[5] See Harrison's _Life_, p. 111. Cf. the opening of _The Mystery
of Life_.
[6] Part 2, sec. 1, chap. 4.
[7] See p. 159.
[8] _Modern Painters_, vol. 1, part 2, sec. 1, chap. 7.
[9] _Unto This Last_.
[10] See p. 262.
III
RUSKIN'S STYLE
[Sidenote: Sensuousness of his style.]
Many people regard the style of Ruskin as his chief claim to
greatness. If the time ever come when men no longer study him for
sermons in stones, they will nevertheless turn to his pages to enjoy
one of the most gorgeous prose styles of the nineteenth century. For a
parallel to the sensuous beauties of Ruskin's essays on art, one turns
instinctively to poetry; and of all the poets Ruskin is perhaps likest
Keats. His sentences, like the poet's, are thick-set with jeweled
phrases; they are full of subtle harmonies that respond, like a
Stradivarius, to the player's every mood. In its ornateness Ruskin's
style is like his favorite cathedral of Amiens, in the large stately,
in detail exquisite, profuse, and not without a touch of the
grotesque. It is the style of an artist.
[Sidenote: Ruskin's method of construction in description.]
A critical fancy may even discover in the construction of his finest
descriptions a method not unlike that of a painter at work upon his
canvas.
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