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
It exists yet, and out of La Mancha, too (or none of us could exist),
whatever you may think in these days of ungentleness and Dishonour. It
exists secretly, to the full, among you yourselves, and the recovery of
it again would be to you as the opening of a well in the desert. You
remember what I told you were the three spiritual treasures of your
life--Admiration, Hope, and Love. Admiration is the Faculty of giving
Honour. It is the best word we have for the various feelings of wonder,
reverence, awe, and humility, which are needful for all lovely work,
and which constitute the habitual temper of all noble and clear-sighted
persons, as opposed to the "impudence" of base and blind ones. The
Latins called this great virtue "pudor," of which our "impudence"
is the negative; the Greeks had a better word, "aidôs;" too wide
in the bearings of it for me to explain to you to-day, even if it
could be explained before you recovered the feeling;--which, after
being taught for fifty years that impudence is the chief duty of man,
and that living in coal-holes and ash-heaps is his proudest existence,
and that the methods of generation of vermin are his loftiest subject
of science,--it will not be easy for you to do; but your children may,
and you will see that it is good for them. In the history of the five
cities I named, they shall learn, so far as they can understand, what
has been beautifully and bravely done; and they shall know the lives of
the heroes and heroines in truth and naturalness; and shall be taught
to remember the greatest of them on the days of their birth and death;
so that the year shall have its full calendar of reverent Memory. And
on every day, part of their morning service shall be a song in honour
of the hero whose birthday it is: and part of their evening service,
a song of triumph for the fair death of one whose death-day it is:
and in their first learning of notes they shall be taught the great
purpose of music, which is to say a thing that you mean deeply, in the
strongest and clearest possible way; and they shall never be taught
to sing what they don't mean. They shall be able to sing merrily when
they are happy, and earnestly when they are sad; but they shall find
no mirth in mockery, nor in obscenity; neither shall they waste and
profane their hearts with artificial and lascivious sorrow.
Regulations which will bring about some curious changes in
piano-playing, and several other things.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account