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The Crown of Wild Olive
This 1866 collection of essays on "Work," "Traffic," and "War," begins with a preface condemning the human depletion of nature for what Ruskin saw as valueless gains. In this way, mining the ground for metals, water, and other resources parallels the work of the three lecture topics--all is done for the money. But what Ruskin wants to know is what the ultimate effect and product of their work is?
Excerpt from The Crown of Wild Olive: Three Lectures on Work, Traffic, and War
Maremma, - not by Campagna tomb. - not by the sand-isles of the Torcellan shore, - as the slow stealing of aspects of reckless, indolent, animal neglect, over the delicate sweetness of that English scene: nor is any blasphemy or impiety, any frantic saying or godless thought, more appalling to me, using the best power of judgment I have to discern its sense and scope, than the insolent defiling of those springs by the human herds that drink of them. Just where the welling of stainless water, trembling and pure, like a body of light, enters the pool of Carshalton, cutting itself a radiant channel down to the gravel, through warp of feathery weeds, all waving, which it traverses with its deep threads of clearness, like the chalcedony in moss-agate, starred here and there with white grenouillette; just in the very rush and murmur of the first spreading currents, the human wretches of the place cast their street and house foulness; heaps of dust and slime, and broken shreds of old metal, and rags of putrid clothes; which, having neither energy to cart away, nor decency enough to dig into the ground, they thus shed into the stream, to diffuse what venom of it will float and melt, far away, in all places where God meant those waters to bring joy and health.
Excerpt from The Crown of Wild Olive: Three Lectures on Work, Traffic, and War
Maremma, - not by Campagna tomb. - not by the sand-isles of the Torcellan shore, - as the slow stealing of aspects of reckless, indolent, animal neglect, over the delicate sweetness of that English scene: nor is any blasphemy or impiety, any frantic saying or godless thought, more appalling to me, using the best power of judgment I have to discern its sense and scope, than the insolent defiling of those springs by the human herds that drink of them. Just where the welling of stainless water, trembling and pure, like a body of light, enters the pool of Carshalton, cutting itself a radiant channel down to the gravel, through warp of feathery weeds, all waving, which it traverses with its deep threads of clearness, like the chalcedony in moss-agate, starred here and there with white grenouillette; just in the very rush and murmur of the first spreading currents, the human wretches of the place cast their street and house foulness; heaps of dust and slime, and broken shreds of old metal, and rags of putrid clothes; which, having neither energy to cart away, nor decency enough to dig into the ground, they thus shed into the stream, to diffuse what venom of it will float and melt, far away, in all places where God meant those waters to bring joy and health.
- GenresPhilosophy
276 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1866
2 people are currently reading
121 people want to read
About the author
John Ruskin
3,743 books487 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
John Ruskin was an English writer, philosopher, art historian, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and political economy.
Ruskin was heavily engaged by the work of Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc which he taught to all his pupils including William Morris, notably Viollet-le-Duc's Dictionary, which he considered as "the only book of any value on architecture". Ruskin's writing styles and literary forms were equally varied. He wrote essays and treatises, poetry and lectures, travel guides and manuals, letters and even a fairy tale. He also made detailed sketches and paintings of rocks, plants, birds, landscapes, architectural structures and ornamentation. The elaborate style that characterised his earliest writing on art gave way in time to plainer language designed to communicate his ideas more effectively. In all of his writing, he emphasised the connections between nature, art and society.
Ruskin was hugely influential in the latter half of the 19th century and up to the First World War. After a period of relative decline, his reputation has steadily improved since the 1960s with the publication of numerous academic studies of his work. Today, his ideas and concerns are widely recognised as having anticipated interest in environmentalism, sustainability and craft.
Ruskin first came to widespread attention with the first volume of Modern Painters (1843), an extended essay in defence of the work of J.M.W. Turner in which he argued that the principal role of the artist is "truth to nature". From the 1850s, he championed the Pre-Raphaelites, who were influenced by his ideas. His work increasingly focused on social and political issues. Unto This Last (1860, 1862) marked the shift in emphasis. In 1869, Ruskin became the first Slade Professor of Fine Art at the University of Oxford, where he established the Ruskin School of Drawing. In 1871, he began his monthly "letters to the workmen and labourers of Great Britain", published under the title Fors Clavigera (1871–1884). In the course of this complex and deeply personal work, he developed the principles underlying his ideal society. As a result, he founded the Guild of St George, an organisation that endures today.
John Ruskin was an English writer, philosopher, art historian, art critic and polymath of the Victorian era. He wrote on subjects as varied as geology, architecture, myth, ornithology, literature, education, botany and political economy.
Ruskin was heavily engaged by the work of Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc which he taught to all his pupils including William Morris, notably Viollet-le-Duc's Dictionary, which he considered as "the only book of any value on architecture". Ruskin's writing styles and literary forms were equally varied. He wrote essays and treatises, poetry and lectures, travel guides and manuals, letters and even a fairy tale. He also made detailed sketches and paintings of rocks, plants, birds, landscapes, architectural structures and ornamentation. The elaborate style that characterised his earliest writing on art gave way in time to plainer language designed to communicate his ideas more effectively. In all of his writing, he emphasised the connections between nature, art and society.
Ruskin was hugely influential in the latter half of the 19th century and up to the First World War. After a period of relative decline, his reputation has steadily improved since the 1960s with the publication of numerous academic studies of his work. Today, his ideas and concerns are widely recognised as having anticipated interest in environmentalism, sustainability and craft.
Ruskin first came to widespread attention with the first volume of Modern Painters (1843), an extended essay in defence of the work of J.M.W. Turner in which he argued that the principal role of the artist is "truth to nature". From the 1850s, he championed the Pre-Raphaelites, who were influenced by his ideas. His work increasingly focused on social and political issues. Unto This Last (1860, 1862) marked the shift in emphasis. In 1869, Ruskin became the first Slade Professor of Fine Art at the University of Oxford, where he established the Ruskin School of Drawing. In 1871, he began his monthly "letters to the workmen and labourers of Great Britain", published under the title Fors Clavigera (1871–1884). In the course of this complex and deeply personal work, he developed the principles underlying his ideal society. As a result, he founded the Guild of St George, an organisation that endures today.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 1, 2025
Some books are destined to find you……
Earlier this year, I saw a set of books up for auction. What caught my eye was a first edition, first print Idylls of the King by Tennyson. I honestly couldn’t have cared less about the rest of the books in the group. For the low price of $39 including shipping, I somehow won the auction, and the set of books was mine.
This book was included with “Oliver W. Holmes 4/14/21” inscribed on the front flyleaf.
The Crown of Wild Olive is a phenomenal book divided up into 4 lectures:
1. Work
2. Traffic
3. War
4. The Future of England
I will interrupt this segment with a little bit of background on this author……
Ugh! Earlier this week, I wrestled with a massive undertaking of putting all of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s personal books into a list (this is his personal library). One of the books that was listed not once, but twice, was Masterpieces of British Literature. Guess who was the very first person featured? John Ruskin!
Hehe this is my review so I get tomake you suffer educate you about the biography of John Ruskin. He started off as an art critic. As a boy, he read an illustrated poem, Italy by Samuel Rogers. This inspired him so much that he wanted to go deeper into the fundamental questions of art and beauty.
Now back to our regular programming…..
The Crown of Wild Olive is asking some fundamental questions about the identity of England and what exactly it values. Ruskin doesn’t hesitate to deliver tough messages.
“So of doctors…the entire object of their lives is not fees. Their work is first, their fee second. […] As with brave people, the work is first and the fee second.”
Ruskin ponders that when we die, will we be marked, “King of Kings” or “Slave of Slaves?” He isn’t afraid to call out religion either.
“You knock a man into a ditch, and then you tell him to remain content in the ‘position in which Providence has placed him.’ That’s modern Christianity.”
“It is useless to put your heads together, if you can’t put your hearts together.”
“You must do more than pray for it; you must work for it.”
“A little group of wise hearts is better than a wilderness full of fools.”
“What was called ‘governing’ them meant only wearing fine clothes and living on good fare at their expense.”
“Educate, or govern, they are one and the same word.”
“You do not learn that you may live—you live that you may learn.”
“What we think, or what we know, or what we believe, is in the end of little consequence. The only thing of consequence is what we do: and for man, woman or child, the first point of education is to make them do their best.”
The Green Light at the End of the Dock (How much I spent):
Hardcover Text – $39.55 is what I paid for a set of books (including this one) at auction
Connect With Me!
Blog Threads BookTube Facebook Insta My Bookstore at Pango
Earlier this year, I saw a set of books up for auction. What caught my eye was a first edition, first print Idylls of the King by Tennyson. I honestly couldn’t have cared less about the rest of the books in the group. For the low price of $39 including shipping, I somehow won the auction, and the set of books was mine.
This book was included with “Oliver W. Holmes 4/14/21” inscribed on the front flyleaf.
The Crown of Wild Olive is a phenomenal book divided up into 4 lectures:
1. Work
2. Traffic
3. War
4. The Future of England
I will interrupt this segment with a little bit of background on this author……
Ugh! Earlier this week, I wrestled with a massive undertaking of putting all of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s personal books into a list (this is his personal library). One of the books that was listed not once, but twice, was Masterpieces of British Literature. Guess who was the very first person featured? John Ruskin!
Hehe this is my review so I get to
Now back to our regular programming…..
The Crown of Wild Olive is asking some fundamental questions about the identity of England and what exactly it values. Ruskin doesn’t hesitate to deliver tough messages.
“So of doctors…the entire object of their lives is not fees. Their work is first, their fee second. […] As with brave people, the work is first and the fee second.”
Ruskin ponders that when we die, will we be marked, “King of Kings” or “Slave of Slaves?” He isn’t afraid to call out religion either.
“You knock a man into a ditch, and then you tell him to remain content in the ‘position in which Providence has placed him.’ That’s modern Christianity.”
“It is useless to put your heads together, if you can’t put your hearts together.”
“You must do more than pray for it; you must work for it.”
“A little group of wise hearts is better than a wilderness full of fools.”
“What was called ‘governing’ them meant only wearing fine clothes and living on good fare at their expense.”
“Educate, or govern, they are one and the same word.”
“You do not learn that you may live—you live that you may learn.”
“What we think, or what we know, or what we believe, is in the end of little consequence. The only thing of consequence is what we do: and for man, woman or child, the first point of education is to make them do their best.”
The Green Light at the End of the Dock (How much I spent):
Hardcover Text – $39.55 is what I paid for a set of books (including this one) at auction
Connect With Me!
Blog Threads BookTube Facebook Insta My Bookstore at Pango
December 15, 2015
Four lectures delivered to appropriate institutions in the 1860's. On this evidence, when Ruskin lectured he meant to do more than merely discourse on a subject, he meant to actively harangue his audience!
'Work', delivered to the Working Man's Institute of Camberwell, has Ruskin categorize the working class as including both rich or poor. Only the idle are in a different class. However, not all work is good; a highly religious man, he believed that those who worked for Capital were working for the devil.
'Traffic' was addressed at the Town Hall in Bradford to mark the building of a new Exchange. They may he been hoping to benefit from his ideas on architecture. They certainly couldn't have expected him to start out by telling them that they didn't really want or need an Exchange!
Of course and Exchange is a symbol of Capital, therefore a abomination to Ruskin. He does offer them some advice on their design later on though: 'I can only present suggest decorating its frieze with pendent purses; and making its pillars broad at the base, for the sticking of bills.'
Ouch!
His lecture on 'War' is a curious thing. He starts off by exulting it, asserting that 'war is the foundation of all the arts'. Following that logic into our own times, why then does Israel, a nation at constant war, never produce any great art?
He recognizes three types of war - for play, for dominion, and for defense. As you expect, only the third type is morally acceptable, I am sure none amongst his audience of young soldiers would have disagreed with that.
But what would they have thought of this?: 'No youth who was earnestly busy with any peaceful subject or study, or set on any serviceable course of action, ever voluntarily became a soldier.' Hardly a compliment, is it?
Or this? 'You are not true soldiers, if you only mean to stand at a shop door, to protect shop-boys who are cheating inside.' I couldn't agree more, but then it goes against the entire code of soldiery, which is to obey. The hiring committee must have been gnashing their teeth.
But that's not all, for he spares his harshest broadside for the ladies in the audience, suggesting that war would never occur if they weren't complicit in bringing it about. Check this out:
'the real, final reason for all the poverty, misery and rage of battle ... Is simply that you women, however good, however religious, however self-sacrificing for those whom you love, are too selfish and too thoughtless to take pains for any creature out of your own immediate circles.'
The final lecture, called 'The Future of England' and given to the Royal Academy, may have the most intriguing title but for all that is the least interesting of the four.
John Ruskin was a highly principled man who lived and died by his views on the evil of Capital and machinery. These lectures make interesting reading, unorthodox and brave, especially considering who he was addressing each time.
Most of all though, I enjoyed the preface, where he gives a passionate argument reasoning out how those considering themselves to be atheists should actually be more keen to act charitably in this life than those that believe we are all destined for another, immortal life after death.
'Work', delivered to the Working Man's Institute of Camberwell, has Ruskin categorize the working class as including both rich or poor. Only the idle are in a different class. However, not all work is good; a highly religious man, he believed that those who worked for Capital were working for the devil.
'Traffic' was addressed at the Town Hall in Bradford to mark the building of a new Exchange. They may he been hoping to benefit from his ideas on architecture. They certainly couldn't have expected him to start out by telling them that they didn't really want or need an Exchange!
Of course and Exchange is a symbol of Capital, therefore a abomination to Ruskin. He does offer them some advice on their design later on though: 'I can only present suggest decorating its frieze with pendent purses; and making its pillars broad at the base, for the sticking of bills.'
Ouch!
His lecture on 'War' is a curious thing. He starts off by exulting it, asserting that 'war is the foundation of all the arts'. Following that logic into our own times, why then does Israel, a nation at constant war, never produce any great art?
He recognizes three types of war - for play, for dominion, and for defense. As you expect, only the third type is morally acceptable, I am sure none amongst his audience of young soldiers would have disagreed with that.
But what would they have thought of this?: 'No youth who was earnestly busy with any peaceful subject or study, or set on any serviceable course of action, ever voluntarily became a soldier.' Hardly a compliment, is it?
Or this? 'You are not true soldiers, if you only mean to stand at a shop door, to protect shop-boys who are cheating inside.' I couldn't agree more, but then it goes against the entire code of soldiery, which is to obey. The hiring committee must have been gnashing their teeth.
But that's not all, for he spares his harshest broadside for the ladies in the audience, suggesting that war would never occur if they weren't complicit in bringing it about. Check this out:
'the real, final reason for all the poverty, misery and rage of battle ... Is simply that you women, however good, however religious, however self-sacrificing for those whom you love, are too selfish and too thoughtless to take pains for any creature out of your own immediate circles.'
The final lecture, called 'The Future of England' and given to the Royal Academy, may have the most intriguing title but for all that is the least interesting of the four.
John Ruskin was a highly principled man who lived and died by his views on the evil of Capital and machinery. These lectures make interesting reading, unorthodox and brave, especially considering who he was addressing each time.
Most of all though, I enjoyed the preface, where he gives a passionate argument reasoning out how those considering themselves to be atheists should actually be more keen to act charitably in this life than those that believe we are all destined for another, immortal life after death.
November 16, 2020
Great approach to the so called "Lesser Evils" of the society that we ignore.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews