John Ruskin | Autograph letter signed, to the Liverpool Institute, decrying industry and commerce

John Ruskin

Autograph letter signed, to an un-named recipient at the Liverpool Institute

declining an invitation to address the Institute, noting that while he has “the most sincere respect for the intelligence and intentions of the leading men of our great manufacturing and commercial towns”, he has “long felt that were no more my duty or function to endeavour to bring my own views before them – there being sweeping opposition between us in first principles”, then decrying the environmental impact of commerce and industry (“I cannot see the sky out of my own house windows any more – because of Commercial Smoke, nor can I take a walk in the fields – because Commerce has turned them into Brickfields”), 4 pages, 8vo, Denmark Hill, 27 July 1866

RUSKIN WRITES AGAINST COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY. His initial polite refusal to address the Liverpool Institute grows into a sustained attack upon commerce and industry, as inimical to the artistic spirit:

“The object of all our active and leading minds is at present to make England the market and forge of the world. This may – or may not be – the most honourable position the country could achieve for itself – But honourable or not – it is incompatible with any success in art or the studies connected with it”.