Ariadne Florentina Six Lectures on Wood and Metal Engraving

Excerpt from Ariadne Florentina: Six Lectures on Wood and Metal Engraving With Appendix Given Before the University of Oxford in Michaelmas Term, 1872 In a letter written in 1876, the year in which this volume was first published, Mr. Ruskin spoke of feeling it to be his "distinct duty" (I cite his exact words), "to cultivate the rare analytic and demonstrative faculty of me, rather than the enthusiastic one which has been common to so many." The intention was wise, for his enthusiastic temper was wearing him out by its incessant drain of nervous energy. The character of these very lectures on Wood and Metal Engraving is marked by the combination of what he justly calls his "rare analytic and demonstrative faculty" with qualities which have their source in the emotions.