Val d'Arno: Ten Lectures on the Tuscan Art Directly Antecedent to the Florentine Year of Victories; Given Before the University of Oxford in Michaelmas Term, 1873Ruskin, John
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Val d'Arno: Ten Lectures on the Tuscan Art Directly Antecedent to the Florentine Year of Victories; Given Before the University of Oxford in Michaelmas Term, 1873
Ruskin, John
Art -- Italy -- Tuscany
Now we have learned indeed the difference between the Gothic knight and
the Greek knight; but what will be the difference between the Gothic
saint and Greek saint?
Franchise of body against constancy of body.
Franchise of thought, then, against constancy of thought.
Edward III. against Theseus.
And the Frank of Assisi against St. Athanase.
205. Utter franchise, utter gentleness in theological thought. Instead
of, 'This is the faith, which except a man believe faithfully, he
cannot be saved,' 'This is the love, which if a bird or an insect keep
faithfully, _it_ shall be saved.'
Gentlemen, you have at present arrived at a phase of natural science in
which, rejecting alike the theology of the Byzantine, and the affection
of the Frank, you can only contemplate a bird as flying under the reign
of law, and a cricket as singing under the compulsion of caloric.
I do not know whether you yet feel that the position of your boat on
the river also depends entirely on the reign of law, or whether, as your
churches and concert-rooms are privileged in the possession of organs
blown by steam, you are learning yourselves to sing by gas, and expect
the Dies Irae to the announced by a steam-trumpet. But I can very
positively assure you that, in my poor domain of imitative art, not all
the mechanical or gaseous forces of the world, nor all the laws of
the universe, will enable you either to see a colour, or draw a line,
without that singular force anciently called the soul, which it was the
function of the Greek to discipline in the duty of the servants of God,
and of the Goth to lead into the liberty of His children.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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