ghtenment of poor men's eyes. But if your motive is, on the
contrary, to put two pence into your own purse, stolen between the
Jerusalem and Jericho of Keswick and Ambleside, out of the poor drunken
traveler's pocket;--if your real object, in your charitable offering,
is, not even to lend unto the Lord by _giving_ to the poor, but to lend
unto the Lord by making a dividend out of the poor;--then, my pious
friends, enthusiastic Ananias, pitiful Judas, and sanctified Korah, I
will do my best in God's name, to stay your hands, and stop your
tongues.

BRANTWOOD, _22nd June, 1876._

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 19: Preface to a pamphlet (1876) entitled "A Protest against
the Extension of Railways in the Lake District," compiled by Robert
Somervell (Windermere, J. Garnett; London, Simpkin, Marshall & Co.). The
pamphlet also contained a printed announcement as follows:--"The author
of 'Modern Painters' earnestly requests all persons who may have taken
interest in his writings, or who have any personal regard for him, to
assist him now in the circulation of the inclosed paper, drawn up by his
friend Mr. Somervell, for the defense of the Lake District of England,
and to press the appeal, so justly and temperately made in it, on the
attention of their personal friends."--ED.]

[Footnote 20: See--the illustration being coincidently given as I
correct this page for press--the description of the horrible service,
and history of the fatal explosion of dynamite, on the once lovely
estates of the Duke of Hamilton, in the _Hamilton Advertiser_ of 10th
and 17th June.]

THE STUDY OF BEAUTY AND ART IN LARGE TOWNS.[21]

266. I have been asked by Mr. Horsfall to write a few words of
introduction to the following papers. The trust is a frank one, for our
friendship has been long and intimate enough to assure their author that
my feelings and even practical convictions in many respects differ from
his, and in some, relating especially to the subjects here treated of,
are even opposed to his; so that my private letters (which, to speak
truth, he never attends to a word of) are little more than a series of
exhortations to him to sing--once for all--the beautiful Cavalier ditty
of "Farewell, Manchester," and pour the dew of his artistic benevolence
on less recusant ground. Nevertheless, as assuredly he knows much more
of his own town than I do, and as his mind is evidently made up to do
the best he can for it, the only thing left for me