Mr. Ruskin permitted the reprint of a few extracts from his own writings in the Magazine, on which his criticism as a whole was not very encouraging. One of his letters, indeed, called forth a protest from Miss Beale, to which he replied thus:— ‘_June 15, 1887._ ‘DEAR MISS BEALE,—I am grieved very deeply to have written what I did of your dear friend’s verses. If you knew how full my own life has been of sorrow, how every day of it begins with a death-knell, you would bear with me in what I will yet venture to say to you as the head of a noble school of woman’s thought, that no personal feelings should ever be allowed to influence you in what you permit your scholars either to read or to publish.’ And again a few days later:— ‘BRANTWOOD, CONISTON, LANCASHIRE, _June 19, 1887_. ‘DEAR MISS BEALE,—So many thanks, and again and again I ask your pardon for the pain I gave you. I had no idea of the kind of person you were, I thought you were merely clever and proud. ‘These substituted verses are lovely.—Ever gratefully (1) yrs., ‘J. R. ‘(1) I mean, for the way you have borne with my letters. You will not think it was because I did not like my own work to have the other with it that I spoke as I did.’ Mr. Shorthouse also once contributed to the Magazine, sending a little story called ‘An Apologue.’ The work entailed by the Magazine was, on the whole, pleasant and interesting to its editor. But she was grieved sometimes if she thought old pupils did not appreciate it, or if contributions fell short. It was not always easy to get enough articles of the kind she desired, and the difficulty was increased by the severe censorship she exercised. ‘About one hour wasted in fretting over Magazine,’ runs the diary of April 2, 1891. The Magazine was not without its faults. ‘How bad the best of us!’ says _Punch_, according to Ruskin. But it had the conspicuous merit of offering encouragement to young writers, of promoting a spirit of unity, and fostering sympathetic interest among those whose lives were necessarily far apart. ‘We hope,’ Miss Beale had said in her first preface, ‘that the papers on work may be helpful in suggesting ways of usefulness.’[56] This hope was practically realised. How far the young writers profited by each other’s thoughts can be less easily gauged; but doubtless some learned at least one lesson the Magazine was meant to teach, that if they intended to work, they ‘must not shrink from the hardest and most fruitful work, i.e. _thinking_.’[57] Miss Beale’s influence was again extended in manifold and ever-developing ways when, in 1883, the first meeting of former pupils was held in the College.