one who claimed to have a special politicalnor religious insight denied to allnothers. His moods oscillated wildly fromnjoy to depression, and he was continuallynobsessed with young women. His marriagento Euphemia Gray ended in a messynannulment on grounds of nonconsummation.nHis search for emotional securitynoften bordered on the bizarre, as when,nfor example, he fell in love at 40 withnthe nine-year-old religious zealot. RosenLa Touche, and considered marryingnher. The painter John MiUais said appropriatelynof him that he was “an undeniablengiant as an author, but a poor weakncreature in everything else.”nHis personal misfortunes aside,nRuskin was a prolific critic of both art andnsociety. In such important works asnModern Painters, The Seven Lamps ofnArchitecture, The Stones of Venice,nSesame and Lilies, The Crown of WildnOlive, Tors Clavigera, and Praeterita, asnwell as in many shorter pieces and lectures,nhe insisted that art must be moralnand hence can only be produced by anmoral society; evil men cannot createngood art. A moral and just society,nRuskin asserted, must not waste itsnresources on industry and materialnpleasures, but instead it must use themnto nurture and sustain the mind and thenspirit. Later in his career Ruskin turned tonsocial reform, arguing that nationalnwealth is a treasure not to be squanderednon selfish private interests but to be spentnwisely on social justice and improvement.nThe businessman and the worker,nhe thought, should be as altruistic as doctorsnand clergymen since the real goal ofnwealth and work is to create happinessnand virtue. He was deeply suspicious of ancompetitive economic system, preferringnone in which fair working conditions andnreward for craftsmanship were the norm.nAs he looked about him, he saw a civilizationnafflicted by the “curses of luxury andntrade” compounded by a “want of integritynand simplicity” amid the “clottednand coagulated” cities of VictoriannEngland. At one point Ruskin suggestednthat even art itself should be subordinatednto the amelioration of the condi­n16inChronicles of Culttirentions of the poor. He strongly believednthat human nature can be changed byneducation of the heart and head, thatnhumane values must permeate businessnand industry, and that people will findnhappiness by disciplining their desire fornluxury and by finding a zest for life innwork which is both creative and satisfying.n”It is not,” he said, “that men arenill-fed, but that they have no pleasure innthe work by which they make theirnbread, and therefore look to wealth asnthe only means of pleasure. It is not thatnmen are pained by the scorn of the uppernclasses, but that they cannot endure theirnown; for they feel that the kind of labornto which they are condemned is verily andegrading one, and makes them feel lessnthan men.” And so, he believed, “Anblacksmith may put soul into the makingnof a horseshoe, and an architect may putnnone into the building of a church.”nBy the end of his career Ruskin seemednto have given up on his countrymen. Hisnfinal picture of them is not flattering, fornhe finds the average Briton to be nothingnmore than a “consumer of all things consumable,nproducer of nothing but darknessnand abomination, with his foot onnall that he once revered, his hope lost onnall that he once worshipped, a god tonhimself, and to all the world an incarnatenIn the forthcoming issue of Chronicles of Culture:nThe Conservative Idn”Sigmund Freud and Adam Smith had basically similarnexpectations of man’s nature; however, they might havendififered about the ultimate source of that nature. Thenpsychoanalytic view is a conservative view. . . . when the leftncelebrates psychotherapy they are all quite aware that they arennot praising psychoanalysis but specifically espousing the viewsnof behaviorists and other Utopians who believe human naturencan be whatever a do-gooder wishes it to be, whatever andreamer wishes to make it into.”n—from an open letter to the editornby Richard Peters, Ed.D.nAlso:nOpinions & Views—Commendables—In FocusnPerceptibles—Waste of MoneynThe American Proscenium—Stage—Screen—ArtnMusic—Correspondence—Liberal CulturenSocial Register—Journalism—In My SolitudenPolemics & Exchangesnnn