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I. PRIDE OF SCIENCE. II. ROMAN RENAISSANCE. 53
human form; while all good knowledge is like the crct-
sader's chain mail, which throws itself into folds with the body,
yet it is rarely so forged as that the clasps and rivets do not
gall us. All men feel this, though they do not think of it,
nor reason out its consequences. They look back to the days
of childhood as of greatest happiness, because those were the
days of greatest wonder, greatest simplicity, and most vigorous imagination. And the whole difference between a man of
genius and other men, it has been said a thousand times, and
most truly, is that the first remains in great part a child, seeing with the large eyes of children, in perpetual wonder, not
conscious of much knowledge,—conscious, rather, of infinite
ignorance, and yet infinite power; a fountain of eternal admiration, delight, and creative force within him meeting the
ocean of visible and governable things around him.
That is what we have to make men, so far as we may. All
are to be men of genius in their degree,—rivulets or rivers, it
does not matter, so that the souls be clear and pure; not dead
walls encompassing dead heaps of things known and numbered, but running waters in the sweet wilderness of things
unnumbered and unknown, conscious only of the living banks,
on which they partly refresh and partly reflect the flowers,
and so pass on.
§ xxix. Let each man answer for himself how far his knowledge has made him this, or how far it is loaded upon him as
the pyramid is upon the tomb. Let him consider, also, how
much of it has cost him labor and time that might have been
spent in healthy, happy action, beneficial to all mankind;
how many living souls may have been left uncomforted and
unhelped by him, while his own eyes were failing by the midnight lamp; how many warm sympathies have died within)
him as he measured lines or counted letters; how many)
draughts of ocean air, and steps on mountain-turf, and open-\
ings of the highest heaven he has lost for his knowledge; how.
much of that knowledge, so dearly bought, is now forgotten
or despised, leaving only the capacity of wonder less within
him, and, as it happens in a thousand instances, perhaps even
| Title | The stones of Venice - 3 |
| Creator | Ruskin, John |
| Publisher | J. Wiley |
| Place of Publication | New York |
| Date | 1889 |
| Language | eng |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Title | 00000067 |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Transcript | I. PRIDE OF SCIENCE. II. ROMAN RENAISSANCE. 53 human form; while all good knowledge is like the crct- sader's chain mail, which throws itself into folds with the body, yet it is rarely so forged as that the clasps and rivets do not gall us. All men feel this, though they do not think of it, nor reason out its consequences. They look back to the days of childhood as of greatest happiness, because those were the days of greatest wonder, greatest simplicity, and most vigorous imagination. And the whole difference between a man of genius and other men, it has been said a thousand times, and most truly, is that the first remains in great part a child, seeing with the large eyes of children, in perpetual wonder, not conscious of much knowledge,—conscious, rather, of infinite ignorance, and yet infinite power; a fountain of eternal admiration, delight, and creative force within him meeting the ocean of visible and governable things around him. That is what we have to make men, so far as we may. All are to be men of genius in their degree,—rivulets or rivers, it does not matter, so that the souls be clear and pure; not dead walls encompassing dead heaps of things known and numbered, but running waters in the sweet wilderness of things unnumbered and unknown, conscious only of the living banks, on which they partly refresh and partly reflect the flowers, and so pass on. § xxix. Let each man answer for himself how far his knowledge has made him this, or how far it is loaded upon him as the pyramid is upon the tomb. Let him consider, also, how much of it has cost him labor and time that might have been spent in healthy, happy action, beneficial to all mankind; how many living souls may have been left uncomforted and unhelped by him, while his own eyes were failing by the midnight lamp; how many warm sympathies have died within) him as he measured lines or counted letters; how many) draughts of ocean air, and steps on mountain-turf, and open-\ ings of the highest heaven he has lost for his knowledge; how. much of that knowledge, so dearly bought, is now forgotten or despised, leaving only the capacity of wonder less within him, and, as it happens in a thousand instances, perhaps even |
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