'Man walketh in a vain shadow, and disquieteth himself in vain.'
'How dieth the wise man? As the fool.... That which befalleth thesons of men befalleth the beasts, even one thing befalleth them; asthe one dieth so dieth the other, yea they have all one breath; sothat man hath no preeminence above a beast; for all is vanity.'
'ταλαιπωρος εγωανθρωπος, τις μερυδεται εκ τουσωματος τουθανατου τουτου;'
My dear Mr. Ruskin,—You have given me very great pleasureby allowing me to inscribe this book to you, and for two reasons;for I have two kinds of acknowledgment that I wish to make toyou—first, that of an intellectual debtor to a public teacher;secondly, that of a private friend to the kindest of privatefriends. The tribute I have to offer you is, it is true, a smallone; and it is possibly more blessed for me to give than it is foryou to receive it. In so far, at least, as I represent anyinfluence of yours, you may very possibly not think me asatisfactory representative. But there is one fact—and I will layall the stress I can on it—which makes me less diffident than Imight be, in offering this book either to you or to the worldgenerally.
The import of the book is independent of the book itself, and ofthe author of it; nor do the arguments it contains stand or fallwith my success in stating them; and these last at least I mayassociate with your name. They are not mine. I have not discoveredor invented them. They are so obvious that any one who chooses maysee them; and I have been only moved to meddle with them, because,from being so obvious, it seems that no one will so much as deignto look at them, or at any rate to put them together with any careor completeness. They might be before everybody's eyes; but insteadthey are under everybody's feet. My occupation has been merely tokneel in the mud, and to pick up the truths that are being trampledinto it, by a headstrong and uneducated generation.
With what success I have done this, it is not for me to judge. Butthough I cannot be confident of the value of what I have done, I amconfident enough of the value of what I have tried to do. From aliterary point of view many faults may be found with me. There maybe faults yet deeper, to which possibly I shall have to pleadguilty. I may—I cannot tell—have unduly emphasized some points,and not put enough emphasis on others. I may be convicted—nothingis more likely—of many verbal inconsistencies. But let thearguments I have done my best to embody be taken as a whole, andthey have a vitality that does not depend upon me; nor can they beproved false, because my ignorance or weakness may here or therehave associated them with, or illustrated them by, a falsehood. Iam not