he Chapel of St. George, he copied Carpaccio's "Dream
of St. Ursula" which was taken down--it had been "skied" at the Academy
until then--and placed in the sculpture gallery; and be laboured to
produce a facsimile.

"24 _Dec_.--I do think St. Ursula's lips are coming pretty--and her
eyelids--but oh me, her hair. Toni, Mr. Brown's gondolier, says she's
all right--and he's a grave and close looking judge, you know."

Christmas Day was a crisis in his life. He was attacked by illness;
severe pain, followed by a dreamy state in which the vividly realized
presence of St. Ursula mingled with memories of his dead lady, whose
"spirit" had been shown him a year before by a "medium" met at a country
house. Since then he had watched eagerly for evidences of another life:
and the sense of its conceivability grew upon him, in spite of the
doubts which he had entertained of the immortality of the soul. At last,
after a year's earnest desire for some such assurance, it seemed to come
to him. What others call coincidences, and accidents, and states of mind
flashed, for him, into importance; times and seasons, names and symbols,
took a vivid meaning. His intense despondency changed for a while into a
singular happiness--it seemed a renewed health and strength: and instead
of despair, he rejoiced in the conviction of guarding Providences and
helpful influences.

Readers of "Fors" had traced for some years back the re-awakening of a
religious tone, now culminating in a pronounced mysticism which they
could not understand, and in a recantation of the sceptical judgments of
his middle period. He found, now, new excellences in the early Christian
painting; he depreciated Turner and Tintoret, and denounced the
frivolous art of the day. He searched the Bible more diligently than
ever for its hidden meanings; and in proportion as he felt its
inspiration, he recoiled from the conclusions of modern science, and
wrapped the prophet's mantle more closely round him, as he denounced
with growing fervour the crimes of our unbelieving age.

CHAPTER V

DEUCALION AND PROSERPINA (1877-1879)

In the summer of 1875, Ruskin had written:

"I begin to ask myself, with somewhat pressing arithmetic, how much
time is likely to be left me, at the age of fifty-six, to complete
the various designs for which, until past fifty, I was merely
collecting material. Of these materials I have now enough by me for
a most interesting