, a fierce and desperate courage that
feared neither man nor devil, neither failure nor ridicule, and above
all things an exquisite tenderness that is akin to St. Francis or St.
Vincent de Paul....

"Here is a man who, laboring for fifty years, has scattered broadcast a
thousand fine ideas to all who practise the arts, and all who care for
art. He has roused in the cultured world an interest in things of art
such as a legion of painters and ten royal academies could never have
done. He has poured out a torrent of words, some right, some wrong, but
such as have raised the level of art into a new world, which have
adorned English literature for centuries, and have inspired the English
race for generations; he has cast his bread upon the waste and muddy
waters with a lavish hand, and has not waited to find it again, though
it has been the seed of abundant harvest to others."

Again, speaking of what Ruskin sought to accomplish in the regeneration
of modern society, and the reformation of our social ideals, and of that
"heroic piece of Quixotism" he founded, "the Guild of St. George," Mr.
Harrison remarks:--

"The first life of John Ruskin was the life of a consummate teacher of
art and master of style; the second life was the life of priest and
evangelist.... Here is the greatest living master [the passage was
written while Mr. Ruskin was yet alive] of the English tongue, one of
the most splendid lights of our noble literature, one to whom a dozen
paths of ambition and power lay open, who had everything that could be
offered by genius, fame, wealth, social popularity, and intense
sensitiveness to all lovely things--and this man, after thirty years of
untiring labor, devotes himself to train, teach, delight, and inspire a
band of young men, girls, workmen, children,--all who choose to come
around him. He lavishes the whole of his fortune on them; he brings to
their door his treasures of art, science, literature, and poetry; he
founds and endows museums; he offers these costly and precious
collections to the people; he wears out his life in teaching them the
elements of art, the elements of manufacture, the elements of science;
he shows workmen how to work, girls how to draw, to sing, to play; he
gives up to them his wealth, his genius, his peace, his whole life. He
is not content with writing books in his study, with enjoying art at
home or abroad; he must carry his message into the streets. He gives
himself up--not to w