The Harvest of RuskinGraham, John W. (John William)
Religion
The Harvest of Ruskin
Graham, John W. (John William)
Ruskin, John, 1819-1900
There need be no conflict between this comprehensive study of political
ethics, including religion, art, and education among its principal
departments--and that science which might usefully come in as one of
those on which it is based. To be sure, both claim to be called
Political Economy; but that is only a verbal rivalry. As to that,
Ruskin’s Political Economy has by derivation the proper right to the
term--the State’s Housekeeping. But it is not always wise to follow
derivations; the scholastic Economy was in possession of the word,
though properly speaking it was not ὁικονομἱα nor was it πολῑτῐκή.
Ruskin’s weakness for playing with etymologies, often curious ones,
helped to maintain this rivalry in words.
There is room for both studies, the scholastic economies and the
Ruskinian economy. That is my thesis.
How differently the criticism of Carlyle and Ruskin might have been
launched. Ruskin might have said that he admitted that in business
people must be assumed to follow their own interests, that is, that the
“economic man” would stand as a general average in business relations.
But he might have said, after that, every word that he wanted to say,
about the insufficiency of this principle as a guide to conduct. He
might have dwelt on the strength of loyalties and affections, and on the
powerful economic value of good relations between masters and servants.
He might have shown how misleading were economic results if acted on as
a complete handbook of conduct even in business. He might have written
_Unto This Last_ with an introduction by John Stuart Mill, and
everything positive or constructive left in it. The satire and
sword-play might have been used for something else.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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