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diff --git a/45913.txt b/45913.txt deleted file mode 100644 index 2d86be8..0000000 --- a/45913.txt +++ /dev/null @@ -1,1338 +0,0 @@ - OF VULGARITY - - - - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost -no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it -under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this -eBook or online at http://www.gutenberg.org/license. - - - -Title: Of Vulgarity -Author: John Ruskin -Release Date: June 07, 2014 [EBook #45913] -Language: English -Character set encoding: US-ASCII - - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OF VULGARITY *** - - - - -Produced by Al Haines. - - - - - - Ruskin Treasuries - - - - OF VULGARITY - - - - London: George Allen - 1906 - - - - - _What do you mean by "vulgarity"? You will find it a fruitful - subject of thought; but, briefly, the essence of all vulgarity - lies in want of sensation._ - - Sesame and Lilies, Sec. 28. - - - - - _All rights reserved_ - - - - - *RUSKIN TREASURIES* - - *OF VULGARITY* - - -1. Two great errors, colouring, or rather discolouring, severally, the -minds of the higher and lower classes, have sown wide dissension, and -wider misfortune, through the society of modern days. These errors are -in our modes of interpreting the word "gentleman." - -Its primal, literal, and perpetual meaning is "a man of pure race;"[#] -well bred, in the sense that a horse or dog is well bred. - - -[#] See below, pp. 39-47. - - -The so-called higher classes, being generally of purer race than the -lower, have retained the true idea, and the convictions associated with -it; but are afraid to speak it out, and equivocate about it in public; -this equivocation mainly proceeding from their desire to connect another -meaning with it, and a false one;--that of "a man living in idleness on -other people's labour;"--with which idea the term has nothing whatever -to do. - -The lower classes, denying vigorously, and with reason, the notion that -a gentleman means an idler, and rightly feeling that the more any one -works, the more of a gentleman he becomes, and is likely to -become,--have nevertheless got little of the good they otherwise might, -from the truth, because, with it, they wanted to hold a -falsehood,--namely, that race was of no consequence. It being precisely -of as much consequence in man as it is in any other animal. - - -2. The nation cannot truly prosper till both these errors are finally -got quit of. Gentlemen have to learn that it is no part of their duty -or privilege to live on other people's toil. They have to learn that -there is no degradation in the hardest manual, or the humblest servile, -labour, when it is honest. But that there is degradation, and that -deep, in extravagance, in bribery, in indolence, in pride, in taking -places they are not fit for, or in coining places for which there is no -need. It does not disgrace a gentleman to become an errand boy, or a -day labourer; but it disgraces him much to become a knave, or a thief. -And knavery is not the less knavery because it involves large interests, -nor theft the less theft because it is countenanced by usage, or -accompanied by failure in undertaken duty. It is an incomparably less -guilty form of robbery to cut a purse out of a man's pocket, than to -take it out of his hand on the understanding that you are to steer his -ship up channel, when you do not know the soundings. - - -3. On the other hand, the lower orders, and all orders, have to learn -that every vicious habit and chronic disease communicates itself by -descent; and that by purity of birth the entire system of the human body -and soul may be gradually elevated, or, by recklessness of birth, -degraded; until there shall be as much difference between the well-bred -and ill-bred human creature (whatever pains be taken with their -education) as between a wolf-hound and the vilest mongrel cur. And the -knowledge of this great fact ought to regulate the education of our -youth, and the entire conduct of the nation.[#] - - -[#] See below, pp. 41-42. - - -4. Gentlemanliness, however, in ordinary parlance, must be taken to -signify those qualities which are usually the evidence of high breeding, -and which, so far as they can be acquired, it should be every man's -effort to acquire; or, if he has them by nature, to preserve and exalt. -Vulgarity, on the other hand, will signify qualities usually -characteristic of ill-breeding, which, according to his power, it -becomes every person's duty to subdue. We have briefly to note what -these are. - - -5. A gentleman's first characteristic is that fineness of structure in -the body, which renders it capable of the most delicate sensation; and -of structure in the mind which renders it capable of the most delicate -sympathies--one may say, simply, "fineness of nature." This is, of -course, compatible with heroic bodily strength and mental firmness; in -fact, heroic strength is not conceivable without such delicacy. -Elephantine strength may drive its way through a forest and feel no -touch of the boughs; but the white skin of Homer's Atrides would have -felt a bent rose-leaf, yet subdue its feeling in glow of battle, and -behave itself like iron. I do not mean to call an elephant a vulgar -animal; but if you think about him carefully, you will find that his -non-vulgarity consists in such gentleness as is possible to elephantine -nature; not in his insensitive hide, nor in his clumsy foot; but in the -way he will lift his foot if a child lies in his way; and in his -sensitive trunk, and still more sensitive mind, and capability of pique -on points of honour. - - -6. And, though rightness of moral conduct is ultimately the great -purifier of race, the sign of nobleness is not in this rightness of -moral conduct, but in sensitiveness. When the make of the creature is -fine, its temptations are strong, as well as its perceptions; it is -liable to all kinds of impressions from without in their most violent -form; liable therefore to be abused and hurt by all kinds of rough -things which would do a coarser creature little harm, and thus to fall -into frightful wrong if its fate will have it so. Thus David, coming of -gentlest as well as royalest race, of Ruth as well as of Judah, is -sensitiveness through all flesh and spirit; not that his compassion will -restrain him from murder when his terror urges him to it; nay, he is -driven to the murder all the more by his sensitiveness to the shame -which otherwise threatens him. But when his own story is told under a -disguise, though only a lamb is now concerned, his passion about it -leaves him no time for thought. "The man shall die"--note the -reason--"because he had no pity." He is so eager and indignant that it -never occurs to him as strange that Nathan hides the name. This is true -gentleman. A vulgar man would assuredly have been cautious, and asked -who it was. - - -7. Hence it will follow that one of the probable signs of high-breeding -in men generally, will be their kindness and mercifulness; these always -indicating more or less fineness of make in the mind; and miserliness -and cruelty the contrary; hence that of Isaiah: "The vile person shall -no more be called liberal, nor the churl said to be bountiful." But a -thousand things may prevent this kindness from displaying or continuing -itself; the mind of the man may be warped so as to bear mainly on his -own interests, and then all his sensibilities will take the form of -pride, or fastidiousness, or revengefulness; and other wicked, but not -ungentlemanly tempers; or, farther, they may run into utter sensuality -and covetousness, if he is bent on pleasure, accompanied with quite -infinite cruelty when the pride is wounded or the passions are -thwarted;--until your gentleman becomes Ezzelin, and your lady, the -deadly Lucrece; yet still gentleman and lady, quite incapable of making -anything else of themselves, being so born.[#] - - -[#] See below, p. 44. - - -8. A truer sign of breeding than mere kindness is therefore -sympathy;--a vulgar man may often be kind in a hard way, on principle, -and because he thinks he ought to be; whereas, a highly-bred man, even -when cruel, will be cruel in a softer way, understanding and feeling -what he inflicts, and pitying his victim. Only we must carefully -remember that the quantity of sympathy a gentleman feels can never be -judged of by its outward expression, for another of his chief -characteristics is apparent reserve. I say "apparent" reserve; for the -sympathy is real, but the reserve not: a perfect gentleman is never -reserved, but sweetly and entirely open, so far as it is good for -others, or possible, that he should be. In a great many respects it is -impossible that he should be open except to men of his own kind. To -them, he can open himself, by a word or syllable, or a glance; but to -men not of his kind he cannot open himself, though he tried it through -an eternity of clear grammatical speech. By the very acuteness of his -sympathy he knows how much of himself he can give to anybody; and he -gives that much frankly;--would always be glad to give more if he could, -but is obliged, nevertheless, in his general intercourse with the world, -to be a somewhat silent person; silence is to most people, he finds, -less reserve than speech. Whatever he said, a vulgar man would -misinterpret: no words that he could use would bear the same sense to -the vulgar man that they do to him; if he used any, the vulgar man would -go away saying, "He had said so and so, and meant so and so" (something -assuredly he never meant): but he keeps silence, and the vulgar man goes -away saying, "He didn't know what to make of him." Which is precisely -the fact, and the only fact which he is anywise able to announce to the -vulgar man concerning himself. - - -9. There is yet another quite as efficient cause of the apparent -reserve of a gentleman. His sensibility being constant and intelligent, -it will be seldom that a feeling touches him, however acutely, but it -has touched him in the same way often before, and in some sort is -touching him always. It is not that he feels little, but that he feels -habitually; a vulgar man having some heart at the bottom of him, if you -can by talk or by sight fairly force the pathos of anything down to his -heart, will be excited about it and demonstrative; the sensation of pity -being strange to him and wonderful. But your gentleman has walked in -pity all day long; the tears have never been out of his eyes; you -thought the eyes were bright only; but they were wet. You tell him a -sorrowful story, and his countenance does not change; the eyes can but -be wet still: he does not speak neither, there being, in fact, nothing -to be said, only something to be done; some vulgar person, beside you -both, goes away saying, "How hard he is!" Next day he hears that the -hard person has put good end to the sorrow he said nothing about;--and -then he changes his wonder, and exclaims, "How reserved he is!" - - -10. Self-command is often thought a characteristic of high-breeding; -and to a certain extent it is so, at least it is one of the means of -forming and strengthening character; but it is rather a way of imitating -a gentleman than a characteristic of him; a true gentleman has no need -of self-command; he simply feels rightly on all occasions; and desiring -to express only so much of his feeling as it is right to express, does -not need to command himself. Hence perfect ease is indeed -characteristic of him; but perfect ease is inconsistent with -self-restraint. Nevertheless gentlemen, so far as they fail of their -own ideal, need to command themselves, and do so; while, on the -contrary, to feel unwisely, and to be unable to restrain the expression -of the unwise feeling, is vulgarity; and yet even then, the vulgarity, -at its root, is not in the mistimed expression, but in the unseemly -feeling; and when we find fault with a vulgar person for "exposing -himself," it is not his openness, but clumsiness, and yet more the want -of sensibility to his own failure, which we blame; so that still the -vulgarity resolves itself into want of sensibility. Also, it is to be -noted that great powers of self-restraint may be attained by very vulgar -persons when it suits their purposes. - - -11. Closely, but strangely, connected with this openness is that form -of truthfulness which is opposed to cunning, yet not opposed to falsity -absolute. And herein is a distinction of great importance. - -Cunning signifies especially a habit or gift of over-reaching, -accompanied with enjoyment and a sense of superiority. It is associated -with small and dull conceit, and with an absolute want of sympathy or -affection. Its essential connection with vulgarity may be at once -exemplified by the expression of the butcher's dog in Landseer's "Low -Life." Cruikshank's "Noah Claypole," in the illustrations to _Oliver -Twist_, in the interview with the Jew, is, however, still more -characteristic. It is the intensest rendering of vulgarity absolute and -utter with which I am acquainted. - -The truthfulness which is opposed to cunning ought, perhaps, rather to -be called the desire of truthfulness; it consists more in unwillingness -to deceive than in not deceiving,--an unwillingness implying sympathy -with and respect for the person deceived; and a fond observance of truth -up to the possible point, as in a good soldier's mode of retaining his -honour through a _ruse-de-guerre_. A cunning person seeks for -opportunities to deceive; a gentleman shuns them. A cunning person -triumphs in deceiving; a gentleman is humiliated by his success, or at -least by so much of the success as is dependent merely on the falsehood, -and not on his intellectual superiority. - - -12. The absolute disdain of all lying belongs rather to Christian -chivalry than to mere high-breeding; as connected merely with this -latter, and with general refinement and courage, the exact relations of -truthfulness may be best studied in the well-trained Greek mind. The -Greeks believed that mercy and truth were co-relative virtues--cruelty -and falsehood, co-relative vices. But they did not call necessary -severity, cruelty; nor necessary deception, falsehood. It was needful -sometimes to slay men, and sometimes to deceive them. When this had to -be done, it should be done well and thoroughly; so that to direct a -spear well to its mark, or a lie well to its end, was equally the -accomplishment of a perfect gentleman. Hence, in the pretty -diamond-cut-diamond scene between Pallas and Ulysses, when she receives -him on the coast of Ithaca, the goddess laughs delightedly at her hero's -good lying, and gives him her hand upon it;--showing herself then in her -woman's form, as just a little more than his match.[#] "Subtle would he -be, and stealthy, who should go beyond thee in deceit, even were he a -god, thou many-witted! What! here in thine own land, too, wilt thou not -cease from cheating? Knowest thou not me, Pallas Athena, maid of Jove, -who am with thee in all thy labours, and gave thee favour with the -Phaeacians, and keep thee, and have come now to weave cunning with -thee?" But how completely this kind of cunning was looked upon as a -part of a man's power, and not as a diminution of faithfulness, is -perhaps best shown by the single line of praise in which the high -qualities of his servant are summed up by Chremulus in the _Plutus_--"Of -all my house servants, I hold you to be the faithfullest, and the -greatest cheat (or thief)."[#] - - -[#] Homer, _Od._, xiii. 291 _seq._ - -[#] Aristophanes, _Plutus_, 26-27. - - -13. Thus, the primal difference between honourable and base lying in -the Greek mind lay in honourable purpose. A man who used his strength -wantonly to hurt others was a monster; so, also, a man who used his -cunning wantonly to hurt others. Strength and cunning were to be used -only in self-defence, or to save the weak, and then were alike -admirable. This was their first idea. Then the second, and perhaps the -more essential, difference between noble and ignoble lying in the Greek -mind, was that the honourable lie--or, if we may use the strange, yet -just, expression, the true lie--knew and confessed itself for such--was -ready to take the full responsibility of what it did. As the sword -answered for its blow, so the lie for its snare. But what the Greeks -hated with all their heart was the false lie;--the lie that did not know -itself, feared to confess itself, which slunk to its aim under a cloak -of truth, and sought to do liars' work, and yet not take liars' pay, -excusing itself to the conscience by quibble and quirk. Hence the great -expression of Jesuit principle by Euripides, "The tongue has sworn, but -not the heart,"[#] was a subject of execration throughout Greece, and -the satirists exhausted their arrows on it--no audience was ever tired -of hearing ([Greek: to Euripideion ekeino]) "that Euripidean thing" -brought to shame. - - -[#] Hippolytus, 612. - - -14. And this is especially to be insisted on in the early education of -young people. It should be pointed out to them with continual -earnestness that the essence of lying is in deception, not in words: a -lie may be told by silence, by equivocation, by the accent on a -syllable, by a glance of the eye attaching a peculiar significance to a -sentence; and all these kinds of lies are worse and baser by many -degrees than a lie plainly worded; so that no form of blinded conscience -is so far sunk as that which comforts itself for having deceived, -because the deception was by gesture or silence, instead of utterance; -and, finally, according to Tennyson's deep and trenchant line, "A lie -which is half a truth is ever the worst of lies."[#] - - -[#] _The Grandmother_. - - -15. Although, however, ungenerous cunning is usually so distinct an -outward manifestation of vulgarity, that I name it separately from -insensibility, it is in truth only an effect of insensibility, producing -want of affection to others, and blindness to the beauty of truth. The -degree in which political subtlety in men such as Richelieu, Machiavel, -or Metternich, will efface the gentleman, depends on the selfishness of -political purpose to which the cunning is directed, and on the base -delight taken in its use. The command, "Be ye wise as serpents, -harmless as doves," is the ultimate expression of this principle, -misunderstood usually because the word "wise" is referred to the -intellectual power instead of the subtlety of the serpent. The serpent -has very little intellectual power, but according to that which it has, -it is yet, as of old, the subtlest of the beasts of the field. - - -16. Another great sign of vulgarity is also, when traced to its root, -another phase of insensibility, namely, the undue regard to appearances -and manners, as in the households of vulgar persons, of all stations, -and the assumption of behaviour, language, or dress unsuited to them, by -persons in inferior stations of life. I say "undue" regard to -appearances, because in the undueness consists, of course, the -vulgarity. It is due and wise in some sort to care for appearances, in -another sort undue and unwise. Wherein lies the difference? - -At first one is apt to answer quickly: the vulgarity is simply in -pretending to be what you are not. But that answer will not stand. A -queen may dress like a waiting-maid,--perhaps succeed, if she chooses, -in passing for one; but she will not, therefore, be vulgar; nay, a -waiting-maid may dress like a queen, and pretend to be one, and yet need -not be vulgar, unless there is inherent vulgarity in her. In Scribe's -very absurd but very amusing _Reine d'un jour_, a milliner's girl -sustains the part of a queen for a day. She several times amazes and -disgusts her courtiers by her straightforwardness; and once or twice -very nearly betrays herself to her maids of honour by an unqueenly -knowledge of sewing; but she is not in the least vulgar, for she is -sensitive, simple, and generous, and a queen could be no more. - - -17. Is the vulgarity, then, only in trying to play a part you cannot -play, so as to be continually detected? No; a bad amateur actor may be -continually detected in his part, but yet continually detected to be a -gentleman: a vulgar regard to appearances has nothing in it necessarily -of hypocrisy. You shall know a man not to be a gentleman by the perfect -and neat pronunciation of his words: but he does not pretend to -pronounce accurately; he _does_ pronounce accurately, the vulgarity is -in the real (not assumed) scrupulousness. - - -18. It will be found on farther thought, that a vulgar regard for -appearances is, primarily, a selfish one, resulting not out of a wish to -give pleasure (as a wife's wish to make herself beautiful for her -husband), but out of an endeavour to mortify others, or attract for -pride's sake;--the common "keeping up appearances" of society, being a -mere selfish struggle of the vain with the vain. But the deepest stain -of the vulgarity depends on this being done, not selfishly only, but -stupidly, without understanding the impression which is really produced, -nor the relations of importance between oneself and others, so as to -suppose that their attention is fixed upon us, when we are in reality -ciphers in their eyes--all which comes of insensibility. Hence pride -simple is not vulgar (the looking down on others because of their true -inferiority to us), nor vanity simple (the desire of praise), but -conceit simple (the attribution to ourselves of qualities we have not) -is always so. In cases of over-studied pronunciation, etc., there is -insensibility, first, in the person's thinking more of himself than of -what he is saying; and, secondly, in his not having musical fineness of -ear enough to feel that his talking is uneasy and strained. - - -19. Finally, vulgarity is indicated by coarseness of language or -manners, only so far as this coarseness has been contracted under -circumstances not necessarily producing it. The illiterateness of a -Spanish or Calabrian peasant is not vulgar, because they had never an -opportunity of acquiring letters; but the illiterateness of an English -school-boy is. So again, provincial dialect is not vulgar; but cockney -dialect, the corruption, by blunted sense, of a finer language -continually heard, is so in a deep degree; and again, of this corrupted -dialect, that is the worst which consists, not in the direct or -expressive alteration of the form of a word, but in an unmusical -destruction of it by dead utterance and bad or swollen formation of lip. -There is no vulgarity in-- - - "Blythe, blythe, blythe was she, - Blythe was she, but and ben, - And weel she liked a Hawick gill, - And leugh to see a tappit hen;" - -but much in Mrs. Gamp's inarticulate "bottle on the chimley-piece, and -let me put my lips to it when I am so dispoged." - - -20. So also of personal defects, those only are vulgar which imply -insensibility or dissipation. - -There is no vulgarity in the emaciation of Don Quixote, the deformity of -the Black Dwarf, or the corpulence of Falstaff; but much in the same -personal characters, as they are seen in Uriah Heep, Quilp, and -Chadband. - - -21. One of the most curious minor questions in this matter is -respecting the vulgarity of excessive neatness, complicating itself with -inquiries into the distinction between base neatness, and the -perfectness of good execution in the fine arts. It will be found on -final thought that precision and exquisiteness of arrangement are always -noble; but become vulgar only when they arise from an equality -(insensibility) of temperament, which is incapable of fine passion, and -is set ignobly, and with a dullard mechanism, on accuracy in vile -things. In the finest Greek coins, the letters of the inscriptions are -purposely coarse and rude, while the relievi are wrought with -inestimable care. But in an English coin, the letters are the best -done, and the whole is unredeemably vulgar. In a picture of Titian's, -an inserted inscription will be complete in the lettering, as all the -rest is; because it costs Titian very little more trouble to draw -rightly than wrongly, and in him, therefore, impatience with the letters -would be vulgar, as in the Greek sculptor of the coin, patience would -have been. For the engraving of a letter accurately is difficult work, -and his time must have been unworthily thrown away. - - -22. All the different impressions connected with negligence or foulness -depend, in like manner, on the degree of insensibility implied. -Disorder in a drawing-room is vulgar, in an antiquary's study, not; the -black battle-stain on a soldier's face is not vulgar, but the dirty face -of a housemaid is. - -And lastly, courage, so far as it is a sign of race, is peculiarly the -mark of a gentleman or a lady: but it becomes vulgar if rude or -insensitive, while timidity is not vulgar, if it be a characteristic of -race or fineness of make. A fawn is not vulgar in being timid, nor a -crocodile "gentle" because courageous. - - -23. Without following the inquiry into farther detail, we may conclude -that vulgarity consists in a deadness of the heart and body, resulting -from prolonged, and especially from inherited conditions of -"degeneracy," or literally "un-racing;"--gentlemanliness being another -word for an intense humanity. And vulgarity shows itself primarily in -dulness of heart, not in rage or cruelty, but in inability to feel or -conceive noble character or emotion. This is its essential, pure, and -most fatal form. Dulness of bodily sense and general stupidity, with -such forms of crime as peculiarly issue from stupidity, are its material -manifestation. - - -24. Two years ago, when I was first beginning to work out the subject, -and chatting with one of my keenest-minded friends (Mr. Brett, the -painter of the Val d'Aosta in the Exhibition of 1859), I casually asked -him, "What is vulgarity?" merely to see what he would say, not supposing -it possible to get a sudden answer. He thought for about a minute, then -answered quietly, "It is merely one of the forms of Death." I did not -see the meaning of the reply at the time; but on testing it, found that -it met every phase of the difficulties connected with the inquiry, and -summed the true conclusion. Yet, in order to be complete, it ought to be -made a distinctive as well as conclusive definition; showing _what_ form -of death vulgarity is; for death itself is not vulgar, but only death -mingled with life. I cannot, however, construct a short-worded -definition which will include all the minor conditions of bodily -degeneracy; but the term "deathful selfishness" will embrace all the -most fatal and essential forms of mental vulgarity. - -_Modern Painters,_ - _vol. v. pt. ix. ch. vii._ - - - * * * * * - - -We ought always in pure English to use the term "good breeding" -literally; and to say "good nurture" for what we usually mean by good -breeding. Given the race and make of the animal, you may turn it to -good or bad account; you may spoil your good dog or colt, and make him -as vicious as you choose, or break his back at once by ill-usage; and -you may, on the other hand, make something serviceable and respectable -out of your poor cur and colt if you educate them carefully; but -ill-bred they will both of them be to their lives' end; and the best you -will ever be able to say of them is, that they are useful, and decently -behaved, ill-bred creatures. - -An error, which is associated with the truth, and which makes it always -look weak and disputable, is the confusion of race with name; and the -supposition that the blood of a family must still be good, if its -genealogy be unbroken and its name not lost, though sire and son have -been indulging age after age in habits involving perpetual degeneracy of -race. Of course it is equally an error to suppose that, because a man's -name is common, his blood must be base; since his family may have been -ennobling it by pureness of moral habit for many generations, and yet -may not have got any title, or other sign of nobleness, attached to -their names. Nevertheless, the probability is always in favour of the -race which has had acknowledged supremacy, and in which every motive -leads to the endeavour to preserve its true nobility. - -_Modern Painters,_ - _vol. v. pt. ix. ch. vii._ Sec. 3 _n._ - - - * * * * * - - -The old English rough proverb is irrevocably true,--you can make no silk -purse of a sow's ear. And this great truth also holds--though it is a -disagreeable one to look full in the face--that, named or nameless, no -man can make himself a gentleman who was not born one. If he lives a -right life, and cultivates all the powers, and yet more all the -sensibilities, he is born with, and chooses his wife well, his own son -will be more a gentleman than he is, and he may see yet better blood -than his son's in his grandchild's cheeks, but he must be content to -remain a clown himself--if he was born a clown. - -_Modern Painters,_ - _vol. v. pt. ix. ch. vii._ Sec. 3 _n._ - - - * * * * * - - -The two great words which, in their first use, meant only perfection of -race, have come, by consequence of the invariable connection of virtue -with the fine human nature, both to signify benevolence of disposition. -The word "generous" and the word "gentle" both, in their origin, meant -only "of pure race," but because charity and tenderness are inseparable -from this purity of blood, the words which once stood only for pride, -now stand as synonymous for virtue. - -_The Crown of Wild Olive,_ Sec. 108. - - - * * * * * - - -What vulgarity is, whether in manners, acts, or conceptions, most -well-educated persons understand; but what it consists in, or arises -from, is a more difficult question. I believe that on strict analysis -it will be found definable as "the habit of mind and act resulting from -the prolonged combination of insensibility with insincerity." - -It would be more accurate to say, "constitutional insensibility"; for -people are born vulgar, or not vulgar, irrevocably. An apparent -insensibility may often be caused by one strong feeling quenching or -conquering another; and this to the extent of involving the person in -all kinds of cruelty and crime: yet, Borgia or Ezzelin, lady and knight -still; while the born clown is dead in all sensation and capacity of -thought, whatever his acts or life may be. - -Cloten, in _Cymbeline_, is the most perfect study of pure vulgarity, -which I know in literature; Perdita, in _Winter's Tale_, the most -perfect study of its opposite (irrespective of such higher virtue or -intellect as we have in Desdemona or Portia). Perdita's exquisite -openness, joined with as exquisite sensitiveness, constitute the precise -opposite of the apathetic insincerity which is, I believe, the essence -of vulgarity. - -_Academy Notes_, 1859. - - - * * * * * - - -Gentlemanliness in a limited sense [may mean] only the effect of careful -education, good society, and refined habits of life, on average temper -and character. Deep and true gentlemanliness [is] based on intense -sensibility and sincerity, perfected by courage and other qualities of -race, [as opposed to] that union of insensibility with cunning, which is -the essence of vulgarity. - -_Sir Joshua and Holbein_, Sec. 6 _n._ - - - * * * * * - - -There is, indeed, perhaps, no greater sign of innate and real vulgarity -of mind or defective education than the want of power to understand the -universality of the ideal truth; the absence of sympathy with the -colossal grasp of those intellects, which have in them so much of -divine, that nothing is small to them, nothing large; but with equal and -unoffended vision they take in the sum of the world,--Straw Street[#] -and the seventh heaven,--in the same instant. - - -[#] Dante, _Paradiso_, x. 133-34. - - -A certain portion of this divine spirit is visible even in the lower -examples of all the true men; it is, indeed, perhaps, the clearest test -of their belonging to the true and great group, that they are -continually touching what to the multitude appear vulgarities. The -higher a man stands, the more the word "vulgar" becomes unintelligible -to him. Vulgar? what, that poor farmer's girl of William Hunt's, bred -in the stable, putting on her Sunday gown, and pinning her best cap, out -of the green and red pin-cushion! Not so; she may be straight on the -road to those high heavens, and may shine hereafter as one of the stars -in the firmament for ever. Nay, even that lady in the satin bodice, -with her arm laid over a balustrade to show it, and her eyes turned up -to heaven to show them; and the sportsman waving his rifle for the -terror of beasts, and displaying his perfect dress for the delight of -men, are kept, by the very misery and vanity of them, in the thoughts of -a great painter, at a sorrowful level, somewhat above vulgarity. It is -only when the minor painter takes them on his easel, that they become -things for the universe to be ashamed of. - -We may dismiss this matter of vulgarity in plain and few words, at least -as far as regards art. There is never vulgarity in a _whole_ truth, -however commonplace. It may be unimportant or painful. It cannot be -vulgar. Vulgarity is only in concealment of truth, or in affectation. - -_Modern Painters,_ - _vol. iii. pt. iv. ch. vii._ Sec. 9. - - - * * * * * - - -The first thing then that he has to do, if unhappily his parents or -masters have not done it for him, is to find out what he is fit for. In -which inquiry a man may be safely guided by his likings, if he be not -also guided by his pride. People usually reason in some such fashion as -this: "I don't seem quite fit for a head-manager in the firm of ---- & -Co., therefore, in all probability, I am fit to be Chancellor of the -Exchequer." Whereas, they ought rather to reason thus: "I don't seem -quite fit to be head-manager in the firm of ---- & Co., but I dare say I -might do something in a small greengrocery business; I used to be a good -judge of pease;" that is to say, always trying lower instead of trying -higher, until they find bottom: once well set on the ground, a man may -build up by degrees, safely, instead of disturbing every one in his -neighbourhood by perpetual catastrophes. But this kind of humility is -rendered especially difficult in these days, by the contumely thrown on -men in humble employments. The very removal of the massy bars which -once separated one class of society from another, has rendered it -tenfold more shameful in foolish people's, _i.e._, in most people's -eyes, to remain in the lower grades of it, than ever it was before. -When a man born of an artisan was looked upon as an entirely different -species of animal from a man born of a noble, it made him no more -uncomfortable or ashamed to remain that different species of animal, -than it makes a horse ashamed to remain a horse, and not to become a -giraffe. But now that a man may make money, and rise in the world, and -associate himself, unreproached, with people once far above him, not -only is the natural discontentedness of humanity developed to an -unheard-of extent, whatever a man's position, but it becomes a veritable -shame to him to remain in the state he was born in, and everybody thinks -it his _duty_ to try to be a "gentleman." Persons who have any -influence in the management of public institutions for charitable -education know how common this feeling has become. Hardly a day passes -but they receive letters from mothers who want all their six or eight -sons to go to college, and make the grand tour in the long vacation, and -who think there is something wrong in the foundations of society because -this is not possible. Out of every ten letters of this kind, nine will -allege, as the reason of the writers' importunity, their desire to keep -their families in such and such a "station of life." There is no real -desire for the safety, the discipline, or the moral good of the -children, only a panic horror of the inexpressibly pitiable calamity of -their living a ledge or two lower on the molehill of the world--a -calamity to be averted at any cost whatever, of struggle, anxiety, and -shortening of life itself. I do not believe that any greater good could -be achieved for the country, than the change in public feeling on this -head, which might be brought about by a few benevolent men, undeniably -in the class of "gentlemen," who would, on principle, enter into some of -our commonest trades, and make them honourable; showing that it was -possible for a man to retain his dignity, and remain, in the best sense, -a gentleman, though part of his time was every day occupied in manual -labour, or even in serving customers over a counter. I do not in the -least see why courtesy, and gravity, and sympathy with the feelings of -others, and courage, and truth, and piety, and what else goes to make up -a gentleman's character, should not be found behind a counter as well as -elsewhere, if they were demanded, or even hoped for, there. - -_Pre-Raphaelitism_, Sec. 2. - - - * * * * * - - -As in nothing is a gentleman better to be discerned from a vulgar -person, so in nothing is a gentle nation (such nations have been) better -to be discerned from a mob, than in this,--that their feelings are -constant and just, results of due contemplation, and of equal thought. -You can talk a mob into anything; its feelings may be--usually are--on -the whole, generous and right; but it has no foundation for them, no -hold of them; you may tease or tickle it into any, at your pleasure; it -thinks by infection, for the most part, catching an opinion like a cold, -and there is nothing so little that it will not roar itself wild about, -when the fit is on;--nothing so great but it will forget in an hour, -when the fit is past. But a gentleman's, or a gentle nation's, passions -are just, measured, and continuous. - -_Sesame and Lilies_, Sec. 30. - - - * * * * * - - -Whether it is indeed the gods who have given any gentleman the grace to -despise the rabble depends wholly on whether it is indeed the rabble, or -he, who are the malignant persons. - -_Fiction, Fair and Foul_, Sec. 46. - - - * * * * * - - -I have summed the needful virtue of men under the terms of gentleness -and justice; gentleness being the virtue which distinguishes gentlemen -from churls, and justice that which distinguishes honest men from -rogues. Now gentleness may be defined as the Habit or State of Love, and -ungentleness or clownishness as the State or Habit of Lust. - -Now there are three great loves that rule the souls of men: the love of -what is lovely in creatures, and of what is lovely in things, and what -is lovely in report. And these three loves have each their relative -corruption, a lust--the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the -pride of life. - -And, as I have just said, a gentleman is distinguished from a churl by -the purity of sentiment he can reach in all these three passions; by his -imaginative love, as opposed to lust; his imaginative possession of -wealth as opposed to avarice; his imaginative desire of honour as -opposed to pride. - -_Fors Clavigera, Letter_ 41. - - - * * * * * - - -Of all essential things in a gentleman's bodily and moral training, this -is really the beginning--that he should have close companionship with -the horse, the dog, and the eagle. Of all birthrights and -bookrights--this is his first. He needn't be a Christian,--there have -been millions of Pagan gentlemen; he needn't be kind--there have been -millions of cruel gentlemen; he needn't be honest,--there have been -millions of crafty gentlemen. He needn't know how to read, or to write -his own name. But he _must_ have horse, dog, and eagle for friends. If -then he has also Man for his friend, he is a noble gentleman; and if God -for his Friend, a king. And if, being honest, being kind, and having -God and Man for his friends, he _then_ gets these three brutal friends, -besides his angelic ones, he is perfect in earth, as for heaven. For, -to be his friends, these must be brought up with him, and he with them. -Falcon on fist, hound at foot, and horse part of himself--Eques, Ritter, -Cavalier, Chevalier. - -Yes;--horse and dog you understand the good of; but what's the good of -the falcon, think you? - -To be friends with the falcon must mean that you love to see it soar; -that is to say, you love fresh air and the fields. Farther, when the -Law of God is understood, you will like better to see the eagle free -than the jessed hawk. And to preserve your eagles' nests, is to be a -great nation. It means keeping everything that is noble; mountains and -floods, and forests, and the glory and honour of them, and all the birds -that haunt them. - -_Fors Clavigera, Letter_ 75. - - - - - BALLANTYNE PRESS, EDINBURGH - - - - - * * * * * - - - - - *The Works of Ruskin* - - - _These are published in various forms:--_ - -1. The Library Edition, now in course of issue. - -This is the definitive and complete edition, and contains much literary -and personal matter, not published in any other form. It alone contains -all Ruskin's works. This edition is strictly limited, and should be -subscribed for without delay. - -2. The Works Edition. 8vo. - -3. The Students' Edition. Crown 8vo. - -4. The Pocket Edition. Fcap. 8vo. (See p. 3 _et sqq._). - - - -_Intending Subscribers to THE LIBRARY EDITION can arrange for payment by -annual instalments on application to the Publisher._ - -_Information about any of the foregoing can be had of Mr. G. Allen, 156 -Charing Cross Road, London, who will send complete Catalogue on -application._ - - - - *Ruskin Reprints for - the Pocket* - - *Fcap. 8vo, Gilt tops, Gilt backs. - Autograph on side.* - -CLOTH LIMP . . . 2s. 6d ) -LEATHER LIMP . . 3s. 6d ) net per Vol. -With Indices - - _NOW READY_ - -SESAME AND LILIES. - Three Lectures and Long Preface. - -THE CROWN OF WILD OLIVE. - Essays on Work, Traffic, War, and - the Future of England. - -THE TWO PATHS. - On Decoration and Manufacture. - -TIME AND TIDE. - On Laws of Work. - -LECTURES ON ART. - Delivered at Oxford in 1870. - -A JOY FOR EVER. - On the Political Economy of Art. - -THE QUEEN OF THE AIR. - A Study of Greek Myths. - -THE ETHICS OF THE DUST. - On the Elements of Crystallisation. - -THE ELEMENTS OF DRAWING. - With 50 Woodcuts. - -THE EAGLE'S NEST. - On the Relation of Natural Science to Art. - -MUNERA PULVERIS. - On the Elements of Political Economy - -FRONDES AGRESTES. - Readings in "Modern Painters." - -MORNINGS IN FLORENCE. - Studies of Christian Art. - -ST. MARK'S REST. - The History of Venice. - -THE STONES OF VENICE. - Vol. I. Selections for Travellers. - -THE STONES OF VENICE. - Vol. II. Selections for Travellers. - - - - * * * * * - - - - _IN PREPARATION_ - - *RUSKIN TREASURIES* - - _*A Series of little Books on - LIFE, ART, TRADE, WORK, &c., &c.*_ - - *Demy 32mo, Cloth, 6d. each net; - Leather, gilt, 1s. each net* - -List of Titles-- - -Wealth. -Women and Dress. -Girlhood. -Religion. -Art. -Education and Youth. -The Dignity of Man. -Vulgarity. -Liberty and Government. -Economy. -Maxims. -Trade and Money. -Books and Reading. -The Bible. -Shakespeare. -The Greek Poets. -The Latin Poets. -Dante. -Architecture. -Artists (Various). -Sculpture. -Engraving and Photography. - - - - - - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OF VULGARITY *** - - - - -A Word from Project Gutenberg - - -We will update this book if we find any errors. - -This book can be found under: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/45913 - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no one -owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and -you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without permission -and without paying copyright royalties. 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