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016 - Of the Mystery of Life Part 1 · Sesame and Lilies

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  Speaker 1: Section sixteen of Sesame and Lily's revised and enlarged edition
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  Speaker 1: by John Ruskin. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: Recording by Oxen Handler, the Mystery of Life and Its Arts,
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  Speaker 1: Part one lecture delivered in the Theater of the Royal
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  Speaker 1: College of Science, Dublin, eighteen sixty eight. When I accepted
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  Speaker 1: the privilege of addressing you to day, I was not
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  Speaker 1: aware of a restriction with respect to the topics of
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  Speaker 1: discussion which may be brought before this society. Footnote that
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  Speaker 1: no reference should be made to religious questions, and of footnote,
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  Speaker 1: a restriction which, though entirely wise and right under the
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  Speaker 1: circumstances contemplated in its introduction, would necessarily have disabled me,
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  Speaker 1: thinking as I think, from preparing any lecture for you
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  Speaker 1: on a subject of art in a form which might
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  Speaker 1: be permanently useful. Pardon me, therefore, in so far as
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  Speaker 1: I must transgress such limitation, For indeed, my inri ingement
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  Speaker 1: will be of the letter, not of the spirit, of
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  Speaker 1: your commands in whatever I may say, touching the religion
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  Speaker 1: which has been the foundation of art, or the policy
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  Speaker 1: which has contributed to its power. If I offend one
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  Speaker 1: I shall offend all. For I shall take no note
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  Speaker 1: of any separations in creeds or antagonisms in parties. Neither
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  Speaker 1: do I fear that ultimately I shall offend any by proving,
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  Speaker 1: or at least stating, as capable of positive proof, the
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  Speaker 1: connection of all that is best in the crafts and
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  Speaker 1: arts of man with the simplicity of his faith and
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  Speaker 1: the sincerity of his patriotism. But I speak to you
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  Speaker 1: under another disadvantage by which I am checked in frankness
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  Speaker 1: of utterance, not here only, but everywhere, namely, that I
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  Speaker 1: am never fully aware how far my audiences are disposed
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  Speaker 1: to give me credit for real knowledge of my subject,
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  Speaker 1: or how far they grant me attention, only because I
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  Speaker 1: have been sometimes thought and ingenious or pleasant essayist upon it.
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  Speaker 1: For I have had what in many respects I boldly
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  Speaker 1: call the misfortune to set my words sometimes prettily together,
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  Speaker 1: not without a foolish vanity in the poor knack that
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  Speaker 1: I had of doing so, until I was heavily punished
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  Speaker 1: for this pride by finding that many people thought of
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  Speaker 1: the words only and cared nothing for their meaning. Happily, therefore,
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  Speaker 1: the power of using such pleasant language, if indeed it
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  Speaker 1: ever were mine, is passing away from me. And whatever
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  Speaker 1: I am now able to say at all, I find
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  Speaker 1: myself forced to say with great plainness, for my thoughts
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  Speaker 1: have changed, also as my words have. And whereas in
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  Speaker 1: earlier life what little influence I obtained was due perhaps
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  Speaker 1: chiefly to the enthusiasm with which I was able to
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  Speaker 1: dwell on the beauty of the physical clouds and of
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  Speaker 1: their colors in the sky, so all the influence I
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  Speaker 1: now desire to retain must be due to the earnestness
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  Speaker 1: with which I am in endavoring to trace the form
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  Speaker 1: and beauty of another kind of cloud than those the
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  Speaker 1: bright cloud of which it is written, quote, what is
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  Speaker 1: your life? It is even as a vapor that appereth
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  Speaker 1: for a little time, and then vanisheth away unquote. I
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  Speaker 1: suppose few people reach the middle or later period of
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  Speaker 1: their age without having, at some moment of change or disappointment,
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  Speaker 1: felt the truth of those bitter words, and then startled
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  Speaker 1: by the fading of the sunshine from the cloud of
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  Speaker 1: their life, into the sudden agony of the knowledge that
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  Speaker 1: the fabric of it was as fragile as a dream,
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  Speaker 1: and the endurance of it as tranchiant as the dew.
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  Speaker 1: But it is not always that, even at such times
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  Speaker 1: of melancholy surprise, we can enter into any true perception
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  Speaker 1: that this human life shares in the nature of it,
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  Speaker 1: not only the evanescence, but the mystery of the cloud,
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  Speaker 1: that its avenues are wreathed in darkness, and its forms
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  Speaker 1: and courses no less fantastic than spectral and obscure, So
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  Speaker 1: that not only in the vanity which we cannot grasp,
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  Speaker 1: but in the shadow which we cannot pierce. It is
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  Speaker 1: true of this cloudy life of ours that quote, the
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  Speaker 1: man walketh in a vain shadow, and disquieteth himself in
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  Speaker 1: vain unquote. And least of all, whatever may have been
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  Speaker 1: the eagerness of our passions or the height of our pride,
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  Speaker 1: are we able to understand in its depth the third
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  Speaker 1: and most solemn character in which our life is like
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  Speaker 1: those clouds of heaven, that to it belong not only
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  Speaker 1: their attranchants, not only their mystery, but also their power.
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  Speaker 1: That in the cloud of the human soul there is
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  Speaker 1: a fire stronger than the lightning, and a grace more
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  Speaker 1: precious than the rain. And that though of the good
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  Speaker 1: and evil, it shall one day be said alike that
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  Speaker 1: the place that knew them knows them no more. There
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  Speaker 1: is an infinite separation between those whose brief presence had
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  Speaker 1: there been a blessing like the mist of Eden that
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  Speaker 1: went up from the earth to water the garden, and
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  Speaker 1: those whose place knew them only as a drifting and
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  Speaker 1: changeful shade, of whom the heavenly sentence is that they
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  Speaker 1: are quote wells without water, clouds that are carried with
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  Speaker 1: a tempest, to whom the mist of darkness is reserved
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  Speaker 1: forever unquote. To those among us, however, who have lived
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  Speaker 1: long enough to form some just estimate of the rate
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  Speaker 1: of the changes which are, hour by hour in accelerating
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  Speaker 1: catastrophe manifesting themselves in the laws, the arts, and the
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  Speaker 1: creeds of men. It seems to me that now, at least,
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  Speaker 1: if never at any former time, the thoughts of the
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  Speaker 1: true nature of our life and of its powers and
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  Speaker 1: responsibilities should present themselves with absolute sadness and sternness. And
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  Speaker 1: although I know that this feeling is much deepened in
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  Speaker 1: my own mind by disappointment, which by chance has attended
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  Speaker 1: the greater number of my cherished purposes, I do not
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  Speaker 1: for that reason distrust the feeling itself, though I am
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  Speaker 1: on my guard against an exaggerated degree of it. Nay,
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  Speaker 1: I rather believe that in the periods of new effort
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  Speaker 1: and violent change, disappointment is a wholesome medicine, and that
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  Speaker 1: in the secret of it, as in the twilight so
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  Speaker 1: beloved by tition, we may see the colors of things
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  Speaker 1: with deeper truth than in the most dazzling sunshine. And
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  Speaker 1: because these truths about the works of men which I
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  Speaker 1: want to bring to day before you, are most of
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  Speaker 1: them sad ones, though at the same time helpful. And
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  Speaker 1: because also I believe that your kind irish hearts will
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  Speaker 1: answer more gladly to the truthful expression of a personal
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  Speaker 1: feeling than to the exposition of an abstract principle. I
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  Speaker 1: will permit myself so much unreserved speaking of my own
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  Speaker 1: causes of regret as may enable you to make just
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  Speaker 1: allowance for what, a cording to your sympathies, you will
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  Speaker 1: call either the bitterness or the insight of a mind
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  Speaker 1: which has surrendered its best hopes and been foiled in
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  Speaker 1: its favorite aims. I spent the ten strongest years of
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  Speaker 1: my life, from twenty to thirty, in endeavoring to show
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  Speaker 1: the excellence of the work of the man whom I
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  Speaker 1: believed and rightly believed, to be the greatest painter of
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  Speaker 1: the schools of England since Reynolds. I had then perfect
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  Speaker 1: faith in the power of every great truth or beauty
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  Speaker 1: to prevail ultimately and take its right place in usefulness
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  Speaker 1: and honor. And I strove to bring the painter's work
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  Speaker 1: into this due place while the painter was yet alive.
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  Speaker 1: But he knew better than I the uselessness of talking
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  Speaker 1: about what people could not see for themselves. He always
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  Speaker 1: discouraged me scornfully, even when he thanked me, and he
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  Speaker 1: died before even the superficial effect of my work was visible.
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  Speaker 1: I went on, however, thinking I could at least be
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  Speaker 1: of use to the public, if not to him, improving
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  Speaker 1: his power. My books got talked about a little, the
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  Speaker 1: prices of modern pictures generally rose, and I was beginning
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  Speaker 1: to take some pleasure in a sense of gradual victory,
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  Speaker 1: when fortunately or unfortunately, an opportunity of perfect trial undeceived me.
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  Speaker 1: At once and forever. The trustees of the National Gallery
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  Speaker 1: commissioned me to arrange the Turner drawings there, and permitted
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  Speaker 1: me to prepare three hundred examples of his studies from
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  Speaker 1: nature for exhibition at Kensington. At Kensington they were and
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  Speaker 1: are placed for exhibition, but they are not exhibited, for
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  Speaker 1: the room in which they hang is always empty. Well,
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  Speaker 1: this showed me at once that those ten years of
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  Speaker 1: my life had been, in their chief purpose lost. For
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  Speaker 1: that I did not so much care. I had at
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  Speaker 1: least learned my own business thoroughly, and should be able,
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  Speaker 1: as I fondly supposed, after such a life, lesson now
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  Speaker 1: to use my knowledge with better effect. But what I
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  Speaker 1: did care for was the to me frightful discovery that
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  Speaker 1: the most splendid genius in the arts might be permitted
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  Speaker 1: by providence to labor and perish uselessly, That in the
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  Speaker 1: very fineness of it there might be something rendering it
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  Speaker 1: invisible to ordinary eyes, but that with this strange excellence,
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  Speaker 1: faults might be mingled, which would be as deadly as
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  Speaker 1: its virtues were vain, That the glory of it was
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  Speaker 1: perishable as well as invisible, and the gift and grace
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  Speaker 1: of it might be to us as snow in summer
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  Speaker 1: and as rain in harvest. That was the first mystery
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  Speaker 1: of life to me. But while my best energy was
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  Speaker 1: given to the study of painting. I had put collateral effort,
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  Speaker 1: more prudent, if less enthusiastic, into that of architecture, and
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  Speaker 1: in this I could not complain of meeting with no sympathy.
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  Speaker 1: Among several personal reasons which caused me to desire that
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  Speaker 1: I might give this my closing lecture on the subject
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  Speaker 1: of art here in Ireland, one of the chief was
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  Speaker 1: that in reading it, I should stand near the beautiful
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  Speaker 1: building the Engineer School of your College, which was the
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  Speaker 1: first realization I had the joy to see of the
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  Speaker 1: principles I had until then been endeavoring to teach, but
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  Speaker 1: which alas is now to me no more than the
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  Speaker 1: richly canopied monument of one of the most earnest souls
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  Speaker 1: that ever gave itself to the arts, and one of
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  Speaker 1: my truest and most loving friends, Benjamin Woodward. Nor was
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  Speaker 1: it here in Ireland only that I received the help
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  Speaker 1: of Irish sympathy and genius, when to another friend, Sir
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  Speaker 1: Thomas Deane, with mister Woodward, was entrusted the building of
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  Speaker 1: the Museum at Oxford. The best details of the work
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  Speaker 1: were executed by sculptors who had been born and trained
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  Speaker 1: here and the first window of the facade of the
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  Speaker 1: building in which was inaugurated the study of natural science
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  Speaker 1: in England, in true fellowship with literature, was carved from
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  Speaker 1: my design by an Irish sculptor. You may perhaps think
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  Speaker 1: that no man ought to speak of disappointment to whom,
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  Speaker 1: even in one branch of labor, so much success was granted.
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  Speaker 1: Had mister Woodward now been beside me, I had not
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  Speaker 1: so spoken. But his gentle and passionate spirit was cut
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  Speaker 1: off from the fulfillment of its purposes, and the work
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  Speaker 1: we did together is now become vain. It may not
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  Speaker 1: be so in future, but the architecture we endeavored to
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  Speaker 1: introduce is inconsistent, alike with the reckless luxury, the deforming mechanism,
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  Speaker 1: and the squalid misery of modern cities. Among the formative
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  Speaker 1: fashions of the day. Aided especially in England by ecclesiastical sentiment,
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  Speaker 1: it indeed obtained notoriety, and sometimes behind an engine furnace
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  Speaker 1: or a railroad bank, you may detect the pathetic discord
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  Speaker 1: of its momentary grace, and with toil decipher its floral
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  Speaker 1: carvings choked with soot. I felt answerable to the schools.
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  Speaker 1: I loved only for their injury. I perceived that this
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  Speaker 1: new portion of my strength had also been spent in vain,
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  Speaker 1: and from amidst streets of iron and palaces of crystal,
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  Speaker 1: shrank back at last to the carving of the mountain
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  Speaker 1: and color of the flower. And still I could tell
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  Speaker 1: of failure and failure, repeated as years went on. But
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  Speaker 1: I have trespassed enough on your patients to show you,
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  Speaker 1: in part, the causes of my discouragement. Now let me
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  Speaker 1: more deliberately tell you its results. You know, there is
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  Speaker 1: a tendency in the minds of many men, when they
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  Speaker 1: are heavily disappointed in the main purposes of their life,
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  Speaker 1: to feel, and perhaps in warning, perhaps in mockery, to
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  Speaker 1: declare that life itself is a vanity because it has
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  Speaker 1: disappointed them. They think its nature is of disappointment always,
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  Speaker 1: or at best, of pleasure that can be grasped by imagination, only,
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  Speaker 1: that the cloud of it has no strength nor fire within.
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  Speaker 1: But it is a painted cloud, only to be delighted in,
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  Speaker 1: yet despised. You know how beautifully Pope has expressed this
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  Speaker 1: particular phase of thought. Quote. Meanwhile, opinion guilds with varying rays,
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  Speaker 1: these painted clouds that beautify our days. Each want of
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  Speaker 1: happiness by hope supplied, and each vacuity of sense by pride.
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  Speaker 1: Hope builds as fast as knowledge can destroy. In Foley's cup,
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  Speaker 1: still laughs the bubble joy, One pleasure passed another, Still
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  Speaker 1: we gain, And not a vanity is given in vain
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  Speaker 1: end quote. But the effect of failure upon my own
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  Speaker 1: mind has been just the reverse of this. The more
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  Speaker 1: that my life disappointed me, the more solemn and wonderful
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  Speaker 1: it became to me. It seemed, contrarily to Pope's saying,
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  Speaker 1: that the vanity of it was indeed given in vain,
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  Speaker 1: but that there was something behind the valve of it
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  Speaker 1: which was not vanity. It became to me not a
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  Speaker 1: painted cloud, but a terrible and impenetrable one, Not a
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  Speaker 1: mirage which vanished as I drew near, but a pillar
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  Speaker 1: of darkness to which I was forbidden to draw near.
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  Speaker 1: For I saw that both my own failure and such
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  Speaker 1: success in pretty things, as in its poor triumphs, seemed
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  Speaker 1: to me worse than failure. Came from the want of
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  Speaker 1: sufficiently earnest effort to understand the whole law and meaning
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  Speaker 1: of existence, and to bring it to noble and due
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  Speaker 1: end As. On the other hand, I saw more and
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  Speaker 1: more clearly that all enduring success in the arts or
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  Speaker 1: in any other occupation, had come from the ruling of
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  Speaker 1: lower purposes, not by a conviction of their nothingness, but
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  Speaker 1: by a solemn faith in the advancing power of human nature,
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  Speaker 1: or in the promise, however dimly apprehended that the mortal
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  Speaker 1: part of it would one day be swallowed up in
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  Speaker 1: immor mortality, and that indeed the arts themselves never had
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  Speaker 1: reached any vital strength or honor, but in the effort
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  Speaker 1: to proclaim this immortality, and in the service either of
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  Speaker 1: great and just religion or of some unselfish patriotism and
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  Speaker 1: law of such national life as must be the foundation
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  Speaker 1: of religion. End of Section sixteen