Westminster Review, April 1856

(Go to Summary of review by George Eliot, 'Art and Belles Lettres: Review of Modern Painters III', Westminster Review, April 1856, pp. 625-633.)

Every one who cares about nature, or poetry, or the story of human development - every one who has a tinge of literature, or philosophy, will find something that is for him and that 'gravitate to him' in this volume. Since its predecessors appeared, Mr Ruskin has devoted ten years to the loving study of his great subject - the principles of art. (p. 626)

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Of course, this treatise 'Of many things' presents certain old characteristics and new paradoxes which will furnish a fresh text to antagonistic critics; but, happily for us, and happily for our readers, who probably care more to know what Mr Ruskin says than what other people think he ought to say, we are not among those who are more irritated by his faults than charmed and subdued by his merits. When he announces to the world in his Preface, that he is incapable of falling into an illogical deduction - that, whatever other mistakes he may commit, he cannot possibly draw an inconsequent conclusion, we are not indignant, but amused, and do not in the least feel ourselves under the necessity of picking holes in his arguments in order to prove that he is not a logical Pope. We value a writer not in proportion to his freedom from faults, but in proportion to his positive excellences - to the variety of thought he contributes and suggests, to the amount of gladdening and energizing emotions he excites. Of what comparative importance is it that Mr Ruskin undervalues this painter, or overvalues the other, that he sometimes glides from a just argument into a fallacious one, that he is a little absurd here, and not a little arrogant there, if, with all these collateral mistakes, he teaches truth of infinite value, and so teaches it that men will listen? The truth of infinite value that he teaches is realism - the doctrine that all truth and beauty are to be attained by a humble and faithful study of nature, and not by substituting vague forms, bred by imagination on the mists of feeling, in place of definite, substantial reality. The thorough acceptance of this doctrine would remould our life; and he who teaches its application to any one department of human activity with such power as Mr Ruskin's, is a prophet for his generation. (pp. 626-27)

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Very correct singing of very fine music will avail little without a voice that can thrill the audience and take possession of their souls. Now, Mr Ruskin has a voice, and one of such power, that whatever error he may mix with truth, he will make more converts to that truth than less erring advocates who are hoarse and feeble. (p. 627)

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