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Sesame and Lilies-Part16_John Ruskin(1819-1900)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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mirage, which vanished as I drew near, but a pillar of darkness, to



which I was forbidden to draw near. For I saw that both my own

failure, and such success in petty things as in its poor triumph



seemed to me worse than failure, came from the want of sufficiently

earnest effort to understand the whole law and meaning of existence,



and to bring it to noble and due end; as, on the other hand, I saw

more and more clearly that all enduring success in the arts, or in



any other occupation, had come from the ruling of lower purposes,

not by a conviction of their nothingness, but by a solemn faith in



the advancing power of human nature, or in the promise, however

dimly apprehended, that the mortal part of it would one day be



swallowed up in immortality; and that, indeed, the arts themselves

never had reached any vital strength or honour, but in the effort to



proclaim this immortality, and in the service either of great and

just religion, or of some unselfish patriotism, and law of such



national life as must be the foundation of religion.

Nothing that I have ever said is more true or necessary--nothing has



been more misunderstood or misapplied--than my strong assertion that

the arts can never be right themselves, unless their motive is



right. It is misunderstood this way: weak painters, who have never

learned their business, and cannot lay a true line, continually come



to me, crying out--"Look at this picture of mine; it MUST be good, I

had such a lovely motive. I have put my whole heart into it, and



taken years to think over its treatment." Well, the only answer for

these people is--if one had the cruelty to make it--"Sir, you cannot



think over ANYthing in any number of years,--you haven't the head to

do it; and though you had fine motives, strong enough to make you



burn yourself in a slow fire, if only first you could paint a

picture, you can't paint one, nor half an inch of one; you haven't



the hand to do it."

But, far more decisively we have to say to the men who DO know their



business, or may know it if they choose--"Sir, you have this gift,

and a mighty one; see that you serve your nation faithfully with it.



It is a greater trust than ships and armies: you might cast THEM

away, if you were their captain, with less treason to your people



than in casting your own glorious power away, and serving the devil

with it instead of men. Ships and armies you may replace if they



are lost, but a great intellect, once abused, is a curse to the

earth for ever."



This, then, I meant by saying that the arts must have noble motive.

This also I said respecting them, that they never had prospered, nor



could prosper, but when they had such true purpose, and were devoted

to the proclamation of divine truth or law. And yet I saw also that



they had always failed in this proclamation--that poetry, and

sculpture, and painting, though only great when they strove to teach



us something about the gods, never had taught us anything

trustworthy about the gods, but had always betrayed their trust in



the crisis of it, and, with their powers at the full reach, became

ministers to pride and to lust. And I felt also, with increasing



amazement, the unconquerable apathy in ourselves and hearers, no

less than in these the teachers; and that while the wisdom and



rightness of every act and art of life could only be consistent with

a right understanding of the ends of life, we were all plunged as in



a languid dream--our hearts fat, and our eyes heavy, and our ears

closed, lest the inspiration of hand or voice should reach us--lest



we should see with our eyes, and understand with our hearts, and be




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