Pearls for young ladies

Front matter

DDDom^bflfia j

PEARLS

FOR YOUNG LADIES.

Preface

One of the most brilliant, discursive, and original authors of the present century is the celebrated John Ruskin, LL.D., Professor of Art in Oxford University, England.

Having explored Nature, from the highest clouds floating above the earth, to the tiniest moss clinging to its surface ; he has written a series of books, describing the whole realm with the imagination of a poet, and the profound knowledge of a physiologist* .« *

Mr. ^us ; km-s; talent ; and taste for Art might have rendered him famous as an artist; he preferred giving to the world, by his writings, the knowledge of architecture, sculpture and painting, acquired by keen observation and extensive study of the works of artists, ancient and modern.

In his later and recent writings it has been his design to act upon human life in its social, domestic and personal relations, so as to correct in

IV

PREFACE.

it what is corrupt and vicious and to impart wisdom and goodness.

Mr. Ruskin's works are so voluminous, that very few private libraries and not many public libraries contain them all; hence selections from them have been acceptable to general readers.

The present volume, for young ladies, has been gathered from thousands of pages of his later works — letters, advice, sentiments, examples, and general principles; " Pearls" from an ocean of thought. L. C. T.

Princeton, August 28th, 1878.

Introduction

Very few young ladies know anything of Mr. Ruskin, excepting that he is a celebrated author. They may, therefore, be glad to learn something of his early life — his aims, and his success in after years, as seen from his own point of view.

His violent invectives against what he believes to be wrong-thinking and wrong-doing, have led to a misapprehension of his personality.

An American lady, while travelling in England not long since, met a lady who resides near Mr. Ruskin, at Denmark Hill. The English lady said : " Mr. Ruskin is the kindest and best of neighbors ; we all love him."

l. c. T.

" Though like a lion in his wrath, He was as gentle too; A little flow'r was on his path, — He spared it, — kind Sir Hugh ! " ' Upon his shield a castle tall ; And plain to ev'ry eye His motto, blazon'd on the wall: Amicis et mihi."

Old Ballad.

INDEX,

A UTOBIOGRAPHY.

Blessings of childhood,

Cause of the bias of after life," .

Characteristics; Free will,

Dates and teaching of different works,

Designed for the Church, .

Dominant calamities,

Early church-going; his sermon,

Early reading, ....

Effect of failure,

Effects of this study,

Faults of education ; nurse Anne,

His father; travels with him, .

Introduction, ....

Juvenile poem,

Learning the Bible by heart,

Lessons; effect of independence,

List of chapters committed to memory,

Manner of studying the Bible, .

Meeting with James Forbes,

Patience of his mother,

Playthings; house and garden, ,

The art gift inherited,

Unsympathetic friends,

PAGE XX

xiv xxxvii

XXXV

XV

xxi

xv i

XXV

xxxix xxx

xxiii

xiii

v

xxxiv

xxv

xviii

xxx

xxviii

xxxi

xxvi

xvii

xxxiii

xxxviii

V1I1 INDEX.

EDUCA TION.

PAGE

Advice to a young girl, i

Astronomy, Geometry, Arithmetic, .... 104

Beginning of education, 178

Books of the hour, etc., . . . . . .12

Choice of books, 18

Civil law, Christian law, ...... 107

Derivation of words, ...... 19

Devotional and dogmatic theology, .... 108

False modesty — Dress, ...... 68

Grammar, 101

Guardian angels, 283

Healthy reading, . . . . . . .281

Kind of education for women, 8 . . . .42

Lady Jane Grey, ....... 233

Lessons from crystals, 52

Letter to a young lady on dress, . . . . 222

Liberty not independence, . . . . .135

Literature for girls, ....... 47

Music and patience, . 51

Practical theology, 107

Reverence and compassion, ..... 109

Rhetoric, 101

St. George's orders to a school-girl, . . . 239

Sugar-tongs, 20

The moment of choice, ...... 98

Waste of vital power, ...... 49

WOMAN.

A wife's notion, • 238

Courage, gentleness, courtesy, . • . .92

Dress for beholders, . . • • . . 257

INDEX. IX

PAGE

Employment for women, 163

Evidence of facts given by the human heart, . . 36

Games of life, 85

Greek heroines, 33

Kingly and queenly, 24

Letter on woman's work, 205

Mischievous fair ones, 277

Noble tribute to woman, 22

Poem of a Knight of Pisa, 32

^Scott's idea of woman, 30

Shakespeare's heroines, ...... 28

" testimony to woman, . . . .30

Testimony of Dante, 31

The best women the most difficult to know, . .22 The industrious princess, . . . e . .257

The Madonna, 208

Three women who formed the mind of Scott, . .178

Wise expenditure, 134

Woman's function not determining, . . . .39

Woman's guiding power, 34

Woman's influence in the game of war, . . .87

Woman's rights, 26

Young unmarried women, 236

NATURE AND ART.

Blossom of the thorn, 133

Condition of good work, 83

Definition of an artist, ...... 236

Gradation of life, . . , . , „ .71

Healthy art, . .97

Importance of accuracy, . . . . . .95

Meaning of creation, 162

Music and dancing, no

X INDEX.

PAGE

Perfection of music, . 114

Perversion of art, 112

Plant-pets, 21 S

Plants and their teaching, . . . . .129

Power of painting, . . . . . . .281

Right art a teacher, 74

Starlight, 275

The bird, embodied spirit, 79

The shaping power, . . . . . . .77

True architecture, 149

NARRATIVE AND CRITICISM.

Alice of Salisbury, 258

Author of the Mirror of Peasants y . . . .172 Carpaccio's Princess, ...... 145

Destiny and providence, 278

Fellow-travellers, ....... 248

Giotto's " Poverty," . . . . . . 213

Gotthelf's "Hansli," 185

Heart of Midlothian, . . . . . .279

Largesse or generosity, . . . . . .213

Main use of works of fiction, . . . . .155

Saint Ursula, ........ 26a

Sir Walter Scott, 176

Sympathy necessary to comprehension, . . .153

Three great divisions of life, 177

Tobias, . 270

Toni'sdog, 274

True story from the journal of an Englishman, . 166 " Une paire de gants," 229