ABSTRACT
Echoing principles outlined in the 1853 essay 'Modern Education', and anticipating ideas that he would expand upon in Fors Clavigera, Ruskin maintains that education, properly understood, is not 'a means of getting on in the world. Here we recognize the fundamental Ruskinian connection between truth and clarity of vision. Ruskin urges the importance of 'looking intensely at words, and assuring yourself of their meaning syllable by syllablenay. This understanding was shaped in part by his early religious training but further enriched by his study of Greek philosophy and of Plato in particular, with his emphasis upon order and the danger attendant upon unchecked liberty. When he replies that girls cannot easily understand gentlemen's work, Dora exclaims tartly, 'I am sure we should understand it better than gentlemen understand about sewing.
