egat
us,' the great Dead.

Such as did bear rule in their kingdoms,
Men renowned for their power,
Giving counsel by their understanding,
And declaring prophecies.

Burne-Jones, William Morris, Madox Brown--'these be of them that have
left a name behind them to declare their praises.' And some there be
that have no memorial save the memory of them enshrined in the hearts
of them that knew them. But adequately to commemorate were too great an
enterprise, and I return to my immediate topic; and yet, as I turn, one
of great name, greater than all whom I have named, impels me to pause
and to praise him, him who begat the begetters, him who was 'as the
morning star in the midst of a cloud, as the moon at the full,' Ruskin!
To him we all owe whatever of impulse is in us toward that goal whose
outline it is my business to describe to you to-night. To Ruskin, then,
all honour, all praise, to Ruskin, the great Dead who in life, living,
begat us!

To resume.

The Note on Fictiles, by the late G. T. Robinson, carries us to the
dawn of art and craft, for, as says Mr. Robinson, 'Man's first needs in
domestic life, his first utensils, his first efforts at civilization,
came from the mother earth, whose son he believed himself to be, and
his ashes or his bones returned to earth, enshrined in the fictile
vases he created from their common clay. And these fictiles,' continues
Mr. Robinson, 'tell the story of his first art instincts, and of his
yearnings to unite beauty with use. They tell, too, more of his history
than is enshrined and preserved by any other art; for almost all we
know of many a people and many a tongue is learned from the fictile
record, the sole relic of past civilizations which the destroyer Time
has left us. Begun in the simplest fashion, fashioned by the simplest
means, created from the commonest materials, fictile _Art_ grew with
man's intellectual growth, and fictile _Craft_ grew with his
knowledge--the latter conquering in this our day, when the craftsman
strangles the artist alike in this as in all other arts. To truly
foster and forward an art,' concludes Mr. Robinson, 'the craftsman and
the artist should, where possible, be united; or, at least, should work
in common, as was the case when, in each civilization, the Potter's Art
flourished most, and when the scientific base was of less account than
was the art employed upon it.'

It is not necessary for our purpose to go through the succ