een torn to pieces by
the silversmiths at Ephesus. The appeal to Caesar's judgment-seat was the
shield of his mission, and alone made possible his success.

LXXXVII. OF THE MYSTERY OF LIFE.

JOHN RUSKIN--1819-

_From_ SESAME AND LILIES.

And now, returning to the broader question what these arts and labors of
life have to teach us of its mystery, this is the first of their
lessons--that the more beautiful the art, the more it is essentially the
work of people who _feel themselves wrong_;--who are striving for the
fulfilment of a law, and the grasp of a loveliness, which they have not
yet attained, which they feel even farther and farther from attaining,
the more they strive for it. And yet, in still deeper sense, it is the
work of people who know also that they are right. The very sense of
inevitable error from their purpose marks the perfectness of that
purpose, and the continued sense of failure arises from the continued
opening of the eyes more clearly to all the sacredest laws of truth.

This is one lesson. The second is a very plain, and greatly precious
one, namely:--that whenever the arts and labors of life are fulfilled
in this spirit of striving against misrule, and doing whatever we have
to do, honorably and perfectly, they invariably bring happiness, as much
as seems possible to the nature of man. In all other paths, by which
that happiness is pursued, there is disappointment, or destruction: for
ambition and for passion there is no rest--no fruition; the fairest
pleasures of youth perish in a darkness greater than their past light;
and the loftiest and purest love too often does but inflame the cloud of
life with endless fire of pain. But, ascending from lowest to highest,
through every scale of human industry, that industry worthily followed,
gives peace. Ask the laborer in the field, at the forge, or in the mine;
ask the patient, delicate-fingered artisan, or the strong-armed,
fiery-hearted worker in bronze, and in marble, and with the colors of
light; and none of these, who are true workmen, will ever tell you, that
they have found the law of heaven an unkind one--that in the sweat of
their face they should eat bread, till they return to the ground; nor
that they ever found it an unrewarded obedience, if, indeed, it was
rendered faithfully to the command--"Whatsoever thy hand findeth to
do--do it with thy might."

These are the two great and constant lessons which our laborers teach us
of t