er that guides his generation." More recently a prominent
philanthropist said: "All our social reform movements are largely the
influence of John Ruskin." How earned this man such meed of praise?
Upon John Ruskin fortune poured forth all her gifts. He was born the
child of supreme genius. He was heir to nearly a million dollars, and
by his pen earned a fortune in addition. At the age of 21, when most
young men were beginning their reading, he completed a book that put
his name and fame in every man's mouth. "For a thousand who can speak,
there is but one who can think; for a thousand who can think, there is
but one who can see," and to this youth was given the open vision. In
the hour of fame the rich and great vied to do him honor, and every
door opened at his touch. But he turned aside to become the
knight-errant of the poor. Walking along Whitechapel road he saw
multitudes of shopmen and shopwomen whose stint was eighty hours a
week, who toiled mid poisoned air until the brain reeled, the limbs
trembled, and worn out physically and mentally they succumbed to spinal
disease or premature age, leaving behind only enfeebled progeny, until
the city's streets became graves of the human physique. In that hour
London seemed to him like a prison or hospital; nor was it given to him
to play upon its floor as some rich men do, knitting its straw into
crowns that please; clutching at its dust in the cracks of the floor,
to die counting the motes by millions. The youth "remembered men in
bonds as bound with them." He tithed himself a tenth, then a third,
then a half, and at length used up his fortune in noble service. He
founded clubs for workingmen and taught them industry, honor and
self-reliance. He bought spinning-wheels and raw flax, and made pauper
women self-supporting. He founded the Sheffield Museum, and placed
there his paintings and marbles, that workers in iron and steel might
have the finest models and bring all their handiwork up toward beauty.
He asked his art-students in Oxford to give one hour each day to
pounding stones and filling holes in the street. When his health gave
way Arnold Toynbee, foreman of his student gang, went forth to carry
his lectures on the industrial revolution up and down the land.
Falling on hard days and evil tongues and lying customs, he wore
himself out in knightly service. So he gained his place among "the
immortals." But the secret of his genius and influence is this: