ABSTRACT
We may next consider the peculiar group of, VIII, Uplift doctrines which have emerged from the industrious homes of the late Victorian moralists. Mr John Ruskin, in spite of his real taste, maintained in his Oxford Lectures that Fine Art has only three functions – Enforcing the religious sentiments of men, Perfecting their ethical state, and Doing them material service (Plate H). The two last of these were also stressed by William Morris, and the two first by Tolstoy; it is, however, curious that Tolstoy's What is Art? shows no evidence of acquaintance with the work of Ruskin.
