ABSTRACT
Ruskin's attempt to define and understand the most essential elements of his character. It is this intimate aspect of the book that makes it the most authentic account of Ruskin's own forming time and an invaluable aid to understanding the man and his ideas. Dinah Birch has written of the 'very personal understanding of education' characteristic of those Victorians involved in educational reform. So, adapting Ruskin's prefatory remarks about Scott to my own purpose, let me first 'try to give you some idea of his own temper and life. Fors, a work primarily concerned with education, Ruskin had looked to his own childhood to illustrate 'some results of education on after life, by one example in which I know all my facts. Ruskin began to show an interest in learning to draw that they engaged his cousin Mary's drawing master, Charles Runciman, to provide him with lessons.
