DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61217#0066
54
JOHN RUSKIN.
that no one had perceived the Lombardic griffin until
Ruskin studied him. No piecemeal is in this winged
creature. “ He is not merely a bit of lion and a bit of
eagle, but whole lion incorporate with whole eagle.”
He has the carnivorous teeth, “ and the peculiar hang-
ing of the jaw at the back, which marks the flexible
mouth ”; he has no cocked ears, like the other, to
catch the wind in flight (Ruskin says that the classical
griffin would have an ear-ache when he “ got home ”—
a phrase of “heart-easing mirth ”); he—the Lombard-
has the throat, the strength, the indolence of the lion :
“ he has merely got a poisonous winged dragon to hold,
and for such a little matter as that, he may as well do
it lying down.” With the utmost dramatic sense is the
grasp on the dragon told in this fine page, to which the
reader is bound to have recourse if he would know true
griffinism at all. “ Composing legalism does nothing
else than err.” The passionate imagination knows not
how to transgress.
From the chapters on “ Finish ” let us clearly learn
that what Ruskin calls by this name is life o less.
His illustrations of Claude’s and Constable’s tree-
drawing and of the real and vital growth of trees are
to this point; and nowhere is the extraordinary power
of his own hand more manifest than in the plate
“Strength of Old Pine.” None but his word would
describe his work. “ The Use of Pictures ” (a very knot
of reasoning) and a brief history of the human spirit of
the artist, antique and modern, bring us to the famous
JOHN RUSKIN.
that no one had perceived the Lombardic griffin until
Ruskin studied him. No piecemeal is in this winged
creature. “ He is not merely a bit of lion and a bit of
eagle, but whole lion incorporate with whole eagle.”
He has the carnivorous teeth, “ and the peculiar hang-
ing of the jaw at the back, which marks the flexible
mouth ”; he has no cocked ears, like the other, to
catch the wind in flight (Ruskin says that the classical
griffin would have an ear-ache when he “ got home ”—
a phrase of “heart-easing mirth ”); he—the Lombard-
has the throat, the strength, the indolence of the lion :
“ he has merely got a poisonous winged dragon to hold,
and for such a little matter as that, he may as well do
it lying down.” With the utmost dramatic sense is the
grasp on the dragon told in this fine page, to which the
reader is bound to have recourse if he would know true
griffinism at all. “ Composing legalism does nothing
else than err.” The passionate imagination knows not
how to transgress.
From the chapters on “ Finish ” let us clearly learn
that what Ruskin calls by this name is life o less.
His illustrations of Claude’s and Constable’s tree-
drawing and of the real and vital growth of trees are
to this point; and nowhere is the extraordinary power
of his own hand more manifest than in the plate
“Strength of Old Pine.” None but his word would
describe his work. “ The Use of Pictures ” (a very knot
of reasoning) and a brief history of the human spirit of
the artist, antique and modern, bring us to the famous