Prev | Current Page 149 | Next

Ruskin, John, 1819-1900

"Being a Study of the Greek Myths of Cloud and Storm"

Then I myself
will answer for the course of the lance, and the colors of the loom."
And now I will ask the reader to look with some care through these
following passages respecting modern multitudes and their occupations,
written long ago, but left in fragmentary form, in which they must now
stay, and be of what use they can.
120. It is not political economy to put a number of strong men down on
an acre of ground, with no lodging, and nothing to eat. Nor is it
political economy to build a city on good ground, and fill it with store
of corn and treasure, and put a score of lepers to live in it. Political
economy creates together the means of life, and the living persons who
are to use them; and of both, the best and the most that it can, but
imperatively the best, not the most. A few good and healthy men, rather
than a multitude of diseased rogues; and a little real milk and wine
rather than much chalk and petroleum; but the gist of the whole business
is that the men and their property must both be produced together--not
one to the loss of the other. Property must not be created in lands
desolate by exile of their people, nor multiplied and depraved humanity,
in lands barren of bread.


Pages:
137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161