the causeway, saw for the first time the towers of some famed city, faint in the rays of sunset.' These 'hours of peaceful and thoughtful pleasure' were important elements in Ruskin's education. The first sight of the snowy Alps (in 1833) opened, he savs, a new life to him, 'to cease no more except at the gates of the hills whence one returns not. It is not possible to imagine, in any time of the world, a more blessed entrance into life, for a child of such temperament as mine... For me the Alps and their people were alike beautiful in their snow and their humanity ; and I wanted neither for them nor myself sight of any thrones in heaven but the rocks, or of any spirits in heaven but the clouds. I went down that evening from the garden terrace of Schaffhausen with my destiny fixed in all of it that was to be sacred and useful.' With the study of nature—associated through drawing and took great delight in scientific romantic literature with memories of human valour and passion—that of art went hand in hand. His inspection of the chief pictorial treasures of Great Britain was now disciplined by close study in the great galleries of Europe. Those of Vienna, Madrid, and St. Petersburg must be excepted ; nor did Ruskin ever visit Holland—a neglect which may perhaps partly explain his lack of sympathy with the Dutch schools. For his early study of them he was largely dependent on the Dulwich Gallery, which was close to his home and from which he drew so many references in 'Modern Painters.'
The more formal part of Ruskin's education was less fortunate. He once suggested for his epitaph the curse of Reuben : 'Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel,' and said, ' It is strange % that I hardly ever get anything stated without some grave mistake, however true in my main discoveries.' There was nothing in his early education to drill him into exact scholarship or encourage concentration. Up to the age of ten his mother taught him. A classical tutor was then called in. He was Dr. Andrews, father of Coventry Patmore's first wife. After her marriage Ruskin became a friend of the poet, and wrote enthusiastically in praise of 'The Angel in the House.' Andrews was impressed by the boy's precocity, and wanted to take him on to Hebrew before he was well grounded in Greek. Another tutor, Mr. Rowbotham, taught him French and mathematics. Ruskin had a fair conversational knowledge of French, and was always a reader of French literature. Of mathematics he was fond, and this was the branch of his early studies which gave him least trouble. Next Ruskin went for part of two years to a day school at Camberwell, kept by the Rev. Thomas Dale (1797-1870) [q. v.] His school course was interrupted by an attack of pleurisy. He afterwards attended lectures three times a week at King's College. His first drawing master (1831) was Mr. Runciman ; later, he had lessons from Copley Fielding and J. D. Harding. But the decisive influence in this sort was the acquisition in 1832, as a birthday present from Mr. Telford, of a copy of Rogers's 'Italy' with Turner's vignettes. He set to work at once to copy them, and from that day forth Turner obtained his whole allegiance.
In October 1836 Ruskin matriculated at Oxford, and in the following term went into residence as a 'gentleman-commoner' at Christ Church. At Oxford as elsewhere his studies were diffusive. He kept up his work with Buckland (then a canon of Christ Church). His Latin, he says, was the worst in the university, and to the end of his career he ' never could get into his head where the Pelasgi lived or the Heraclidse returned from.' A private tutor, Osborne Gordon, was employed to patch up such holes, and in recognition of Gordon's services Ruskin's father gave 5,000l. for the augmentation of Christ Church livings. In 'pure scholarship' Ruskin never attained any proficiency. His love of Greek literature lasted throughout his life. To Plato especially he was strongly attached, for 'the sense of the presence of the Deity in all things, great or small, which always runs in a solemn undercurrent beneath his exquisite playfulness and irony' (Stones of Venice, li. ch. 8. The influence of Plato upon Ruskin has been traced in a pamphlet by William Smart, 1883). In the Oxford of Ruskin's day little heed was paid to Greek art or archaeology, and he 'never loved the arts of Greece as others have' (Lectures on Art, § 111), though in after years he devoted some attention to the subject. His 'Aratra Pentelici ' (1872) gives his views on Greek sculpture. It abounds in clever aperqus, but his thesis that Greek artists did not aim at ideal beauty cannot be accepted. His analysis of the myths of Athena as the life-giving and spirit-inspiring 'Queen of the Air' (1869) often shows real insight, but is fanciful. The first section of the book is headed 'Athena Chalinitis,' but Ruskin 'never laid to heart the significance of the Greek quality of restraint which this epithet ascribes to the goddess' Norton). Among his Oxford friends and contemporaries was (Sir) Charles Newton [q. v.
