THE LATE JOHN RUSKIN.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 65, 17 March 1900, Page 5 (Supplement)

THE LATE JOHN RUSKIN.

SAD ROMANCES OF HIS LIFE

It is an accepted fact that John Kuskin suffered from some congenital physical defect which made marriage in the true sense impossible. Nevertheless a vein of romance, with the contemplation of marriage as its issue, ran through all his youth and his maturity, and resulted in three episodes of so painful a sort as to shadow his career at three important crises. The first of these love stories began shortly after his return with his parents from a European tour, in December, 1833. The family found it hard to accustom themselves to the commonplaces of British life after the excitements of their journey. They therefore eagerly welcomed the arrival as a visitor from Paris of M. Domecci, Mr Ruskin's partner, who brought with him his four younger daughters. They were "the first really wellbred and well-dressed girls" whom John Ruskin had eve.r met, so Ruskin afterwards declared. The eldest, Adele Clothilde, at once bewitched him. He was 17, she only 15. She did not understand the adoration of her shy and awkward swain. He had had little experience of society, he had no drawing-room graces. His talents were not such as to count for much With a girl of 10. who wanted only to be amused. She laughed at John.

SHE LEFT HIM BROKEN-HEARTED.

When the visitors departed he was left With a broken heart. He. sought relief in poetry and in study. Even his mother's sympathy failed him. She could but look with horror vipon a contemplated union with a French woman and a Catholic. His passion, however, only grew in the absence of its object. In IS3S she went with her sisters to a school near Chelmsl'ord, in England.. In that August he saw her again. She had lost some of her first girlish prettiness, but that made no difference. And when the Domecqs came to the Ruskin house, at Herne Hill, to spend the Christinas holidays, he was as deeply in love as ever. Still she laughed at him. Her school days over, she returned to France. In September, 1539, he heard of her engagement to a French nobleman, Baron Duquesne. Then lie wrote the long poem entitled "Farewell." A fortnight later he was taken seriously ill. In May he was pronounced consumptive, and had to give up Oxford. For nearly two years he was dragged about from place to place. Then he freed himself from the spell, returned to Oxford, took a pass degree,and 50 years afterwards could look back upon the story as a pretty comedy of his youthful days.

Some five years later, when the first volume of "Modern Painters" had already made him a famous man, he met one evening at a dance in London 'a young girl of remarkable beauty.

She was Miss Euphemia Chalmers, the. eldest daughter of Mr George Gray, of Bowerswell, Perthshire. The hostess, pointing- her out to Ruskin, told him that was the girl he should marry.

lie shook his head. He told the lady that he had decided never to marry, that art was his only mistress. But the thought so put into his mind would not so easily be shaken oft". As his acquaintance with Miss Chalmers ripened he imagined in her all the attributes of the ideal woman, in brief, lie fell in love and formally proposed for her hand. HER PARENTS ARE BLAMED. He made no secret of his infirmity. But he was famous and wealthy. He had at his command a marvellous eloquence of language; he was of a chivalrous and generous nature. Miss Chalmers admired him, but she demurred to the match. According to Mr W. G. Colllngwood, Ruskin's biographer, it was the lady's parents who forced the match upon her. According to the same authority, the marriage, which took place in IS'IS, resulted in much unhappiness to her. She had no sympathy with his aims or his work.

Now, among Ruskin's friends was a young painter named John Millais. He is described as at that time the handsomest man in England. His tnlents were such as to promise a golden future. He had every duality calculated to win a woman.

It was this young- man whom Ruskin brought to his house to paint a portrait of his wife. The two young people were thrown into constant companionship. Mrs Ruskin save the artist many sittings. Mr Ruskin's interest in the progress of the work led to his occasional presence at these sittings, but as a rule painter and model were left alone. Then came a long tour through a part of rural England, in which Millais accompanied the Ruskins. Before that tour was ended the youngwife and the young- painter had fallen desperately in love with each other.

They did not reveal the truth even to each other. But John Ruskin divined it. He was not the sort of man to fall into.a passion of jealous wrath. He did not make a scene. He gently and kindly told Mrs Ruskin of his discovery. He loyally took her part and the part of her admirer. He assured her of hia continued friendship and esteem, of his desire not to stand in the way of a perfectly datural love. He blamed his own dulness for imagining that a purely platonic union could be either natural or satisfactory. That union was void in the eyes of the law. It could be annulled by law.

The woman refused at first to allow Ruskin to make a sacrifice of himself so painful to his sensitiveness and so destructive to his domestic happiness. John Millais, when consulted, was equally positive in his refusal. But the husband insisted, and finally carried his point. DIVORCE PRIVATELY ARRANGED. Under the peculiar circumstances there was no difficulty in obtaining- a divorce. .The matter was arranged privately, without any scandal, and in 1554 Mrs John Ruskin became Mrs John Millais.

But the blow was a terrible one to the divorced husband. For a long time he retired to strict seclusion, scarcely seeing his nearest friends. When he emerged it was with a mind that showed symptoms/ even in his public utterances, of the malady which darkened his later years.

Nevertheless, when Ruskin was 53 he seems to have so far recovered as to feel a deep attachment for another woman. This was Francesca, a younger sister of the Roscttis. ■ He would gladly have brought her to his home as companion and comforter of his declining- years. She on her part returned the attachment. She would have accepted his offer but for his religious views.

She was an evangelist of the straightest and narrowest views. In her eyes he was little better than an infidel. In his early youth he had, indeed, contemplated entering holy orders, but doubts had assailed him, he had renounced the priesthood, and after many years of great mental suffering had come out of the ordeal an agnostic, or, at best, a deist, though always preserving a deeply reverent and religious spirit.

One of his most serious illnesses followed the waking from this dream, and from that time he became almost a recluse from the world.

Meanwhile, what of the lady? The sacrifice which she had made, however wrongly, for conscience' sake, cost her

her life. Three years later she lay on her deathbed. Ruskin sent her a message im-

ploring to be allowed to see her once more. In return she sent to ask whether he could yet say that he loved God better than he loved her. When he said "No" her door was closed upon him for ever.