11. SKETCH FROM RAPHAEL 285

12. OUTLINES OF A BALL 287

13. WOODCUT OF DURER'S 289

14, 15, 16. Ma.s.sES OF LEAVES 290, 291

17, 18, 19. CURVATURES IN LEAVES 295, 296

20. FROM AN ETCHING, BY TURNER 297

21. ALPINE BRIDGE 307

22. ALPINE BRIDGE AS IT APPEARS AT VARIOUS DISTANCES 308

23. OUTLINES EXPRESSIVE OF FOLIAGE 314

24. SHOOT OF SPANISH CHESTNUT 315

25. YOUNG SHOOT OF OAK 316

26, 27, 28. WOODCUTS AFTER t.i.tIAN 321, 322

29. DIAGRAM OF WINDOW 339

30. SWISS COTTAGE 355

31. GROUPS OF LEAVE 350

32. PAINTING, by Turner 361

33. SKETCH ON CALAIS SANDS, by Turner 365

34. DRAWING OF AN IDEAL BRIDGE, by Turner 369

35. PROFILE OF THE TOWERS OF EHRENBREITSTEIN 370

36. CURVES 371

37, 38, 39. CURVES FOUND IN LEAVES 372

40. OUTLINES OF A TREE TRUNK 373

41-44. TREE RADIATION 374, 375

45, 46. WOODCUTS OF LEAF 376

47. LEAF OF COLUMBINE 378

48. TOP OF AN OLD TOWER 385

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 care, the pa.s.sages in which the princ.i.p.al speaker sums the conclusions of any dialogue: for these summaries were written as introductions, for young people, to all that I have said on the same matters in my larger books; and, on re-reading them, they satisfy me better, and seem to me calculated to be more generally useful, than anything else I have done of the kind.

The summary of the contents of the whole book, beginning, "You may at least earnestly believe," at p. 130, is thus the clearest exposition I have ever yet given of the general conditions under which the Personal Creative Power manifests itself in the forms of matter; and the a.n.a.lysis of heathen conceptions of Deity, beginning at p. 131, and closing at p.

138, not only prefaces, but very nearly supersedes, all that in more lengthy terms I have since a.s.serted, or pleaded for, in 'Aratra Pentelici,' and the 'Queen of the Air.'

And thus, however the book may fail in its intention of suggesting new occupations or interests to its younger readers, I think it worth reprinting, in the way I have also reprinted 'Unto this Last,'--page for page; that the students of my more advanced works may be able to refer to these as the original doc.u.ments of them; of which the most essential in this book are these following.

I. The explanation of the baseness of the avaricious functions of the Lower Pthah, p. 39, with his beetle-gospel, p. 41, "that a nation can stand on its vices better than on its virtues," explains the main motive of all my books on Political Economy.

II. The examination of the connexion between stupidity and crime, pp.

57-62, antic.i.p.ated all that I have had to urge in Fors Clavigera against the commonly alleged excuse for public wickedness,--"They don't mean it--they don't know any better."