He now suffered from frequent attacks of brain irritation and exhaustion, and had many causes of sorrow and disappointment. His lectures were published at intervals from 187o to 1885 in Aratra Pentelici, The Eagle's Nest, Love's Meinie, Ariadne Floren tine, Val d' Arno, Proserpina, Deucalion, The Laws of Fesole, The Bible of Amiens, The Art of England and The Pleasures of Eng land, together with a series of pamphlets, letters, articles, notes, catalogues and circulars.
In the retirement of Brantwood he began his last work, Praeterita, a desultory autobiography with personal anecdotes and reminiscences. He was again attacked with the same mental malady in 1885, which henceforth left him fit only for occasional letters and notes. In 1887 it was found that he had exhausted (spent, and given away) the whole of the fortune he had received from his father, amounting, it is said, to something like £200,000; and he was dependent on the vast and increasing sale of his works, which produced an average income of £4,000 a year, and at times on the sale of his pictures and realizable property. In 1872 a correspondent had remonstrated with him in vain as to taking "usury," i.e., interest on capital lent to others for use. In 1874 Ruskin himself had begun to doubt its lawfulness. In 1876 he fiercely assailed the practice of receiving interest or rent, and he henceforth lived on his capital, which he gave freely to friends, dependants, public societies, charitable and social objects. The course of his opinions and his practice is fully explained in suc cessive letters in Fors.
Until 1889 Ruskin continued to write chapers of Praeterita, which was designed to record memories of his life down to the year 1875 (aet. 56). It was, in fact, only completed in regular series down to 1858 (aet. 39), with a separate chapter as to Mrs. Arthur Severn, and a fragment called Dilecta, containing letters and early recollections of friends, especially of Turner. These two books were published between 1885 and 1889; and except for occasional letters, notes and prefaces, they form the last writings of the author of Modern Painters. His literary career thus ex tends over fifty years. But he has left nothing more graceful, naïve and pathetic than his early memories in book which must rank with the most famous "Confessions" in any literature. The last ten years of his life were passed in complete
retirement at Brantwood, in the loving care of the Severn family, to whom the estate was transferred, with occasional visits from friends, but with no sustained work beyond correspondence, the revision of his works, and a few notes and prefatory words to the books of others. He wished to withdraw his early art writings from circulation, but the public demand made this practically impossible.
The close of his life was one of entire peace and honour. He was loaded with the degrees of the universities and membership in numerous societies and academies. "Ruskin Societies" were founded in many parts of the kingdom. His works were translated and read abroad, and had an enormous circulation in Great Britain and the United States. He died suddenly after only two days' illness on Jan. 2o, 1900. He was buried in Coniston churchyard by his own express wish, the family refusing the offer of a grave in Westminster Abbey.
Ruskin's life and writings have been the subject of many works composed by friends, disciples and admirers. The principal is the Life, by W. G. Collingwood, his friend, neighbour and secretary (2 vols., 1893 ; and ed., 1900). His pupil, E. T. Cook, published his Studies in Ruskin in 1890, with full details of his career as professor, and a Life of Ruskin in 1911. J. A. Hobson, in John Ruskin, Social Reformer (2nd ed., 1899) , has elaborately discussed his social and economic teaching, and claims him as "the greatest social teacher of his age." An analysis of his works has been written by Mrs. Meynell (1900) . His art theories have been discussed by Professor Charles Waldstein of Cambridge in The Work of John Ruskin (1894), by Robert de la Sizeranne in Ruskin et la religion de la beaute (1897), and by Professor H. J. Brunhes of Fribourg in Ruskin et la Bible (i9oi). The monumental "library edition" of Ruskin's works (39 vols., 1903-12), prepared by E. T. Cook, with A. Wedderburn, is the greatest of all the tributes of literary admiration. See also Centenary Addresses (1919) ed. J. H. Whitehouse; J. R. Morley, John Ruskin and Social Ethics (1917) ; A. Williams-Ellis, The Tragedy of John Ruskin (1928). HAR.)