JOHN RUSKIN
MODERN PAINTERS
MODERN PAINTERS
VOL.II
"OF IDEAS OF BEAUTY"
AND
"OF THE IMAGINATIVE FACULTY"
By JOHN RUSKIN, LLD.,
HONORARY STUDENT OF CHRIST CHURCH, OXFORD, AND
HONORARY FELLOW OF CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE,
OXFORD.
"Accuse me not
Of arrogance,....
If, having walked with Nature,
And offered, far as frailty would allow,
My heart a daily sacrifice to Truth,
I now affirm of Nature and of Truth,
Whom I have served, that their Divinity
Revolts, offended at the ways of men. <...> Philosophers, who, though the human soul
Be of a thousand faculties composed,
And twice ten thousand interests, do yet prize
This soul, and the transcendent universe,
No more than as a mirror that reflects
To proud Self-love her own intelligence."
WORDSWORTH
RE-ARRANGED IN TWO VOLUMES, AND REVISED BY THE
AUTHOR
VOL. II
SIXTH EDITION
GEORGE ALLEN, SUNNYSIDE, ORPINGTON
AND
156, CHARING CROSS ROAD, LONDON
1896
[All rights reserved]
CONTENTS. <...> In revising this terminal division of m former second
volume, I find less to be corrected or condemned than in the
previous chapters; but far more, were it conveniently now
possible, to be supplied. <...> The treatment of this part of the subject
is not only incomplete, but involves the omission of all the most
important practical questions in the useless curiosity of
analysis: just as a common anatomist describes the action of
muscles in walking, without thereby helping anybody to walk;
or those of a bird's wing in flying, without defining the angles
of its stroke to the air. <...> I have thus examined at tedious length
the various actions of human conception and memory, without
helping any one to conceive, or to remember; and, at least in
this part of the book, scarcely touching at all on the primary
questions (both moral and intellectual) how far the will has
power over the imagination. <...> It was perhaps in reality fortunate
that I should not have entered on these higher inquiries till I
was older and more experienced; nor shall I now attempt to
remedy such defects by hasty patching of the text or fortuitous
addition of notes to it. <...> One or two introductory observations
may, however <...>
Modern_painters6_ed_Of_ideas_of_beauty_and_of_the_imaginative_faculty,_Vol._2._Vol._2,_Vol._2.pdf
JOHN RUSKIN
MODERN PAINTERS
Стр.1
MODERN PAINTERS
VOL.II
"OF IDEAS OF BEAUTY"
AND
"OF THE IMAGINATIVE FACULTY"
By JOHN RUSKIN, LLD.,
HONORARY STUDENT OF CHRIST CHURCH, OXFORD, AND
HONORARY FELLOW OF CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE,
OXFORD.
"Accuse me not
Of arrogance,....
If, having walked with Nature,
And offered, far as frailty would allow,
My heart a daily sacrifice to Truth,
I now affirm of Nature and of Truth,
Whom I have served, that their Divinity
Revolts, offended at the ways of men.
Philosophers, who, though the human soul
Be of a thousand faculties composed,
And twice ten thousand interests, do yet prize
This soul, and the transcendent universe,
No more than as a mirror that reflects
To proud Self-love her own intelligence."
WORDSWORTH
RE-ARRANGED IN TWO VOLUMES, AND REVISED BY THE
AUTHOR
VOL. II
SIXTH EDITION
GEORGE ALLEN, SUNNYSIDE, ORPINGTON
AND
156, CHARING CROSS ROAD, LONDON
1896
[All rights reserved]
Стр.2
CONTENTS.
CONTENTS........................................................................................1
MODERN PAINTERS. .....................................................................2
PART III. .............................................................................................2
OF THE IMAGINATIVE FACULTY...................................2
INTRODUCTORY NOTE......................................2
CHAPTER I.........................................................................6
Of the Three Forms of Imagination.6
CHAPTER II. ....................................................................12
Of Imagination Associative. ..................................12
CHAPTER III. ...................................................................29
Of Imagination Penetrative....................................29
CHAPTER IV. ...................................................................59
Of Imagination Contemplative. .............................59
CHAPTER V......................................................................78
Of the Superhuman Ideal.......................................78
ADDENDA. .......................................................................92
EPILOGUE.......................................................................98
1
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MODERN PAINTERS.
PART III.
OF THE IMAGINATIVE FACULTY
INTRODUCTORY NOTE.
In revising this terminal division of m former second
volume, I find less to be corrected or condemned than in the
previous chapters; but far more, were it conveniently now
possible, to be supplied. The treatment of this part of the subject
is not only incomplete, but involves the omission of all the most
important
practical questions
in
the useless curiosity
of
analysis: just as a common anatomist describes the action of
muscles in walking, without thereby helping anybody to walk;
or those of a bird's wing in flying, without defining the angles
of its stroke to the air. I have thus examined at tedious length
the various actions of human conception and memory, without
helping any one to conceive, or to remember; and, at least in
this part of the book, scarcely touching at all on the primary
questions (both moral and intellectual) how far the will has
power over the imagination. It was perhaps in reality fortunate
that I should not have entered on these higher inquiries till I
was older and more experienced; nor shall I now attempt to
remedy such defects by hasty patching of the text or fortuitous
addition of notes to it. One or two introductory observations
may, however, make this imperfect essay more useful, so far as
it reaches.
In the first place, the reader must be warned not to
trouble himself with the distinctions, attempted, or alluded to,
between Fancy and Imagination. The subject is
jaded, the
matter of it insignificant, and the settlement of it practically
impossible, not merely because everybody has his own theory,
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MODERN PAINTERS
Introductory note
but also because nobody ever states his own in terms on which
other people are agreed. I am myself now entirely indifferent
which word I use; and should say of a work of art that it was
well "fancied," or well "invented," or well "imagined," with
only some shades of different meaning in the application of the
terms, rather dependent on the matter treated, than the power of
mind involved in the treatment. I might agree with Sir Piercie
Shafton that his doublet was well fancied, or that his figure of
speech was well conceived, and might perhaps reserve the word
"Imagined" for the design of an angel's dress by Giotto, or the
choice of a simile by Dante. But such distinctions are scarcely
more than varieties of courtesy or dignity in the use of words;
and I could not in essential nature of faculty distinguish Sir
Piercie's designing from Giotto's, except, as I said, with respect
to the matter of it; and the fixture of his attention rather on the
dress than the angel. Briefly, the power of the human mind to
invent circumstances, forms, or scenes, at its pleasure, may be
generally and properly called "imagination;" while the especial
power of intellect required to handle the different subjects of
invention, varies in so many modes that it is of no use to try to
find words for them. Sir Piercie (to keep to one example) is at
no loss for new metaphors, or for new patterns of colour, but he
is struck dumb when required to invent a story; and stands
helpless by, hearing with mere amazement Mysie Happer's
flowing relation to the enquiring landlord, "that Ball, her
palfrey, had fallen by the way, because he had been overwrought
with carrying home the last melder of meal to the
portioner of Longhope, and that she had turned in Ball to graze
in the Taskers' Park, near Cripplecross, for he had stood as still
as Lot's wife with very weariness; and that the knight had
courteously insisted she should ride behind him, and that she
had brought him to her kind friend's hostelry rather than to
proud Peter Peddie's, who got his malt at the Mellerstane Mills;
and that he must get the best the house afforded, and that he
must get it ready in a moment of time, and that she was ready to
help in the kitchen." It seems to me, indeed, probable, from my
general experience, and observation, that the distinction thus
implied by Scott between the gifts of ornamental design, and of
circumstantial invention, may be well-grounded, and perhaps
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