Fors Clavigera (Volume 1 of 8): Letters to the workmen and labourers of Great Britain — John Shaqi
Fors Clavigera (Volume 1 of 8): Letters to the workmen and labourers of Great BritainRuskin, John
General
Fors Clavigera (Volume 1 of 8): Letters to the workmen and labourers of Great Britain
Ruskin, John
Aesthetics; Conduct of life; Great Britain -- Social conditions -- 19th century; Social problems; Working class -- Great Britain
We will wait till April to consider of it; meantime, here is a note I
have received from Mr. Alsager A. Hill, who having been unfortunately
active in organizing that new effort in the advertising business,
designed, as it seems, on this loveliest principle of doing nothing
that will be perilously productive--was hurt by my manner of mention
of it in the last number of Fors. I offered accordingly to print any
form of remonstrance he would furnish me with, if laconic enough;
and he writes to me, "The intention of the Boardmen's Society is not,
as the writer of Fors Clavigera suggests, to 'find a line of life'
for able-bodied labourers, but simply, by means of co-operation, to
give them the fullest benefit of their labour whilst they continue a
very humble but still remunerative calling. See Rule 12. The capital
asked for to start the organization is essential in all industrial
partnerships, and in so poor a class of labour as that of street
board-carrying could not be supplied by the men themselves. With
respect to the 'lies' alleged to be carried in front and behind, it is
rather hard measure to say that mere announcements of public meetings
or places of entertainments (of which street notices chiefly consist)
are necessarily falsehoods."
To which, I have only to reply that I never said the newly-found line
of life was meant for able-bodied persons. The distinction between
able and unable-bodied men is entirely indefinite. There are all
degrees of ability for all things; and a man who can do anything,
however little, should be made to do that little usefully. If you
can carry about a board with a bill on it, you can carry, not about,
but where it is wanted, a board without a bill on it; which is a much
more useful exercise of your ability. Respecting the general probity,
and historical or descriptive accuracy, of advertisements, and their
function in modern economy, I will inquire in another place. You see
I use none for this book, and shall in future use none for any of
my books; having grave objection even to the very small minority
of advertisements which are approximately true. I am correcting
this sheet in the "Crown and Thistle" inn at Abingdon, and under
my window is a shrill-voiced person, slowly progressive, crying,
"Soles, three pair for a shillin'." In a market regulated by reason
and order, instead of demand and supply, the soles would neither have
been kept long enough to render such advertisement of them necessary,
nor permitted, after their inexpedient preservation, to be advertised.
Of all attainable liberties, then, be sure first to strive for leave
to be useful. Independence you had better cease to talk of, for you
are dependent not only on every act of people whom you never heard of,
who are living round you, but on every past act of what has been dust
for a thousand years. So also, does the course of a thousand years
to come, depend upon the little perishing strength that is in you.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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