The Project Gutenberg Etext of The Ethics of the Dust, by John Ruskin
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Title: The Ethics of the Dust

Author: John Ruskin

Release Date: December, 2003 [Etext #4701]
[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule]
[This file was first posted on March 3, 2002]

Edition: 10

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE ETHICS OF THE DUST

TEN LECTURES TO LITTLE HOUSEWIVES

ON THE ELEMENTS OF CRYSTALLIZATION

BY JOHN RUSKIN, LL.D.,

HONORARY STUDENT OF CHRIST CHURCH, AND SLADE PROFESSOR OF FINE ART





DEDICATION.


TO THE REAL LITTLE HOUSEWIVES, WHOSE GENTLE LISTENING AND
THOUGHTFUL QUESTIONING ENABLED THE WRITER TO WRITE THIS BOOK, IT
IS DEDICATED WITH HIS LOVE.

CHRISTMAS, 1875.





CONTENTS.


LECTURE

   I. THE VALLEY OF DIAMONDS
  II. THE PYRAMID BUILDERS
 III. THE CRYSTAL LIFE
  IV. THE CRYSTAL ORDERS
   V. CRYSTAL VIRTUES
  VI. CRYSTAL QUARRELS
 VII. HOME VIRTUES
VIII. CRYSTAL CAPRICE
  IX. CRYSTAL SORROWS
   X. THE CRYSTAL REST
      NOTES





PERSONAE


OLD LECTURER (of incalculable age).

FLORRIE,
   on astronomical evidence presumed to be aged 9.

ISABEL..................................... "  11.

MAY........................................ "  11.

LILY....................................... "  12.

KATHLEEN.................................... "  14.

LUCILLA..................................... "  15.

VIOLET..................................... "  16.

DORA (who has the keys and is housekeeper)... " 17.

EGYPT (so called from her dark eyes)....... "  17.

JESSIE (who somehow always makes the room
look brighter when she is in it)........... "  18.

MARY (of whom everybody, including the Old
Lecturer, is in great awe)................. "  20.





PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.


I have seldom been more disappointed by the result of my best
pains given to any of my books, than by the earnest request of my
publisher, after the opinion of the public had been taken on the
"Ethics of the Dust," that I would "write no more in dialogue!"
However, I bowed to public judgment in this matter at once
(knowing also my inventive powers to be of the feeblest); but in
reprinting the book (at the prevailing request of my kind friend,
Mr. Henry Willett), I would pray the readers whom it may at first
offend by its disconnected method, to examine, nevertheless, with
