prejudiced and inconsequent in thought, he became one of the great
influences of the day, and wielded not only power but real
domination. The widespread delusion of the English educated
classes, that they are interested in art, was of Ruskin's making.
Then something very serious happened to him; a baffled passion of
extraordinary intensity, a perception of the realities of life, the
consciousness that his public indulged and humoured him as his
parents had done, and admired his artistic advice without paying
the smallest heed to his ethical principles--all these experiences
broke over him, wearied as he was with excessive strain, like a
bitter wave. But his pessimism took the noble form of an intense
concern with the blindness and impenetrability of the world at
large. He made a theory of political economy, which, peremptory and
prejudiced as it is, is yet built on large lines, and has been
fruitful in suggestiveness. But he tasted discouragement and
failure in deep draughts. His parents frankly expressed their
bewildered disappointment, his public looked upon him as a perverse
man who was throwing away a beautiful message for the sake of a
crabbed whim; and he fell into a fierce depression, alternating
between savage energy and listless despondency, which lasted for
several years, till at last the overwrought brain and mind gave
way; and for the rest of his life he was liable to recurrent
attacks of insanity, which cleared off and left him normal again,
or as normal as he ever had been. Wide and eager as Ruskin's
tenderness was, one feels that his heart was never really engaged;
he was always far away, in a solitude full of fear, out of the
reach of affection, always solemnly and mournfully alone. Ruskin
was never really allied with any other human soul; he knew most of
the great men of the day; he baited Rossetti, he petted Carlyle; he
had correspondents like Norton, to whom he poured out his