MR. RUSKIN ON DRESSING AND BLESSING THE EARTH.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 285, 2 December 1871, Page 4

MR. RUSKIN ON DRESSING AND BLESSING THE EARTH.

Mr. Ruskin has resolved to give £1000 to the public; and has bad this sum invested in Consols in the names of two men of honor. Mr. Ruskin thus describes his plan of dealing with the money : I ; will tell you a little more of what we are ; to do wjth this money as it increases.; First, let'whoever gives us any be clear in their minds that it is a gift. It is not an investment. '-It is a frank and simple gift to the British people; nothing of it i 3 tticonae hack-to' the giver. "But; also, nothing of it is to be lost. This money is not to b.e spent in feeding Woolwich infants with gunpowder. It is : t0! be spent in dressing the earth and keeping it, — in feeding human lips, iv clothing human bodies, in kindling human souls. First of all, I say, in dressing the earth. As soon as the fund reaches any sufficient amount, the trustees shall buy with it any kiud of land offered them at just price in Britain. Rock, moor, marsh, or seashore, —it matters not what., so that it be in English ground, and secured to us. Then we will ascertain the absolute best tbat can be made of every acre. We will first examine what flowers and herbs it naturally bears; every wholesome flower that it will grow shall be / sown in wild places, aud every kind of/ fruit'tfee that' can:, prosper ; . and arable and pasture land exteuded by every espedient of tillage^ with humble and simp/c cottage dwellings, under ...faultless sanifafy regulations. Whatever piece of land ye begin work upon, .weshall treat thoroughly at once, putting unlimited manual labor on it, until we have every foot under as strict. care as a flower garden"; arid the laborers shall be paid sufficient, , unchanging wages; and their children educated compulsorily in agricultural schools inland, and uavil schools by the sea, the indispensable first condition of such education being that thA boys learn either to ride or to sail ; the girls to spin, weave, and sew, and at a proper age to cook all ordinary food exquisitely; the youth of both sexes to be disciplined daily in the strictest practice of i vocal music; and for morality, to be taught/ gentleness to all brute creatures, finished/ courtesy, to each other, to speak truth with/ rigid "care, and' to obey orders with the/ precision of slaves.' .Then., as they gel older, they are to' learn' the natural bistort of the place they live in • to knowLatid, boys and/girls both, and the history of fivp citieSjT-r-Athens,! Rome, Venice, Florenca and London.-" Now, to what extent I may be'abl'e to carry this plan into execution, I know not; but.Josoineyjsible extent, witfc my own single hand, I.cap^and will, if I live.