LECTURES GIVEN IN OXFORD,

BY

JOHN RUSKIN, D.C.L., LL.D.,

HONORARY STUDENT OF CHRIST CHURCH, AND HONORARY FELLOW OF CORPUS-CHRISTI COLLEGE,

[Bibliographical Note.-The Lectures entitled The Pleasures of England were delivered at Oxford, and announced in the University Gazette, October 10, 1884, in the following terms :

SLADE PROFESSOR OF FINE ART: JOHN RUSKIN, M.A.

The Professor will give a Course of Seven Lectures on "The Pleasures of England," in sequel to those on "The Art of England," in the Lecture Theatre, University Museum, at 2.30 P.M., on Saturdays and Mondays, repeating the Saturday's lecture on the Monday, from October 18 to December 1, the Lectures being on the following subjects:

Lecture I-Bertha to Osburga. "The Pleasures of Learning." October 18

and 20.

Lecture II.-Alfred to the Confessor. "The Pleasures of Faith." October 25 and 27.

Lecture III.-The Confessor to Cœur de Lion. "The Pleasures of Deed." November 1 and 3.

Lecture IV.-Coeur de Lion to Elizabeth.

and 10.

"The Pleasures of Fancy." November 8

Lecture V.-Protestantism. "The Pleasures of Truth." November 15 and 17. Lecture VI.-Atheism. "The Pleasures of Sense." November 22 and 24. Lecture VII.-Mechanism. "The Pleasures of Nonsense." November 29 and December 1.

An "amended notice" (in the Gazette of October 14, 1884), while repeating the above, added that "Admission will be by Ticket, which may be obtained on application at the Ruskin School, Beaumont Street. . . . Tickets for the Saturday's Lecture are reserved for Members of the University."

Of the lectures thus announced, only the first five were delivered, and only the first four were published by Ruskin.

In place of Lectures VI. and VII., which were postponed, Ruskin delivered three others, as follow:

"A Lecture on Patience" (Readings from The Cestus of Aglaia and St. Mark's Rest).—November 22 and 24.

"Birds and How to Paint Them."-November 29 and December 1. "Landscape." December 6 and 8.

For a bibliographical note on these substituted lectures, see below, p. 522.

In the University Gazette of March 10, 1885, the postponed lectures were thus announced :

SLADE PROFESSOR OF FINE ART: J. RUSKIN, M.A.

Subject. The Pleasures of England (continued).

Time. Early in May.

Place. The Ruskin School.

There will be only two Lectures, once given :

Lecture VI. Atheism. The Pleasures of Sense.

Lecture VII. Mechanism. The Pleasures of Nonsense.

The exact dates of delivery will be arranged with the concurrence of the other Professors.

This notice was repeated on April 17, but on April 28 the following intimation appeared :

"Mr. Ruskin having sent in his resignation of the Professorship, the announcement of the Course of Lectures which was reprinted in the Gazette of April 17 is withdrawn."

Lectures I. to V. were reported (by E. T. Cook) in the Pall Mall Gazette of October 20 and 27, November 3, 10, and 17 respectively.

They were reprinted by him in Studies in Ruskin, 1890 (and again in the second edition of that work, 1891), pp. 211-263, with the following introductory remarks:

The course had clearly not been so carefully prepared, nor was the lecturer's line of thought so closely reasoned, as in The Art of England.' My reports took the form, therefore, of digested plans' (so Mr. Ruskin was kind enough to call them), 'summarizing a line of thought not always by me enough expressed, and completing and illustrating it from other parts of my books, often more fully than, against time, I could do myself.' Accordingly I reprint these reports here in their original form, in the hope that they may be found by a reader here and there to serve as useful companions to the printed lectures."

The following letter from Ruskin (referred to in the preceding remarks) appeared in the Pall Mall Gazette of November 19:

To the Editor of the "Pall Mall Gazette"

SIR,-I have seldom had occasion to pay either compliments or thanks to the British reporter; but I must very seriously acknowledge the help now afforded me by the digested plans of my Oxford lectures drawn up for the Pall Mall Gazette-very wonderful pieces of work, it seems to me, not only in summarizing, without any help from me whatever, a line of thought not always by me enough expressed; but in completing and illustrating it from other parts of my books-often more fully than, against time, I could do myself. Hitherto, there have been only two errata worth correction: in last Monday's (November 10), 2nd page, 32 lines up, for "Barbara" read "Athena"; and in report of former lecture (November 3, 2nd page, 33 lines up), for "Athena Regina" read “Athena of Ægina." This erratum should have caught the reporter's eye; for he ought to have known by his evident familiarity with my books that I never use a Latin adjunct to a Greek noun; but, as it happens, the mistake exactly illustrates the confused Damascus signature of the Saxon language. Edgar of England writes, as before noted, his own name in Saxon, his kingdom's in Latin, and his authority's in Greek; "Ego Edgar, totius Albionis-BASILEUS,” and his queen would have written "Basilissa." And herein is to be observed the advantage of a mixed language in conveying complete definition. The Roman word "imperator" expressed only the extending of Roman moral law, or imperium, over subject States. But "Basileus" means the extension of Christ's inevitable and irresistible law over them, in an entirely despotic manner.-I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

JOHN RUSKIN,

OXFORD, Nov. 14.

Lectures I.-IV., as thus reported, often differ from the text as afterwards printed by Ruskin, and the additional passages are now quoted from the reports in footnotes (see, e.g., pp. 462, 478, 481).