plans for his St. George's Museum at Sheffield. Chapter VII. (the London Institution lecture of 1876) is a general introduction explanatory of the connexion in his mind between mineralogy and heraldry and art. Chapter VIII. describes the plan which he proposed for the arrangement of the collection of minerals in his Museum; whilst in Chapter IX. he opens up some of the questions in mineralogy which he wished his students to consider. But in the autumn of 1876 he went abroad, and stayed for a few days among the Alps on his way to Venice. This brought him back in Chapter X. (dated "Village of Simplon, 2nd September, 1876") to the glaciers, and we have a further discussion of theories of glacier motion. The occasion passes; and in Chapter XI. he reverts to the subject of crystallisation. He returned home to Brantwood in the summer of 1877; and, recognising that his days of active exploration among the Alps were over, "began, as better suited to my years, the unadventurous rambles by the streams of Yewdale, whose first results were given in my Kendal lecture "2 (October 1877). This became Chapter XII. The scene is changed, but the argument remains constant, and Ruskin raises by the streams of Yewdale the same questions-of erosion, of cleavage, elevation-as by the cliffs of Uri or aiguilles of Chamouni. A long interruption, caused by his illness of 1878, now intervenes. When the work is resumed, a chapter (XIII.) on the stellar crystallisation of silica comes first, and the first volume closes (Chapter XIV., "Schisma Montium ") with a general account of the questions which he desired to raise with regard to geological theories respecting the causes of mountain form. The further development of such themes was intended to occupy a second volume of Deucalion. He had made many experiments of which the results were promised for that volume (see p. 291). Just as at Broadlands he had made "experiments on the glaciers "3 with butter and honey, so at Brantwood in 1877-1879 he occupied himself with experiments on dough in order to observe the behaviour of ductile substances under pressure. He still intended also to carry forward his investigations into glaciers. In this connexion Mr. Collingwood prints * the following letter (July 25, 1879) which he received from Ruskin :"Yes, Chamouni is as a desolated home to me-I shall never, I believe, be there more: I could escape the riff-raff in winter, and early spring; but that the glaciers should have betrayed me, and 1 Vol. XXIV. p. xxxiv. ? Preface to The Limestone Alps of Savoy, § 6 (below, p. 570). 3 Vol. XXIV. p. xxi. : Life and Work of John Ruskin, 1900, p. 338. Mr. Collingwood made the drawings, but as the plans for Deucalion were changed, Ruskin did not use them their old ways know them no more, is too much. I was gladly surprised to hear of your going to the Aiguille du Tour, if the whole field around it is still pure; but all's so wrecked; perhaps it's all mud and stones by this time. 66 However, the thing I want of you is to get as far up the old bed of the Glacier des Bois as you can, and make a good graphic sketch for me of any bit of rock that you can find of the true bottom among the débris. Graphic, I say,-as opposed to coloury or shadowy; show me the edges and ins and outs, well-with any notes of direction and effect of former ice on it you can make for yourself. You know I don't believe the ice ever moves at the bottom of a glacier at all,-in a general way; but on so steep a slope as that of the Bois, it may sometimes have been dragged a little at the bottom, as it is ordinarily at the sides. Anyhow, sketch me a bit of the rocks, and tell me how the boulders are lodged, whether merely dropped promiscuously, or driven into lines or corners. "Please give my love to the big old stone under the Breven, a quarter of a mile above the village, unless they've blasted it up for hotels." When, however, Deucalion was resumed other material happened to be ready to hand, and the second volume began with the lecture on Snakes already discussed. Chapter II. ("Revision ") contained a general account of Ruskin's faith "in the creating Spirit, as the source of Beauty-in the governing Spirit, as the founder and maintainer of Moral Law." The choice of subject for the next chapter (the last to be published) was conditioned by the severe winter of 1878-1879. This afforded unusual opportunities for studying the crystallisation of ice. He intended to pursue this subject, and the MS. material at Brantwood contains part of an additional chapter, which is here given (p. 363). A few other notes for Deucalion are also added, but the book was never finished. Such time as he could spare to these studies was henceforth given, as we shall see, to the arrangement of minerals. With regard to the title of the book-Deucalion: Collected Studies of the Lapse of Waves and Life of Stones-Ruskin dedicated, as his studies of flowers to Proserpina, so those of rocks and waves to Deucalion -the Noah of Greek tradition, who, when all the world beside perished in the great flood, saved himself and his wife on the top of a high mountain. And when the waters subsided, Deucalion consulted the oracle, and was bidden to repair the loss of mankind by throwing behind them the bones of their mother; that is, the stones of the Earth-"lifeless seed of life," as Ruskin says. He seems, however, to have felt that his title was somewhat cryptic; for in his copy of the book, marked for revision, there is the following note: "Stones. First text: 'God is able of these stones to raise up children upon Abraham.' Second: 'If these should hold their peace, the very stones would immediately cry out.' Then quote the end of the Introduction and the piece about myths [i.e., § 5; see pp. 9899], explaining the value of the myth of Deucalion as connected also with the story of Lycaon and of Philemon and Baucis." Unfortunately Ruskin did not carry out the intention of revising Deucalion, and one can only roughly guess at the ideas which he intended to develop. The flood of Deucalion occurred, according to some mythographers,3 as a punishment for the impieties of Lycaon and his sons. The piety of Philemon and Baucis, on the other hand, was rewarded by Zeus taking them to a safe eminence when all the world beside was visited by the flood. Thus the story of Deucalion was, as Ruskin says, the story of the Betrayal and the Redemption. To Ruskin the study of natural phenomena was part of the evidence of natural theology. He found "sermons in stones, and good in everything." Of the manuscript of Deucalion, Mr. F. W. Hilliard possesses (with some omissions) that of vol. i. ch. ii. § 5 to ch. iii. § 13. This shows the usual careful revision. Mr. Hilliard also possesses the MS. of a chapter entitled "Pruina Arachne" (see p. 347 n.). Mr. A. Macdonald has the MS. of vol. i. ch. xiv. §§ 1-14. No other MS. is known to the editors. There is at Brantwood a copy of the first volume containing several notes and revisions by the author. Some of these notes were written, as an entry at ch. vi. § 13 shows, at Sallenches in 1882. Occasional use has been made of this copy (see, e.g., pp. 110, 112, 151). To the first volume of Deucalion Ruskin compiled an index to which he attached importance as "classifying the contents so as to enable the reader to collect all notices of importance relating to any 1 Below, p. 555. It appears from a letter to Dr. John Brown (July 24, 1874) that Ruskin originally intended to call the book "Monte Rosa." In the first proof of the title-page (in Mr. Allen's possession) the sub-title reads, "Collected Studies of the Labour of Waters and Life of Stones." On the words lapse and labour, see Munera Pulveris, § 59 (Vol. XVII. p. 183). 2 Matthew iii. 19; Luke xix. 40. 3 Apollodorus, iii. 8, 1. ♦ Ovid, Metamorphoses, viii. 621 seg. one subject and to collate them with those in my former writings." The index was, he adds, "made as short as possible" (p. 273). It has seemed desirable to reprint this index substantially as Ruskin wrote it; but additions have been introduced. Some of these were noted by him in his copy for revision; the others supply references to the papers collected in this volume. CATALOGUES OF MINERALS (1883-1886) The division of this volume which follows Deucalion brings us to work which occupied a good deal of Ruskin's time in 1883 and the next few years. This was the overhauling of his collections of minerals and precious stones; the formation out of them of collections or specimens which he presented to schools or public institutions; and the writing of explanatory catalogues. He had always assiduously collected minerals during his tours; many pages in his diaries are occupied with lists of the specimens acquired on a particular walk, or a particular tour. He also bought largely from dealers,1 and his collection at Brantwood, which was especially rich in siliceous minerals, numbered 3000 specimens, many of them of great rarity and special interest. It was a favourite diversion to arrange and rearrange, classify and reclassify, these specimens; and there remain at Brantwood catalogues in various stages of completion. The work into which Fors Clavigera had drawn him caused him to begin dispersing his collection. There was the St. George's Museum at Sheffield to be equipped; and while selecting specimens for that, he went on to make up typical collections for various museums and schools in which he was interested. He had long entertained a design "of making mineralogy, no less than botany, a subject of elementary education, even in ordinary parish schools, and much more in our public ones. With this view," he says, "long before the Guild existed, I arranged out of my own collection a series of minerals which were found useful at Harrow; and another for a girls' school at Winnington, Northwich, where the lectures on mineralogy were given which I afterwards expanded into The Ethics of the Dust."2 The gift of a collection of minerals was made to Harrow School in 1866, in connexion with two lectures given there by Ruskin in that year and in the year next 1 One of his purchases involved him in a lawsuit: see Fors Clavigera, Letter 76, § 18. 2 The Guild of St. George: Master's Report, 1884, § 6. following. The collection consisted of 237 specimens, and was accompanied by a list, which, however, was not written by Ruskin, The Headmaster (Dr. H. M. Butler) presented a suitable showcase, with drawers underneath, for the housing of the collection, which stood in the Vaughan Library until the opening of the Butler Museum in 1886. The collection, as now arranged in that Museum, follows the order of the original list, and each specimen bears a descriptive label, headed "Ruskin Collection." Of Ruskin's interest in the school at Winnington full account has already been given. The school was afterwards broken up, and the Ruskin collection of minerals was probably dispersed, as were some other gifts of his. "What time I could spare to the subject in later years" was spent, Ruskin says, in "systematizing my knowledge of the forms of Silica."3 Partly in connexion with the St. George's Museum at Sheffield, and partly from his interest in the rearrangement of the minerals in the British Museum, after their transference from Bloomsbury to South Kensington, Ruskin set himself in the years 1882-1884 to bring his knowledge to bear in the forming of illustrative collections of siliceous and other minerals. A collection of selected examples at the British Museum was to be the central one; subsidiary to it were to be various other collections in different parts of the country; whilst the whole series was to be further systematised and explained, as we shall presently see, in elementary handbooks. He had a double purpose in this work; he wanted to show how in his opinion a museum of minerals should be arranged, and also to illustrate some of his theories of classification of "banded and concretionary formations." This work was "important," he wrote,1 "as the first practical arrangement ever yet attempted for popular teaching." The paper, with a postscript, "On Distinctions of Form in Silica" (pp. 373-391), which he wrote for the Mineralogical Society in 1884, explains some of his purposes. Ruskin's broken health prevented the accomplishment of his full 1 The first lecture was given to the School Scientific Society on October 9, 1866, at the house of Mr. Bosworth Smith. "Mr. Ruskin," says the Minute Book, "delivered an exceedingly interesting lecture on the Progress of Natural Science in England. He concluded by pointing out where there was room for much discovery, illustrating his remarks with some beautiful geological specimens which he kindly presented to the Society." The second lecture was given to the same Society on October 12, 1867, in the Vaughan Library. "Mr. Ruskin addressed the Society," says the Minute, "on the subject of Crystallization, which he illustrated by a few of the specimens from his very handsome present of minerals and crystals." 2 Vol. XVIII. pp. lxiii. seq. The Guild of St. George: Master's Report, 1884, § 6. XXVI. d |