15, "with useless precision" omitted; lines 16, 17, "fasten" and "with decent strength" omitted; line 18, "He" not italicised. § 152, line 14, no italics. § 153, lines 28, 29, "it" for "he does," "know" omitted, and "any evil" for "for disease." § 153, author's second footnote, in the last line "42" is a misprint in all previous editions for "12." § 154, line 7, "promise anything" for "hope." § 155, author's footnote, lines 3 and 4, in Fraser: "Men are apt to watch rather the exchanges in a state than its damages; but the exchanges are only of importance so far as they bring about these last. A large In eds. 1-3 as in the present text; in the later editions "IS" was not printed in capitals. § 155, footnote, line 11, "fact" for "reality"; line 16, see p. 279 n. § 158, quotation from Carlyle, see p. 280 n. § 159, line 6, "then" for "secondly"; line 9, "icewards" and "sunwards" transposed; line 10, "you" inserted after "given"; line 14, “you have" for "it has"; line 17, see p. 282 n. § 160, line 6, see p. 282 n. Appendices.—Introductory passage added in 1872. and 23, "... of the results of the want of education of large masses of nations in principles of justice"; and see below, p. 286 n. ; line 25, “among nations, is" for "prove." For other, and more extensive, alterations in this Appendix, see pp. 285, 286 nn. Appendix ii.-This Appendix appeared in the original essays as a footnote to § 34 (at our line 3). Lines 9 and 10, see p. 287 n. ; line 13, ". . . for bitter, so betraying the first of all Loyalties. . ."; line 15, "serving" for "serve," and " 'dwelling" for "House"; line 16, see p. 287 n.; line 21, "image- or likeness-breaking" for "image-breaking"; line 23, "in resolution or persuasion" for "to do, or persuade to doing"; last line, "a phantasm" for "an imagination." Appendix iii.—This appeared in the original essays as a footnote to § 37 (at our line 14). Lines 1-3, "I reserve until the completion of these papers any support, by the authority of other writers, of the statements made in them; indeed were such authorities wisely sought for and shown, there would be . . ."; line 8, "seven" for "a hundred "; line 9, "exclaimed " for "revolted"; line 15, "preceding" inserted before " passages"; end of the Appendix, see p. 288 n. Appendix iv.-This appeared in the original essays as a footnote to $ 40. Lines 20-21, “ purity of bodily ailment, as well as of religious conviction? Why, having . . ."; line 22," they may" for "may they"; line 24, "spiritual" for "theological"; line 27, "inconvenient," for "inapplicable"; end of the Appendix, see p. 289 n. Appendix v.-For the place of this and the following Appendix in the original essays, see p. 290 n. Lines 6-7, "usual useful ingenuity" for "customary helpfulness"; lines 12-13, ". . . myths, respecting them all I have but this to say: Even . . ."; line 18, "high" for "mute"; line 20, see p. 291 n.; last line, "no" not italicised. Appendix vi.-Line 4, "even" for "often much"; line 18, "in the daytime" for "at noon."] 192 NATIONAL MISCHIEVOUS LUXURIOUS. OF WAGE-FUND DISTRIBUTIVE APPORTIONED AND CLAIMING AND VALUING AND CHOOSING WITHOUT EXCHANGE THE RIGHT OF IT 1 [In all editions hitherto the "Contents" have been merely "Chap. I. Definitions," "II. Store-Keeping," and so on; but in eds. 1 and 2 Ruskin indicated the contents of the various pages by additions to the headlines, thus: "Chap. I. Definitions (Economy)," "Chap. II. Store-Keeping (Of Good Things)," and so on. In later editions (owing to the re-setting of the text) these descriptive headlines were abandoned, and here also it has been found impossible so to give them; but the above list preserves them in a different form. The titles of the Appendices are, however, supplied by the editors, as no descriptive headlines were given to them in eds. 1 and 2.] XVII. 129 I 1 PREFACE 1. THE following pages contain, I believe, the first accurate analysis of the laws of Political Economy which has been published in England. Many treatises, within their scope, correct, have appeared in contradiction of the views popularly received;1 but no exhaustive examination of the subject was possible to any person unacquainted with the value of the products of the highest industries, commonly called the "Fine Arts"; and no one acquainted with the nature of those industries has, so far as I know, attempted, or even approached, the task. 2 So that, to the date (1863) when these Essays were published, not only the chief conditions of the production of wealth had remained unstated, but the nature of wealth itself had never been defined. "Every one has a notion, sufficiently correct for common purposes, of what is meant by wealth," wrote Mr. Mill, in the outset of his treatise; and contentedly proceeded, as if a chemist should proceed to investigate the laws of chemistry without endeavouring to ascertain the nature of fire or water, because every one had a notion of them, "sufficiently correct for common purposes." 2. But even that apparently indisputable statement was untrue. There is not one person in ten thousand who has [As Ruskin was almost certainly not familiar with the works of the German Historical School of Economists, he probably was thinking here of such English treatises as that of Richard Jones on Rent (1831), attacking Ricardo, and John Lalor's Money and Morals (1852). Perhaps he was thinking also of Carlyle's various assaults on the dismal science" (see Ruskin's letter to Dr. John Brown quoted above, p. xxxiv.).] [See Unto this Last, Preface, § 2; above, p. 18.] a notion sufficiently correct, even for the commonest purposes, of "what is meant" by wealth; still less of what wealth everlastingly is, whether we mean it or not; which it is the business of every student of economy to ascertain. We, indeed, know (either by experience or in imagination) what it is to be able to provide ourselves with luxurious food, and handsome clothes; and if Mr. Mill had thought that wealth consisted only in these, or in the means of obtaining these, it would have been easy for him to have so defined it with perfect scientific accuracy. But he knew better he knew that some kinds of wealth consisted in the possession, or power of obtaining, other things than these; but, having, in the studies of his life, no clue to the principles of essential value, he was compelled to take public opinion as the ground of his science; and the public, of course, willingly accepted the notion of a science founded on their opinions. 3. I had, on the contrary, a singular advantage, not only in the greater extent of the field of investigation opened to me by my daily pursuits, but in the severity of some lessons I accidentally received in the course of them. 1 When, in the winter of 1851, I was collecting materials for my work on Venetian architecture, three of the pictures of Tintoret on the roof of the School of St. Roch were hanging down in ragged fragments, mixed with lath and plaster, round the apertures made by the fall of three Austrian heavy shot. The city of Venice was not, it appeared, rich enough to repair the damage that winter; and buckets were set on the floor of the upper room of the school to catch the rain, which not only fell directly through the shot holes, but found its way, owing to the generally pervious state of the roof, through many of the canvases of Tintoret in other parts of the ceiling. 4. It was a lesson to me, as I have just said, no less 1 [For other references to this incident, see Vol. XII. p. 421, and Vol. XVI. p. 76 n.; and for similar neglect in 1846, Vol. IV. pp. 40, 395, and Vol. X. p. 437.] |