proud of this, told me the story often,-when I was yet in my nurse's arms, I wanted to touch the tea-urn, which was boiling merrily. My mother bid me keep my fingers back. I insisted on putting them forward. My nurse would have taken me away from the urn, but my mother said, 'Let him touch it, Nurse.' So I touched it,-and that was the first lesson in the meaning of the word Liberty. It was the first piece of Liberty I got, and the last which for some time I asked for. "Secondly, I was taught to be quiet. When I was a very little child, my parents not being rich, and my mother having to see to many things herself, she used to shut me into a room upstairs, with some bits of wood and a bunch of keys, and say, 'John, if you make a noise you shall be whipped.' "To that piece of education I owe most of my powers of thinking; and-more valuable to me still-of amusing myself anywhere and with anything." The boy had an excellent opportunity to develop his liking for scenery. Every summer the father made a trip through different parts of Great Britain for orders, and his wife and són accompanied him. These journeys were made in a carriage; so the boy had time and opportunity to see the surrounding country clearly. In this way he soon learned much of the geography of England, Scotland, and Wales. With the geography he learned a great deal about history, art, and architecture. When in the course of their journeys the Ruskins came to some old castle or abbey, the father would delay a day to give his son a chance to examine every nook and cranny. The boy was encouraged by his father to make notes on these journeys, and to write these notes out in full upon their return to their home in London. When a very small boy he wrote some fine descriptions of scenery and castles and made rough drawings to accompany his descriptions. Some of these descriptions were in poetry. One stanza written when he was perhaps twelve years of age shows that the beauty of nature had already taken firm hold of him: "There is a thrill of strange delight That passes quivering o'er me, Like summer clouds before me." When Ruskin grew old enough he went to Oxford University and was graduated there. At the same time Charles Kingsley was at Cambridge, another great university of England. Ruskin's health broke down during his college course, and his parents were much alarmed. They took him through France and Italy, and then went to a health resort in Scotland. While regaining his strength here, at the age of twenty-two, he wrote The King of the Golden River to please a little girl who afterwards became his wife. As his father was now rich, Ruskin did not have to work for a living. But he became a great worker nevertheless. He wrote books on art, in which he told people why some pictures are good and others poor. He never tired of describing beautiful scenery. He believed that the sunrise, the river, the mountains, the clouds, all the beauties of nature, are more wonderful and beautiful than anything an artist may draw from his imagination. In his earnest, impulsive way Ruskin criticised with sharp satire the methods of nearly all the artists of his day. He told these artists to study nature closely, and then make their pictures as much like real scenes as possible. Ruskin is generally acknowledged to be the most interesting and forceful writer on art that the world has produced. As Ruskin grew to be a middle-aged man, he saw that a kind, unselfish act is even more beautiful than a brilliant sunset. He saw that the life of the average workingman of England had little of beauty or hopefulness in it, a weary round of drudgery. So he turned his attention from art to forming plans to help his less fortunate fellow men. Charles Kingsley also was laboring in his pulpit and with his pen to make the lot of the workingmen a little easier and happier. When Ruskin's father died he left his son more than half-a-million dollars. Ruskin spent nearly all this money trying to lift the laboring classes to better things. The books written during the latter part of his life teach the beauty of unselfishness, kindness, and charity. He died in 1900. Although Ruskin was quite young when he wrote The King of the Golden River, yet this story clearly reveals the two most important qualities of the man. The descriptions of the mountains, the river, and the clouds show his love for beautiful scenery-the art side of the man; while the story itself is a sermon against greed and cruelty. -Leroy E. Armstrong Questions: Where and when was John Ruskin born? Of what nationality were his parents? What occupation did the father follow? In what way was he different from most successful business men? What did Ruskin's mother hope her son would become? Why? What book did she teach her boy to read? What did she require him to do besides reading the book? How did this early training affect Ruskin's style as a writer? What effect did it have upon his life? How was Ruskin's boyhood unlike that of most boys? Compare Ruskin's boyhood with that of Charles Kingsley. How did he show while very young that he loved the beautiful things of nature? What other spirit went hand-in-hand with a love of the beautiful? How so? What gave the boy a fine opportunity to learn geography, history, art, and architecture? How did the father encourage the boy to become a writer? How did the boy try to make his descriptions clearer? From what great school did Ruskin graduate? Kingsley? Longfellow? For whom was "The King of the Golden River" written? How old was Ruskin then? Why was it not necessary for Ruskin to work for a living? What did Ruskin teach concerning the painting of pictures? What did he advise artists to do? Why? What did Ruskin do with the money left him by his father? What other English author was helping the same cause along? Do you think these men should have statues in England's public parks, side by side with those of Nelson and Wellington? PAUL REVERE'S RIDE (The opening scenes of the Revolutionary War are full of interest to young Americans everywhere, whether they live in Massachusetts where the war started, or in California, which then belonged to Spain. Of all these stirring events, none is more interesting than this famous ride which marked the beginning of actual fighting. Be sure to get the historical facts in your mind, so that you may enjoy fully this fine poem.) LISTEN, my children, and you shall hear Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere, On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-five; Who remembers that famous day and year. He said to his friend, "If the British march Of the North Church tower as a signal light,- Through every Middlesex village and farm, Then he said "Good night!" and with muffled oar Just as the moon rose over the bay, Where swinging wide at her moorings lay The Somerset, British man-of-war; A phantom ship, with each mast and spar |