Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 17.djvu/398

EUSHWORTH. 360 KUSKIN. 1648. The voik. uomprising eight volumes, ap- peared in four installments (ItioO, 1080, 10112, 1701). Its historical value was long overesti- mated; of most value are the shorthand notes taken by Kushwortli himself. RUSK, Jeremiah McClain (1830-0.3). An xVineriean farmer, soldier, and politieal leader, born in ilorgan County, O. He was brouglit up on a farm, received a common school education, and in 1853 removed to Vernon County, Wis. hen the war broke out, he raised a regiment to fight for the Union, and, though offered the colonelcy, he refused to accept a higher grade than that of major. His first service was per- formed against tlie Minnesota Indians. He then took part in the campaign against Vicksburg. and in August, 1803, was promoted lieutenant-colonel. He was with Sherman in the ileridian campaign, displayed great gallantry in the battles around Atlanta, and for his services at the battle of Salkehatchie, where he led a brigade, was brevetted brigadier-general. He was a member of Congress from 1871 to 1877, and was Governor of Wisconsin from 1882 to 1889. At the Re- publican National Convention in 1888 he was an unsuccessful candidate for the Pi'csidential nomi- nation. In the following year President Har- rison appointed him to the Secretaryship of Agri- culture, which had just been made a Cabinet portfolio. He held that position until 1803, and performed his duties with great ability. ETJSK, Thomas Jeffeesox (1802-56). An American soldier and politician, born in Camden, S. C. He studied law- inider Calhoun, began prac- tice in C4eorgia, and in 1834 removed to Texas, where he was a member of the convention which -declared Texas independent (1830), acted as Sec- retary of War, and succeeded Houston in com- mand of the Texan army. From 1838 to 1842 he was justice of the Supreme Court of Texas. He took a prominent part in bringing aljout an- nexation, and in 1840 was elected to the United States Senate. He committed suicide during a temporary mental aberration. KUSK, William (1750-1833). An American sculptor, born in Philadelphia. He was the son of a ship carpenter, and at first carved figure heads for vessels. His figureheads done for the American frigates United fitates and Constitu- tion, and for other vessels, attracted much atten- tion, and are excellent pieces of modeling. He exhibited several statues at the Pennsylvania Academy in 1812. Two of these, "Exultation" and "Praise," are in Old Saint Paul's Church, Philadelphia. His most meritorious work was a full-length statue of Washington (1814), for In- dependejice Hall, I'hiladelphia. RUS'KIN, John (1819-1900). An English autlior. art critic, and reformer, born in London, February 8, 1819. His boyhood and youth he depicted with great charm in Pra-tcrita. His father, .John James Ruskin, a shrewd and artistic Scotchman, was then settled in London, where he prospered as a wine merchant, eventually amassing a fortune of £200.000. The boy was educated at home by his mother. Private tutors taught him Latin, Greek, and French. He studied drawing under Rmiciman, Copley Fielding, and later with Harding. In verse his masters were Rogers, Byron, and Shelley. He accompanied his father and mother on many tours through Eng- land, visiting the lakes, read and wrote verse, sketched, and in 1833 saw the Alps and Italy. Having already published prose and verse in magazines and annuals, he entered Christ Church, Oxford, in 1837. His university course was interrupted by illness. Threatened with con- sumption, he traveled with his parents in Eng- land and on the Continent. At Oxford, where he graduated B. A. in 1842, he won the Newdigate prize with a poem entitled fialsette and Elephanta (1839). In 1843 appeared the first volume of Modern Painters, the primary design of which was to prove the superiority of modern land- scape painters, especially Turner, to the old mas- ters; but in the later volumes (ii., 1840; iii. and iv., 1850; v., 1800) the work expanded into a vast discursive treatise on the principles of art, interspersed with artistic and symbolical descrip- tions of nature, more elaborate and imaginative than any writer had ever before attempted. Modern Painters was revolutionary in its spirit and aim, and naturally excited the aversion and hostility of conservatives. Ruskin's advice to young artists was this: "They should go to Nature in all singleness of heart, and walk with her laboriously and trustingly, having no other thouglit but how best to penetrate her meaning; rejecting nothing, selecting nothing, and scorn- ing nothing." The immense influence of this great work on art is proved by the fact that the advice to-daj' would be the merest commonplace. The first artists to accept Ruskin were a group of young men known as the Pre-Raphaelites (q.v. I. Convincing and memorable is his defense of them against popular ridicule in his essay en- titled Pre-Raphaelitism (1851). To the charge that the brotherhood had no system of light and shade, he replied: "Their system of light and shade is exactly the same as the sun's, which is, I believe, likely to outlast that of the Renais- sance, however brilliant." While Modern Painters was in progress, Ruskin published other books on art : The Seven Lamps of Arehitectiire ( 1849 ) , The Stones of Veniee (vol. i., 1851; vols. ii. and iii., 1853), both of which aimed to introduce a new and loftier conception of the significance of archi- tecture. Like the later volumes of Modern Painters, they were illustrated by Ruskin him- self, an accomplished draughtsman. Still other works on art ilOAved from his pen: Lectures on Architecture and Painting (1854), Elements of Drauinr/ (1857), Political Economy of Art ( 1857 ) , and annual notes on the Royal Academy, ^leanwhile he had also published Poems (1850), the beautiful fairy tale The King of the Golden Rirer (1851), and Xotes on the Con- struction of Sheepfolds (1851), in which he brought forward a plan for Church unity in Eng- land. However varied Ruskin's writings had been hitherto, they bore a close relation to art. Even his plea for one common Christian fold was in- spired by a desire to bring about a spirit favor- able to art. But in Vnto This Last {Cornhill Magazine, 1860) the artistic purpose, though present, is less apparent. Here Ruskin began his attack on the 'dismal science' called political economv. to be continued in Munera Pulrcris (1862-03), Time and Tide (1867), and Fors Clarigera (1871-84), a series of letters to the workmen of England, far above their heads. To this later period belong also Sesame and Lilies (1865), charming essays on literature and other subjects; Ethics of the Dust (1800) ; The Crown