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accurate observations of Nature , and thus close his a sense < rratitude , and a conviction that he has taught us to look at pictures and at Mature with fresh insig ht Such a writer is really a national possession . He adds to our store of knowledge and enjoyment . His influence is germinal , and will extend through many channels . It is quite easy , nothing more easy , to criticize himv and " show him up , " as the pbrase goes . But a writer makes his way by what he has of positive in him , and all his errors , all his shortcomings , let them be never so reprehensible , serve but as food for critics , they do not obstruct his real progress . We shall not here enter on any of the argumentative or technical parts of this volume . Our readers will be better pleased , if we leave such to other critics , and select rather some of those incidental topics which serve to vary Mr . Ruskin ' s discussions of abstract principles , and in which all the world
has an interest . On the very first page we meet with one . It is on our -delio-ht in Ruins , a purely modern feeling which never appears until the davs of the decline of art in the seventeenth century . Tlie love of neatness and precision , as opposed to all disorder , maintains itself clown to Raphael ' s childhood without the slig htest interference of any other feeling ; and it is not until Claude ' s time , and owing in a great part to his influence , that the jiew feeling distinctly establishes itself . Did the reader ever think of this before ? Did it ever occur to him that the exquisite delight , the joyful sadness , the strange yearning of half-sorrow which steals over him in the presence of a noble rum , was a feeling so modern as it has just
been shown to be ? "We confess that until Mr . Ruskin made the remark it had never occurred to us , familiar as we were with the fact of the modernness of our poetical feeling for Nature . A Greek would have been made as uncomfortable by the sight of a ruin , as we should be by the si" -ht of the ruin restored and _ modernised . So would Dante , so would Shakspeare . Both of these poets would have been amazed to read what Mr . Buskin ' s impressions are of the Calais tower , though both would have -admired the wonderful power with which he expresses himself . " I cannot . find words , " he says , " to express the intense pleasure I have always in first finding myself after some prolonged stay in England , at the foot of the old tower of Calais church . The large neglect , the noble unsightliness of it ;
the record of its years written so visibly , yet without sign of weakness or decay ; its stern wasteness and gloom , eaten ataay by the Channel winds , and overgrown , with the bitter sea-grasses ; its slates and tiles all shaken and rent , -and yet not falling ; its desert of brickwork full of bolts , and holes , and : ugly fissures , and yet strong like a bare brown rock ; its carelessness of wnat any one feels or thinks about it , putting forth no claim , having no beauty , nor desirableness , nor pride , nor grace ; yet neither asking for pity , onor , as ruins are , useless and piteous , feebly or fondly garrulous of better ¦ days ; but useful still , going through its own daily work—as some old fisherman beaten grey by storm ., yet daily drawing his nets : so it stands , with no ¦ complaint about its past youth , in blanched and meagre massiveness and ^ serviceableness , gathering human souls together under it ; the sound of its bells forwaver still rolling through its rents ; and the grey jpeak of it seen far
across the sea , principal of the three that rise above the waste of suriy sand and hillocked shore—the lighthouse for life , and the belfry for labour , and this for patience and praise . " No one will see Calais church with the same feelings after reading this passage . Indeed are not all our seeings of Nature due to the suggestions of poets , who , having looked on Nature fondly and in varying moods , have taught us to see in the waving branches , the jutting ledge of rock , the gloom of the valley and the vapoury mists curling above the bill , something of what they saw in them at a given time ? Mr . Ruskin is peculiarly rich in such suggestiveness . He is a true poet in his love for scenery , and a true modern in the intensity with which be symbolizes the aspects of nature . Oftentimes this is , as with poets , mere mood and -caprice . For instance , speaking of Turner ' s melancholy windmill , he says , •*« There is a dim type of all melancholy human labour in it—catching the free grinds and setting them to turn grindstones . It is poor work for the winds ; better indeed than drowning sailors or tearing down forests , but not their proper work of marshalling the clouds and bearing the wholesome rams to
. the place where they are ordered to fall , and fanning the flowers ana leaves when they are faint with heat . Turning round a couple of stones , for the mere pulverization of human food , is not noble work for the winds . " Note how entirely this is the poet ' s wayward mood and method of interpreting things . In a poem the thought would be acceptable ; in prose , where we look for truth , not moods , it is instantly called in question . The mind at once declares that to pulverize food for man is work quite as noble as to bear the wholesome rains to the place where they may assist in the growth of that food , and infinitely nobler than the mere " marshalling of clouds , " to vary a landscape or please the poet ' s eye . Mr . Ruskin has a great horror of the word " subjective , " otherwise we should tell him that mucli of tho error of lis writing consists in hia not sufficiently discriminating between his subjective impressions , and those of others ; and especially in his giving way to them too much as if they were absolute and final .
But instead of criticizing , it is pleasantcr to listen to him . How eloquently he discourses on mountains and their uses as well as their beauty 1 Their first use , he tells us , is to give motion to water . " Every fountain and river , from the inch-deep streamlet that crosses the village lane in trembling clearness to the massy and silent march of the everlasting multitude of waters in Amazon ¦ or Ganges , owe their play , their purity , and power , to tho ordained elevations of the earth . Gentle or steep , extended or abrupt , some determined slope of the earth ' s surface is of course necessary before any wave can overtake one sedge in its pilgrimage ; and how seldom do we enougjh consider , as we walk beside the margins of our pleasant brooks , how beautiful and wonderful is thai ordinance , ofwhich every blado of grass that waves in the clear water i * a perpetual sign , that the dew and the rain fallen on tho earth shall findatodresting-place ; shall find , on the contrary , fixed channels traced for them , from tfee ravines of the central crests down which tkey roar in sudden rank * af foam to the dark hollows beneath tho banks of lowland pasture , round which , they must circle slowly amonir the stems and beneath the leaves of the lilies . " On a future occasion we must borrow from him some valuable remarks on Art generally i a Bubject on which ho is always heard with advantage .
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volumes with of 4 THE LEA P E R ,. [ No . 322 , Saturday ,
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THE PRODUCTIVE FORCES OF RUSSIA . Commentaries on the Productive Forces of Russia . Vol . II . By M . L . de Tegoborski London : Longman and Co . We have already , in our remarks on M . Tegoborski ' s first volume , published last year , limited tho extent of confidence that ought to be reposed in the statistics of the present work . We showed that his figures depended upon official statements which he himself was obliged to admit were incomplete and in many instances incorrect ; that he confidently arrived at many a grand total which in detail he entirely overthrew ,- that he added , subtracted multiplied , and divided his amounts , if not at random , at pleasure ; and that he was constantly producing results which were not for a moment tenable . We showed that these guesses at truths , in works affecting to be statistical , were worse than valueless ; that while they misled the economist on most important returns , they presented the appearance of work done , and thus delayed the collection of reliable information .
M . Tegoborski in his second volume deals equally lightly with his fi gures , whilst he presents us with a further description of the textile manufactures of Russia , —of its fabrication of woollen , silk , and cotton goods , —its chemical products , the yield of its iron mines , its paper factories , its tanneries . To these are appended the official returns of the domestic and foreign commerce of the kingdom . With all his statistical errors we must give M . Tegoborski credit for the earnestness with which , as far as a Russian councillor of state can do so , he pleads for the development of industry in all its branches . We feel that he is sincere when he points out
the impolicy of the present system of duties levied nominally for the protection of trade , but which really impede its operations ; and when he reproves the want of skill and honesty which signally characterises the manufacturers of some of the most important articles of commerce . In the manufacture of woollen cloths we find accusations brought against both the wool-grower and the manufacturer . We are- informed that it is a practice amongst the majority of the flock-masters , who only look to the gain of the moment , to mix the fleeces of the living and the dead animal together ; that the wool is washed in hot water after it has been shorn from the backs
of the sheep , and that the scouring is effected with fuller s earth , which injures the fibre , whilst the assortment consists in the agglomeration of heterogeneous qualities . We further learn , on the authority of M . Ilayemeister , that with a view of economising labour and raw material , the manufacturer weaves slightly ; that the warp is not sufficiently stretched ; that the cloth is not properly fulled ; that to soften it , it is so strongly impregnated with steam that it contracts a disagreeable odour ; that in spinning the yarn , oil is applied but sparingly ; and that in the dyeing , mordant acids are made use of which inevitably deteriorate the wool .
In the city of Moscow and its neighbourhood it appears there are ninetythree factories , working 3 , 667 looms , and employing 10 , 783 workmen . In the other districts of Moscow there are thirty-nine factories , with 2778 looms , and 12 , 133 workmen , making a total of 132 factories , 6445 looms , and 22 , 916 workmen . Next to the government of Moscow , the government of TschernigofF possesses tho greatest number of cloth-factories , but there are no statistics to indicate either the number of looms or the number of hands employed . Again , we are informed that cloths are woven in the scataccount is find
tered villages of the various districts ofwhich no kept , yet we that the gross value of the woollen goods manufactured in Russia is estimated at 46 , 000 , 000 silver roubles , and that 300 , 000 persons are engaged in this particular branch of industry . An apology , it is true , follows this statement , for M . Tegoborski acknowledges that he has taken these manufactures in their largest acceptation ; but it would at least have savoured of a meritorious diffidence if M . Tegoborski had stated upon what grounds the difference between 22 , 916 and 300 , 000 , or in other words , how 277 , 084 hands are to be accounted for , seeing that not one-fifteenth of the gross calculation
has been statistically verified . We have heard much of the virtue of an if , but we never so thoroughly appreciated its importance until we met with it in M . Tegoborski ' s work in company with Arabic numerals , which it twists and turns about with all the facility of a magician ' s rod . M . Tegoborski wishes to build up a total or a particular amount . Nothing is easier . The sum is given ; and away flies the magic if to work at once , to support the dogmatic "it is estimated , " " it is assumed ; " " it must be . " Take page 152 of this volume : we have , " Of the vintage , which we have valued at 7 , 700 , 000 , we may assume that half , or , in round numbers , four millions , " &e . ; " ^ of the crude produce of the meadows we will reckon but a tenth , " &c . ; " the flax and hemp crop must amount to , " &c . ; " the product of the forests has been approximately estimated at 135 millions ; // we reckon a third , " &c . ; tue annual return from large cattle wo have estimated at 100 millions of roubles , and the portion of this coming into commerce we viay safely estimate at twofifths&c" It is thusthat upon estimates without any reliable foundation , \ % tm % f
, . , IllVUOi uyy « . a . V m *^ . m ^ --ry » - — - » — j ^ - - ^ " 11 * M . Te « -oborski attempts to raise sum-totals to the tune of many millions , and endeavours to convince us of the rapidly growing prosperity ot 1 " 9 country . It is not well , however , that his patriotism or enthusiasm , wlncnevcr it may be , should carry him away into statements ho cannot substantiate . Tho very object ho has in view—the development of the manufactures and the resources of Russia—would be better attained by a more modest table of figures , ajustor estimate of facts . In Eng land the Ooveinment returns , avo may presume , are as reliable as any wo may meet wiui elsewhere , yet every one knows tho omissions and tho nddilioiiH that constantly occur , and render statistical registers anything but records ol unquestionable certainty . How much more difficult must tho collection ol trul . " " ful accounts bo in a vast , thinly-populated , ill-governed empire like Jtussii , whore officials are privileged to look after their own interest . s first , Mio goo < of their country second , and where detection is neither desired nor very
practicable . r n ( i Having thus done our duty by warning tho reader against tho ligmy »> the assumptions ho will meet with in M / Iegoborski ' s volumes , wo are bounii to Bay-they are not without interest , though ton groat extent valuoics s the eyes of tho economist . His descriptions of the processes of spinning " weaving , tho preparation of leather , the fabrication of paper , &c ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), May 24, 1856, page 498, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2142/page/18/
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