other conclusions and considerations; but as a department of study subordinate to ethics, with a view to utility and instruction. In later times it was this principle which guided Mr. Ruskin in the view he took of vivisection, and other forms of scientific research. Premising that science was subordinate to ethics, when the two clashed, as he held they did in some cases, science, he thought, was to give way.

Before this book was quite ready for publication, and after a sale of some of his less treasured pictures at Christie's, Mr. Ruskin left home for a journey to Italy, to revisit the subjects of "Stones of Venice," as in 1868 he had revisited those of the "Seven Lamps." At Vevey, on the way, he wrote his preface (May 1st). On the 8th he reached Verona after seventeen years' absence, and on the 10th he was in Venice. There, walking round the Academy, and looking at the works of the old painters with a fresh eye, and with feelings and thoughts far different from those with which he had viewed them as a young man, in 1845, he saw beauties he had passed over before, in the works of a painter till then little regarded by connoisseurs, and entirely neglected by the public. Historians of art like Crowe and Cavalcaselle 1 had indeed examined Carpaccio's works and in

1 Their History of Painting in North Italy, containing a detailed account of Carpaccio, was published in 1871.

1

vestigated his life, along with the lives and works of many another obscure master; artists like Mr. Hook and Mr. Burne-Jones had admired his pictures; Mr. Ruskin had mentioned his backgrounds twice or thrice in "Stones of Venice." But no writer had noticed his extraordinary interest as an exponent of the mythology of the Middle Ages, as the illustrator of poetical folk-lore derived from those antique myths of Greece, and newly presented by the genius of Christianity.

This was a discovery for which Mr. Ruskin was now ripe. He saw at once that he had found a treasure-house of things new and old. He fell in love with St. Ursula as, twenty-four years earlier, he had fallen in love with the statue of Ilaria at Lucca; and she became, as time after time he revisited Venice for her sake, a personality, a spiritual presence, a living ideal, exactly as the Queen of the Air might have been to the sincere Athenian in the pagan age of faith. The story of her life and death became an example, the conception of her character, as read in Carpaccio's picture, became a standard for his own life and action in many a time of distress and discouragement. The thought of "What would St. Ursula say?" led him not always, but far more often than his correspondents knew-to burn the letter of sharp retort upon stupidity and impertinence, and to force the wearied brain and overstrung nerves into patience and a kindly answer. And later on, the playful credence which he accorded

to the myth has deepened into a renewed sense of the possibility of spiritual realities, when he learned to look, with those medieval believers, once more as a little child upon the unfathomable mysteries of life.

But this anticipates the story; at the time, he found in Carpaccio the man who had touched the full chord of his feelings and his thoughts, just as, in his boyhood, Turner had led him, marveling, through the fire and cloud to the mountain-altar; and as, in his youth, Tintoret had interpreted the storm and stress of a mind awakening to the terrible realities of the world. It was no caprice of a changeful taste, or love of startling paradox, that brought him to "discover Carpaccio;" it was the logical sequence of his studies, and widening interests, and a view of art embracing far broader issues than the connoisseurship of "Modern Painters," or the didacticism of "Seven Lamps," or the historical research of "Stones of Venice." Soon after "The Queen of the Air" was published Carlyle wrote:

CHELSEA, Augt 17th, 1869.

DEAR RUSKIN, - Yr excell' kind and loving little note from Vevey reached me; but nothing since, not even precise news at second hand, whh I much desired. The blame of my not answering and inciting was not mine, but that of my poor rebellious right-hand, whh often refuses altog to do any writing for me that can be read; having already done too much, it probably thinks ! 1

1 Carlyle was then losing the use of his hand, and this letter is scribbled in blue pencil.

What I wish now is to know if you are at home, and to see you instantly if so. Insttly! For I am not unlikely to be off in a few days (by Steamer Some whither) and ag" miss you. Come, I beg, quàm primùm !

Last week I got yr "Queen of the Air," and read it. Euge, Euge. No such Book have I met with for long years past. The one soul now in the world who seems to feel as I do on the highest matters, and speaks mir aus dem Herzen, exactly what I wanted to hear! As to the natural-history of those old myths I remained here and there a little uncert"; but as to the meanings you put into them, never anywhere. All these things I not only "agree" with, but wd use Thor's Hammer, if I had it, to enforce and put in action on this rotten world. Well done, well done!—and pluck up a heart, and continue ag" and ag". And don't say "most gt thots are dressed in shrouds:" many, many are the Phoebus Apollo celestial arrows you still have to shoot into the foul Pythons, and poisonous abominable Megatheriums and Plesiosaurians that go staggering abt, large as cathedrals, in our sunk Epoch agn.