Other volumes of this great work followed swiftly and caused a
great commotion in the world of art and letters because of the radical
views of the author and the remarkable qualities of his style.

This was followed by _The Seven Lamps of Architecture_, in which
Ruskin expounded his radical views on this kindred art; _The Stones of
Venice_, an eloquent book enforcing the argument that Gothic
architecture sprang from a pure national faith and the domestic
virtues; _King's Treasuries_, a noble plea for good books; _Fors
Clavigera_, a series of ninety-six parts published in eight volumes,
the record of his social experiments; _Preterita_, one of the most
charming books of youthful reminiscences in any language, and many
others. Ruskin's mental activity was enormous. He had to his credit in
his fifty-five active years no less than seventy-two volumes and one
hundred magazine articles, as well as thousands of lectures.

This outline sketch of Ruskin's life would be incomplete without
mention of the great sorrows that darkened his days but gave eloquence
to his writings. The first was the desertion of his wife, who married
the painter Millais, and the second was the loss by death of Rose La
Touche, a beautiful Irish girl whom he had known from childhood. She
refused to marry him because of their differences of religion; even
refused to see him in her fatal illness unless he could say that he
loved God better than he loved her. Her death brought bitter despair
to Ruskin, but the world profited by it, for grief gave his work
maturity and force. The last ten years of Ruskin's life were spent at
his beautiful home at Brantwood, surrounded by the pictures that he
loved and served faithfully by devoted relatives.

[Illustration: JOHN RUSKIN FROM THE SEMI-ROMANTIC PORTRAIT OF SIR
JOHN E. MILLAIS]

Ruskin's books are not to be read continuously. Many dreary passages
may be found in all of them, which the judicious reader skips. But his
best works are more full of intellectual stimulus than those of any
writer of his time with the single exception of Carlyle. _Modern
Painters_ overflows with the enthusiasm of a lover of art and of
nature who preaches the gospel of sincerity and truth. It is marked,
like all his work, by eloquent digressions on human life and conduct,
for Ruskin held that the finest art was simply the flowering of a
great soul nurtured on all that was highest and best. _The Seven
Lamps_ does for architecture wh