The Ethics of the Dust

The Ethics of the Dust

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 care, the passages in which the principal

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.

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
The summary of the contents of the whole book, beginning, "You may
at least earnestly believe," at p. 215, is thus the