John Ruskin | Autograph manuscript, fair copy of the preface to Unto this last, early 1860s

John Ruskin

Autograph manuscript, fair copy of the preface to Unto this last, early 1860s

titled, "Shall nothing more be asked of us than that we be honest?", text abridged and amended, 1 page, folio, early 1860s, card, faint watermark "Whatman 1855", slightly soiled

"...there should be training schools established under Government discipline, over the whole country-that every child born in the country should at the parents' wish be permitted - and in certain cases, under penalty required to pass through them; and at these schools be imperatively taught, (a) the laws of health and exercises...(b) habits of greatness and Justice, (c) the calling by which it is to live...in connection with such schools, there should also be established government manufactories and shops, whereat... there should be always exemplary work done, and...good and pure substance sold, so that a man...if he chose to pay the Government price... got for his money, Bread that was bread: Ale that was ale: and Work that was work..."

A strongly Socialist piece of writing taken from the preface of Unto this last, a column serialised in the Cornhill Magazine in 1860 which was soon discontinued due to the public uproar it induced. This manuscript derives from the preface of the book version, published in 1862, abridged and altered, from the middle section of the preface with the opening line and quotation taken from an earlier section. The quotation is from Pope's Essay on Man.

Unto this last was an enormous influential work. For example Mahatma Gandhi translated the text into Gujarati in 1908 and instituted the principles discussed in Ruskin's essay in his Phoenix Settlement, where every resident received an equal salary, without distinction based on race, role, or nationality.