xxxvi INTRODUCTION

wearisome than the labour of composition, and if the public are at all pleased with the book, I may say they have got it, by your means, much sooner than it would otherwise have reached them. I have not heard a whisper from a single soul as to whether it is liked or not. It is not a favourable moment for works of this kind. The public mind is in a state of anxiety and agitation about politics and trade, that must prevent it receiving any discussions on the Arts with favour or attention.

A letter from Ruskin himself to W. H. Harrison, already referred to (p. xxxv.), is printed in an Appendix, in further proof of the care and trouble which that faithful friend expended in relieving the author of the drudgery of correction for the press.

The fears of Ruskin’s father that the new book might pass unnoticed in the political pre-occupations of the day were not justified by the event. The successive editions of the two volumes of Modern Painters had by this time established Ruskin’s reputation, and the announcement, in the publisher’s advertisement, of a new work from his pen had excited lively anticipation. “I congratulate you,” wrote Charlotte Brontë, “on the approaching publication of Mr. Ruskin’s new work. If The Seven Lamps of Architecture resemble their predecessor, Modern Painters, they will be no lamps at all, but a new constellation,-seven bright stars, for whose rising the reading world ought to be anxiously agape.”¹ As soon as the reviews began to come in, the anxiety of Ruskin’s father was completely laid to rest. During a portion of the tour of 1849, Ruskin went for an expedition to Courmayeur by himself. The following are extracts from letters written to him by his father-sometimes ingenuous in their enthusiasm, sometimes not without their paternal barb:-

(GENEVA, July 29.)-“Miss Tweddale says your book has made a great sensation.” (31st): “Thiers has surprised and delighted the Chamber of Deputies by your doctrine of no such thing as Liberty. I think he has borrowed” ... (August 4): “The Spectator, which Smith sets great value on, has an elaborate favourable notice on ‘Seven Lamps,’ only ascribing an infirmity of temper, quoting railroad passage in proof.² Anne was told by American family servant that you were in American paper, and got it for us, the New York Tribune of July 13; first article is your book. They say they are willing to be learners from, rather than critics of, such a book, etc. The Daily News³ (some of the Punch people’s paper) has a capital notice. It begins:

¹ This extract is a continuation of a letter already cited: see Vol. IV. p. xxxix.

² July 28, 1849.

³ July 31, 1849.

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