DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61217#0173
‘UNTO THIS LAST.’ l6l
obscure in this world. Ruskin holds the science of
acquisition to be the one science that is “ founded
on nescience, and an art founded on artlessness.”
All other arts and sciences, except this, “have for
their object the doing away with their opposite
nescience and artlessness.” This alone needs the ex-
istence of the ignorance and helplessness whereby its
knowledge and power may work.
“The general law, then, respecting just or economical
exchange, is simply this : There must be advantage on
both sides (or if only advantage on one, at least no
disadvantage on the other), . . . and just payment for
his time, intelligence, and labour to any intermediate
person effecting the transaction. . . . And whatever
advantage there is on either side, and whatever pay is
given to the intermediate person, should be thoroughly
known. All attempt at concealment implies some
practice of the opposite, or undivine, science, founded
on nescience.”
What we wish for is to be reckoned with amongst
our gettings, as well as what we need. We wish for
romantic things, and ideal; “and the regulation of
the purse is, in its essence, regulation of the imagination
and the heart.” Phenomena of price are therefore
extremely complex, but price is to be calculated finally
in labour, and Ruskin goes on to define the nature
of that standard. “ The price of other things must
always be counted by the quantity of labour; not
the price of labour by the quantity of other things.”
And this is well illustrated by an instance too long
L
obscure in this world. Ruskin holds the science of
acquisition to be the one science that is “ founded
on nescience, and an art founded on artlessness.”
All other arts and sciences, except this, “have for
their object the doing away with their opposite
nescience and artlessness.” This alone needs the ex-
istence of the ignorance and helplessness whereby its
knowledge and power may work.
“The general law, then, respecting just or economical
exchange, is simply this : There must be advantage on
both sides (or if only advantage on one, at least no
disadvantage on the other), . . . and just payment for
his time, intelligence, and labour to any intermediate
person effecting the transaction. . . . And whatever
advantage there is on either side, and whatever pay is
given to the intermediate person, should be thoroughly
known. All attempt at concealment implies some
practice of the opposite, or undivine, science, founded
on nescience.”
What we wish for is to be reckoned with amongst
our gettings, as well as what we need. We wish for
romantic things, and ideal; “and the regulation of
the purse is, in its essence, regulation of the imagination
and the heart.” Phenomena of price are therefore
extremely complex, but price is to be calculated finally
in labour, and Ruskin goes on to define the nature
of that standard. “ The price of other things must
always be counted by the quantity of labour; not
the price of labour by the quantity of other things.”
And this is well illustrated by an instance too long
L