EASTLAKE’S HISTORY OF OIL-PAINTING 263

page,¹ translated “wherefore,” mystifies a whole sentence; “ut mereretur,” rendered with a schoolboy’s carelessness “as he merited,” reverses the meaning of another; “jactantia,” in the following page, is less harmfully but not less singularly translated “jealousy.” We have been obliged to alter several expressions in the following passages, in order to bring them near enough to the original for our immediate purpose:

“Which knowledge, when he has obtained, let no one magnify himself in his own eyes, as if it had been received from himself, and not from elsewhere; but let him rejoice humbly in the Lord, from whom and by whom are all things, and without whom is nothing; nor let him wrap his gifts in the folds of envy, nor hide them in the closet of an avaricious heart; but all pride of heart being repelled,² let him with a cheerful mind give with simplicity to all who ask of him, and let him fear the judgment of the Gospel upon that merchant, who, failing to return to his lord a talent with accumulated interest, deprived of all reward, merited the censure from the mouth of his judge of ‘wicked servant.’

“Fearing to incur which sentence, I, a man unworthy and almost without name, offer gratuitously to all desirous with humility to learn, that which the divine condescension, which giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, gratuitously conceded to me: and I admonish them that in me they acknowledge the goodness, and admire the generosity of God; and I would persuade them to believe that if they also add their labour, the same gifts are within their reach.

“Wherefore, gentle son, whom God has rendered perfectly happy in this respect, that those things are offered to thee gratis, which many, ploughing the sea waves with the greatest danger to life, consumed by the hardship of hunger and cold, or subjected to the weary servitude of teachers, and altogether worn out by the desire of learning, yet acquire with intolerable labour, covet with greedy looks this ‘BOOK OF VARIOUS ARTS,’ read it through with a tenacious memory, embrace it with an ardent love.

“Should you carefully peruse this, you will there find out whatever Greece possesses in kinds and mixtures of various colours; whatever Tuscany knows of in mosaic-work, or in variety of enamel; whatever Arabia shows forth in work of fusion, ductility, or chasing; whatever Italy ornaments with gold, in diversity of vases and sculpture of gems or ivory; whatever France loves in

¹ [The first page of Theophilus; p. xliv. in Mr. Hendrie’s book. The passage here referred to is an exordium describing the Fall of Man. He was created a little lower than the angels, ut rationis capax divinć prudentić consilii ingeniique mereretur participium (“so that being capable of reason he might be worthy of partaking in the wisdom, counsel, and mind of God”); then it continues, qui astu diabolico misere deceptus, etc. (“who nevertheless miserably deceived by diabolical astuteness” fell from his high estate).]

² [In the Latin, omni jactantia repulsa; Ruskin here corrects Mr. Hendrie’s translation: see a few lines above. So seven lines lower, Ruskin re-translates (“that which the divine condescension,” etc.) the words quć dat affluenter et non improperat divina dignatio.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]