one of those persons who set themselves a very high standard, and
resolve to drag both themselves and their neighbours up to it. But, as
the process is difficult, so it is disappointing. People became rather
shy of Mrs. Ruskin, and she of them, so that her life was solitary and
her household quiet. It was not merely from narrow Puritanism that she
made so few friends; her morality and her piety, strict as they were
within their own lines, permitted her most of the enjoyments and
amusements of life; still less was there any cynicism or misanthropy.
But she devoted herself to her husband and son. She was too proud to
court those above her in worldly rank, and she was not easily approached
except by people fully equal to her in strength of character, of whom
there could never be many. The few who made their way to her friendship
found her a true and valuable friend.




CHAPTER II

THE FATHER OF THE MAN (1819-1825)


Into this family John Ruskin was born on February 8, 1819, at half-past
seven in the morning. He was baptised on the twentieth by the Rev. Mr.
Boyd.

The first account of him in writing is in a letter from his mother when
he was six weeks old. She chronicles--not without a touch of
superstition--the breaking of a looking-glass, and continues: "John
grows finely; he is just now on my knees sleeping and looking so