INTRODUCTION xxiii

anticipation Ruskin had dwelt upon the prospect of taking his parents in 1846 over the ground he covered by himself in 1845.¹ But his father, who was becoming an old man, had not the mental agility which enabled his son to turn so easily from one enthusiasm to another. In Præterita Ruskin records regretfully, and not without self-reproaches, that he and his father were on this tour not so happily in accord as in earlier years.² A letter from the elder Ruskin to his old friend W. H. Harrison, among whose papers it has been found, shows the difference in the point of view:-

“He is cultivating art at present (writes J. J. Ruskin from Venice, May 25, 1846), searching for real knowledge, but to you and me this is at present a sealed book. It will neither take the shape of picture nor poetry. It is gathered in scraps hardly wrought, for he is drawing perpetually, but no drawing such as in former days you or I might compliment in the usual way by saying it deserved a frame; but fragments of everything from a Cupola to a Cart-wheel, but in such bits that it is to the common eye a mass of Hieroglyphics-all true-truth itself, but Truth in mosaic.”

The letter is not without its note of pathos to the sympathetic ear, and the writer’s habitual good-sense hits off in a happy phrase the somewhat disjointed nature of Ruskin’s studies.

Probably, however, the scheme of The Seven Lamps of Architecture was already beginning to assume shape in the author’s mind. An undated note in the book containing the author’s diary for 1846 and 1847 introduces us to some of his “Lamps;”³ though at this time he seems to have thought of calling them “Spirits”:-

“Expression of emotion in Architecture as Monastic-peaceful-threatening-mysterious-proud-enthusiastic.

“Expression of ambition-Difficult cutting, vaulting, King’s College, etc., raising of spires, etc.

“Consider luscious architecture: how far beautiful.

“General style. What constitutes its greatness. First, mere labour; patience, skill and devotion (Sacrifice). Then labour of thinking men; if nothing be lost, nothing valueless; consider if under this head one might not have a “Spirit of Husbandry” (consider also, awe and mystery and their spirit under head of Power). Yet it is fine to see work for work’s sake, or rather for completion of a system sometimes.”

It does not appear, however, that Ruskin had as yet determined on casting his architectural studies into the form of a separate essay. They

¹ See Vol. IV. pp. xxv.-xxvii.

² Præterita, ii. ch. x. §§ 188-189.

³ Compare the later draft below, in Appendix ii., p. 278.

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