A PLAGUE OF MICE 161 has an influence of the most fatal kind on brain and heart, and it issues, if long so pursued, in the destruction both of intellectual power and moral principle; whereas art devoted humbly and self-forgetfully to the clear statement and record of the facts of the universe, is always helpful and beneficent to mankind, full of comfort, strength, and salvation. John Ruskin , the critic, retires, and John Ruskin , the farmer, takes his place at the plough and forgets, if, indeed, he ever knew, the principles which this great teacher has laid down. And Ruskin , the district, goes on with its daily work, unconscious of the great and illustrious name it bears.