The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Joy For Ever, by John Ruskin
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Title: A Joy For Ever
(And Its Price in the Market)
Author: John Ruskin
Release Date: November 30, 2006 [EBook #19980]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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"A JOY FOR EVER";
(AND ITS PRICE IN THE MARKET):
BEING
THE SUBSTANCE (WITH ADDITIONS)
OF
TWO LECTURES ON THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF ART,
_Delivered at Manchester, July 10th and 13th, 1857._
BY
JOHN RUSKIN, LL.D.,
HONORARY STUDENT OF CHRIST CHURCH, AND HONORARY FELLOW
OF CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE, OXFORD.
"A thing of beauty is a joy for ever."--KEATS.
SIXTEENTH THOUSAND.
LONDON:
GEORGE ALLEN, 156, CHARING CROSS ROAD.
1904.
[_All rights reserved_]
Printed by BALLANTYNE, HANSON & CO.
At the Ballantyne Press
PREFACE
TO THE RE-ISSUE OF 1880.
The title of this book,--or, more accurately, of its subject;--for no
author was ever less likely than I have lately become, to hope for
perennial pleasure to his readers from what has cost himself the most
pains,--will be, perhaps, recognised by some as the last clause of the
line chosen from Keats by the good folks of Manchester, to be written in
letters of gold on the cornice, or Holy rood, of the great Exhibition
which inaugurated the career of so many,--since organized, by both
foreign governments and our own, to encourage the production of works of
art, which the producing nations, so far from intending to be their "joy
for ever," only hope to sell as soon as possible. Yet the motto was
chosen with uncomprehended felicity: for there never was, nor can be,
any essential beauty possessed by a work of art, which is not based on
the conception of its honoured permanence, and local influence, as a
part of appointed and precious furniture, either i
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