For Ruskin, the Liber Studiorum illustrated Turner 's great range of sympathy with the human condition. In PreRaphaelitism (1851), when Ruskin wishes to illustrate his statement that Turner is 'a man of sympathy absolutely infinite', it is the Liber Studiorum to which he turns for examples, concluding that Turner's sympathy is 'so all-embracing, that I know nothing but that of Shakespeare comparable with it' ( Works, 12.370). In Modern Painters IV (1856) he again refers to plates from the Liber (among other works) to illustrate Turner's 'largeness of sympathy', ranging from the play of children to 'intense horror and pathos' ( Works, 6.26). (See Davis, The 'dark clue' and the Law of Help.)