RUSKIN'S WORDS ON WAR.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—Lest, in the sadness and anxiety that overshadow us from the war in South Africa, we forget there is a bright lining to every cloud, it is well to remind ourselves of the uses of war to us as a nation. Ruskin'a words on war are so bracing and admirable that I venture to send you the quotation :— "When I tell you that war is the foundation of all the arts I mean also that it is the foundation of all the high virtues and faculties of men. It is very strange to me to discover this ; and very dreadful—but I saw it to be quite an undeniable fact.
I found, in brief, that all great nations learnt their truth of word, and strength of thought in war, that they were nourished in war, and wasted by peace; taught by war, and deceived by peace ; trained by war, and betrayed by peace ; in a word, that they were born in war, and expired in peace."— ("Crown of Wild Olives," Ruskin. Lecture III., paragraphs 93 and 94.)
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