III. GROTESQUE RENAISSANCE 183

rendered peculiarly attractive to the human heart, because God would have us understand that this is true not of invented symbols merely, but of all things amidst which we live; that there is a deeper meaning within them than eye hath seen, or ear hath heard;¹ and that the whole visible creation is a mere perishable symbol of things eternal and true. It cannot but have been sometimes a subject of wonder with thoughtful men, how fondly, age after age, the Church has cherished the belief that the four living creatures which surrounded the Apocalyptic throne were symbols of the four Evangelists, and rejoiced to use those forms in its picture-teaching; that a calf, a lion, an eagle, and a beast with a man’s face, should in all ages have been preferred by the Christian world, as expressive of Evangelistic power and inspiration, to the majesty of human form;² and that quaint grotesques, awkward and often ludicrous caricatures even of the animals represented, should have been regarded by all men, not only with contentment, but with awe, and have superseded all endeavours to represent the characters and persons of the Evangelistic writers themselves (except in a few instances, confined principally to works undertaken without a definite religious purpose);-this, I say, might appear more than strange to us, were it

¹ [1 Corinthians ii. 9.]

² [Ruskin had further light thrown on this subject, shortly after the present volume had been published, by Mr. Beveridge, an Edinburgh doctor, whom he consulted for a relaxed throat. In a letter to his father (which is of further value as illustrating Ruskin’s interest at this time in Biblical types), he says:-

“Nov. 11 [1853].- ... I think he has done my throat good already; at all events he has given me two such lectures on Divinity as I never yet heard in my life. He at once relieved me from all the doubt that has troubled me so long as to the meaning of the four beast types in Revelations iv. by merely referring me to Genesis ii. 20 and ix. 9, 10, which, compared with the anthem in Revel. iv. 9,10,11, at once makes the whole thing as clear as crystal-the four beasts being types of the whole creation. He settled another point for me in the parable of the prodigal son, pointing out that the younger son, usually called the Gentile church, is in reality the Jewish church, for the Jewish church was called in Abraham, the son of Noah, long after Noah; that the Jewish church is now in its state of banishment, filling its belly with husks; that on its recall and triumph, the Gentile churches will feel some envy, like the elder brother. This makes the whole parable, in its typical sense, clear at once. And he told me multitudes of things more, but I have no room for them to-day.”]

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