LIFE.  Ruskin was born in London, in 1819.  His father was a prosperous wine merchant who gained a fortune in trade, and who spent his leisure hours in the company of good books and pictures.  On his tombstone one may still read this inscription written by Ruskin:  “He was an entirely honest merchant and his memory is to all who keep it dear and helpful.  His son, whom he loved to the uttermost and taught to speak truth, says this of him.”  Ruskin’s mother, a devout and somewhat austere woman, brought her son up with Puritanical strictness, not forgetting Solomon’s injunction that “the rod and reproof give wisdom.”

Of Ruskin’s early years at Herne Hill, on the outskirts of London, it is better to read his own interesting record in Praeterita.  It was in some respects a cramped and lonely childhood, but certain things which strongly molded his character are worthy of mention.  First, he was taught by word and example in all things to speak the truth, and he never forgot the lesson.  Second, he had few toys, and spent much time in studying the leaves, the flowers, the grass, the clouds, even the figures and colors of the carpet, and so laid the foundation for that minute and accurate observation which is manifest in all his writings.  Third, he was educated first by his mother, then by private tutors, and so missed the discipline of the public schools.  The influence of this lonely training is evident in all his work.  Like Carlyle, he is often too positive and dogmatic,—­the result of failing to test his work by the standards of other men of his age.  Fourth, he was obliged to read the Bible every day and to learn long passages verbatim.  The result of this training was, he says, “to make every word of the Scriptures familiar to my ear in habitual music.”  We can hardly read a page of his later work without finding some reflection of the noble simplicity or vivid imagery of the sacred records.  Fifth, he traveled much with his father and mother, and his innate love of nature was intensified by what he saw on his leisurely journeys through the most beautiful parts of England and the Continent.

Ruskin entered Christ Church College, Oxford, in 1836, when only seventeen years old.  He was at this time a shy, sensitive boy, a lover of nature and of every art which reflects nature, but almost entirely ignorant of the ways of boys and men.  An attack of consumption, with which he had long been threatened, caused him to leave Oxford in 1840, and for nearly two years he wandered over Italy searching for health and cheerfulness, and gathering materials for the first volume of Modern Painters, the book that made him famous.