Fors Clavigera (Volume 3 of 8): Letters to the workmen and labourers of Great Britain — John Shaqi
Fors Clavigera (Volume 3 of 8): Letters to the workmen and labourers of Great BritainRuskin, John
General
Fors Clavigera (Volume 3 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
But, lost or found, what do you think is your place at this moment? Are
you minded to stay in it, if you are in it? Do you mind where it is, if
you are out of it? What sort of creatures do you think yourselves? How
do those you call your best friends think of you, when they advise
you to claim your just place in the world?
I said, two letters back, that we would especially reverence eight
saints, and among them St. Paul. I was startled to hear, only a few
days afterwards, that the German critics have at last positively
ascertained that St. Paul was Simon Magus;--but I don't mind whether
he was or not;--if he was, we have got seven saints, and one of the
Magi, to reverence, instead of eight saints;--plainly and practically,
whoever wrote the 13th of 1st Corinthians is to be much respected
and attended to; not as the teacher of salvation by faith, still
less of salvation by talking, nor even of salvation by almsgiving or
martyrdom, but as the bold despiser of faith, talk-gift, and burning,
if one has not love. Whereas this age of ours is so far contrary to
any such Pauline doctrine that, without especial talent either for
faith or martyrdom, and loquacious usually rather with the tongues
of men than of angels, it nevertheless thinks to get on, not merely
without love of its neighbour, but founding all its proceedings on the
precise contrary of that,--love of itself, and the seeking of every
man for his own,--I should say of every beast for its own; for your
modern social science openly confesses that it no longer considers you
as men, but as having the nature of Beasts of Prey; [15] which made
me more solicitous to explain to you the significance of that word
'Park' in my last letter; for indeed you have already pulled down
the railings of those small green spots of park to purpose--and in a
very solemn sense, turned all England into a Park. Alas!--if it were
but even so much. Parks are for beasts of the field, which can dwell
together in peace: but you have made yourselves beasts of the Desert,
doleful creatures, for whom the grass is green no more, nor dew falls
on lawn or bank; no flowers for you--not even the bare and quiet earth
to lie down on, but only the sand-drift, and the dry places which the
very Devils cannot rest in. Here and there, beside our sweet English
waters, the sower may still send forth the feet of the ox and the ass;
but for men with ox's heads, and ass's heads,--not the park, for these;
by no manner of means the Park; but the everlasting Pound. Every man
and beast being in their own place, that you choose for yours.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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