IV. FONTAINEBLEAU 315

The Norwood ivy had not abased me in that final manner, because one had always felt that ivy was an ornamental creature, and expected it to behave prettily, on occasion. But that all the trees of the wood (for I saw surely that my little aspen was only one of their millions) should be beautiful-more than Gothic tracery, more than Greek vase-imagery, more than the daintiest embroiderers of the East could embroider, or the artfullest painters of the West could limn,-this was indeed an end to all former thoughts with me, an insight into a new silvan world.

Not silvan only. The woods, which I had only looked on as wilderness, fulfilled I then saw, in their beauty, the same laws which guided the clouds, divided the light, and balanced the wave. “He hath made everything beautiful, in his time,”¹ became for me thenceforward the interpretation of the bond between the human mind and all visible things; and I returned along the wood-road feeling that it had led me far;-Farther than ever fancy had reached, or theodolite measured.

78. To my sorrow, and extreme surprise, I find no diary whatever of the feelings or discoveries of this year. They were too many, and bewildering, to be written. I did not even draw much,²-the things I now saw were beyond drawing,-but took to careful botany, while the month’s time set apart for the rocks of Chamouni was spent in merely finding out what was to be done, and where. By the chance of guide dispensation, I had only one of the average standard, Michel Devouassoud, who knew his way to the show places, and little more;³ but I got the fresh air and the climbing; and thought over my Fontainebleau

¹ [Ecclesiastes iii. 11. It is interesting to note that Ruskin’s study at Fontainebleau, to which he attaches so much importance in the history of his theory and practice of art, nearly coincides approximately in time with the foundation in the same region of the Barbizon School.]

² [Several drawings of 1842 are, however, reproduced in this edition: see, e.g., in this volume, Plates XVII. and XX. (pp. 316, 328).]

³ [He was, however, connected with some of the earlier ascents of Mont Blanc: see The Annals of Mont Blanc, by C. E. Mathews, p. 150.]

[Version 0.04: March 2008]