xxxii INTRODUCTION

But the “Life given back” was not to last long. At Chamouni he wrote the Epilogue to Modern Painters¹ after “a night of perfect rest,” as he notes in his diary (September 16), and “in the perfected light of Mont Blanc, after being at Mass.” From Chamouni, he went by Martigny to Brieg, and over the Simplon Pass. “I never thought the old Hospice so beautiful,” he says in his diary (September 21), “nor anything so beautiful, and feel I could paint it all, now, if I had life.” He stayed at Baveno, and then went by the lake to Milan and on to Verona. Thence he went to Bassano, to stay with Miss Francesca Alexander in her summer-quarters-“Among the kindest people in the world,” he notes (September 28). He then went to Venice, and spent some days at the Albergo Europa. At Venice he struck visitors as very frail and somewhat vague in talk. He was pleased when the Countess Pisani called upon him and gave him a gold ducat of Venice for his Museum. He spoke with approval of the work at the Ducal Palace which was carried out under his friend, Signor Boni. Another visitor was Dr. Robertson, author of The Bible of St. Mark and Presbyterian chaplain at Venice, who on calling explained who he was. “What a blessed thing it is,” said Ruskin, “to be able to do anything for the cause of Christ!” “To those who knew Mr. Ruskin only through certain of his writings, the idea is not unnatural,” says Dr. Robertson, “that he was dogmatic and brusque, but in reality he was gentle and unassuming and sympathetic.² ... When I had occasion to refer to the marvellous influence of his work, and in particular mentioned something said of it by the late Professor Drummond, who had been in Venice shortly before, he said, ‘I am astonished; I feel as if I had only led a selfish, useless life.’ And when I had further occasion to speak of his work in connexion with the pulpit, he stopped and very solemnly said, ‘That may be all true, but you must remember that it is not the printed page, but the living voice, that reaches the heart of man.’”³ The excitement of visitors and old associations at Venice was too great for Ruskin, and he retreated to Switzerland, staying for

¹ Vol. VII. pp. 461-464.

² Various testimonies to this effect have been given in earlier volumes. To these may be added that of J. L. Motley, who met him at East Horsley Towers in December 1859: “He is very agreeable company, very fond of talking, but not dogmatic as in his books” (Correspondence of John Lothrop Motley, ed. by G. W. Curtis, 1889, vol. i. p. 332).

³ “Ruskin in Venice” in Good Words, July, p. 474 (quoted in Great Thoughts, November 3, 1900). Dr. Robertson states erroneously that it was at the Calcina restaurant on the Zattere that Ruskin “made his longest sojourn in Venice, and wrote a large part of The Stones of Venice.” For his actual quarters at that time, see Vol. X. p. xxviii.

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