Origin of the Brown South Pacific Islander, I

THE LIFE MESSAGE OF JOHN RUSKIN 395

find that it not an easy one to answer. is Can it be answered? John Ruskin was a man with a many-sided mind he was the ;

possessor of a great and varied knowledge he was a tireless;

worker in many fields of thought and action he drank deeply of ;

the alternate sweet and bitter in the cup which fate held to his lips, and his life was prolonged beyond the scriptural span. Did John Ruskin leave one central message among the countless beau- tiful thoughts which came from his pen, in the recorded actions of his intense and lengthened life? John Ruskin! There is a charm in that name. "Next to being great oneself," was his dictum, "is the capacity to see and understand greatness in others." And the thought that prompted those words to the great man, is a sort of keynote in the melody of his own life work. Ruskin himself was a hero-worshiper, his books are filled with words of admiration for the great ones of all ages. He has been called "The Art-Seer," and "The Modern Plato." — Divide his life work into parts if that be possible and — we find him art-critic, poet, artist, scientist, political and social economist, historian, reformer, a teacher and worker in endless fields. Well, indeed, must he have pondered upon and understood the Parable of the Talents. Unto him how truly could have been spoken the words "Well done, thou good and faithful servant." :

One life experience, and one that has been such an unwelcome teacher to many, Ruskin never knew. I mean that terrible yet — thorough teacher Poverty. For gold he who is our subject never lacked, and perhaps an experience of poverty might have changed many of his earlier and later views upon social and political econ- omy, upon the question, for instance, of becoming involved in the mesh of debt. Be that as it may, we will not speculate upon what might have been but think of that which was. Out of that vast mass of writing of his, in which he has dealt with every phase of art, from ancient to modern times, of botany, of geology, ques- tions of relationship between labor and capital, of state and re- ligion, what is the central message that John Ruskin has given the world? The French art-critic, R. de la Sizeranne, has written a book entitled Ruskin and the Religion of Beauty. Yes, that is correct. Ruskin's intense and passionate admiration of beauty of art, of — literature, of nature, the works of the inspired ones, of streams and woods, of mountains and sea, — was a sort of religion and his own words the litany of his worship. Pmt his religion included the spiritual, it is founded upon the words of Christ, and the lines of the Psalms "Consider the lilies of the field ;" "His countenance :

was as Lebanon, excellent as the cedars." Rut from his admira- tion of art and nature. Ruskin passed on to a like passionate de- sire to be of assistance to his fellow men. Not only to point out to them the beauty and truths of art, literature and the world on

396 IMPROVEMENT ERA which we live, but also to point out the higher spiritual truths of existence, to alleviate the suffering that comes from false ideals, blind selfishness and misdirected energies. If his theories were right or wrong; whether he was merely a dreamer or an advanced practical thinker, in the true manner of directing mental and physical power —many are the days which shall pass away before we shall fully and rightfully answer those questions. But to our subject! I wonder how many of my readers have read Ruskin's four books, Sesame and Lilies, Crozvn of Wild Olive, Queen of the Air, and Ethics of the Dust? The first named is the most popular of all the writer's books — if we except the — marvelous child's story, King of the Golden River, and perhaps deservedly so from one standpoint of thought. It is detrimental and unfortunate to the reputation and usefulness of the great English writer that so much of his splendid and instructive writing is contained in works of such a special and technical nature as to

bar them from ever becoming popular or even understandable to the general reader. I refer to Modem Painters, Stones of Venice, Two Paths, Seven Lamps of Architecture, and the like books of his. Such beauty of diction, such wealth of imagery and knowl- edge, are hardly to be found in any other writer. But from the causes mentioned they are only read by the few, but by these few Ruskin is beloved as is none other. He is of the very greatest and by some critics is placed on the same level with the Greek dreamer Plato, the English philosopher Francis Bacon, and the German poet and thinker Goethe. If he falls below these men in certain strengths he is the equal of the first, and far above the two latter in spirituality. There was something saint-like almost Christ-like in the life of the man of whom we write. Even in his madness there was a touch of the divine. Although he professed but little patience with the lives of certain saints and hermits of the Middle Ages, there is a question what he might not have been, in spite of all his love

of art, the wonder of that study of his, with its many treasures, had he lived in their day. Truth, Beauty, Power, Sacrifice, Obedience, Labor, Memory, these are the names of the lamps in Ruskin's Seven Lamps of Achitecture. — — Ruskin often sat figuratively as one of his biog- raphers says, "like Job or Jeremiah among the potsherds and thorns, not ceasing to speculate on why the universe existed and whether there was a life beyond death." Afterwards, when his great trials of life came, and indeed they came, he discovered that truth which is learned by many of us who have not his advantages of wealth : "It is work that keeps one sane." In his famous Letters to the Worhingmen, he points out the vast difference be- tween Liberty and Anarchy. "Men must be spoken simply to, if you would sruide them kindlv and long." and vet he forgot this

THE LIFE MESSAGE OF JOHN RUSKIN 397

dictum when addressing the workmen of Great Britain. Few of them could follow his intricate logic, or translate his quotations of Greek and Latin. He failed, for the time being, because he was not understood. To admire, to love the beauty of the. physical world to com- ;

prehend the great poets to understand the great masters of art ;

to be taught of the great philosophers; to obey and revere, the true kings of the earth to follow the prophets of old to live in ; ;

— very truth the teachings of Christ, are not all these messages from the life of John Ruskin? Which one of these did he not himself live ? No this man, who was a poet, an art-seer, a scien- ;

tist, a philosopher, a moralist, a politician, and a philanthropist,

was not perfect. Such is not given for man to be. Yet, out of the furnaces of fire in which he was tried, he emerged victorious and unscathed. What a pathetic and beautiful figure he presents in his last days ! Gentle, loving, patient brain-heart-and soul-tired, uttering ;

no word of controversy or bitterness, with only a smile of infinite wisdom upon his calm face, regretting not the passing of life, and ever ready to receive the welcome summons of death. The life message of John Ruskin Have I not already told !

it? To let the ideal life, and the real, the spiritual and the material, be as near alike as possible. Love Beauty, Be Pure, Be Brave, Admire and Be Taught by Genius, Obey and Revere Power, Be Sincere. Be true This appears to be the central thought in the Life :

Message of John Ruskin

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Origin of the Brown South Pacific Islander

BY JOHN Q. ADAMS

In Two Parts —Part One As the insignificant, wafted straw points out unerringly the path of the wind, otherwise unseen, so in the onward march of great historical events apparently minor incidents have often, within themselves, the indication of the general trend. Some centuries back there was recounted by Alma, prophet- historian, a seemingly insignificant narrative, brief and simple, that undoubtedly has assumed broad proportions in the light of more modern developments. It is this

THE BLACK SOLOMON ISLANDER The type of person with which the brown islander has no possible connection.

"And it came to pass that Hagoth, he being an exceeding curious man; therefore he went forth and built him an exceeding large ship, on the borders of the Land Bountiful, by the land Desolation, and launched it forth into the west sea, by the narrow neck which led into the land northward.

THE BROWN SOUTH PACIFIC ISLANDER 399

"And behold, there were many of the Nephites who did enter therein and did sail forth with much provisions, and also many women and children; and they took their course northward, and thus ended the thirty and seventh year. "And in the thirty and eighth year, this man built other ships. And the first ship did also return, and many more people did enter into it; and they also took much provisions, and set out again to the hind northward. "And it came to pass that they were never heard of more. And we suppose that they were drowned up in the depths of the sea. And it came to pass that one other ship did also sail forth; and whither she

did go, we know not."

Now for a geographical query: Where was the "Land Bountiful," the "Land of Desolation," the "narrow neck," the

GROUP OF SAMOAN WOMEN Note the close resemblance to the American squaw.

"west sea" and the "land northward"? And, of what relative value is all this to our theme? We shall note presently that answer- ing the above question provides for us a very stable foundation upon which we shall proceed to erect our more modern superstruc- ture. The "Land Bountiful" is familiar to all Book of Mormon students as having been located in the northwestern part of South America, adjacent to the Isthmus of Panama, which, by the way, is, of course, the "narrow neck," and the Pacific ocean the "west

sea." The "land northward" may have referred to any part of

400 IMPROVEMENT ERA the western coast of North America, probably off Central America or Mexico, as voyages of that time were rather limited than ex- tensive. .

Bearing all this in mind, in its plain simplicity, we shall now deal with something nearer our own time. Out in the South seas, approximately four thousand miles from San Francisco, lies a group of land dots know as the Samoan or Navigator Islands. On the 24th day of November, 1901, Elder Martin F. Sanders, who was then laboring on the island of Savaii, the largest of the nine, visited, quite by accident, a rude, thatched, native hut where dwelt a couple who had the day previous picked up on the beach, a bottle of rather curious appearance. It was seen to be the depository of a written message of some sort which had not been damaged in its hermetically sealed abode, and curi- osity led to further investigation. On the paper in seven different languages the finder was informed that it had been dropped into the Pacific off the western coast of Mexico by the ship Cavaliere Ciampa, in the endeavor to ascertain the direction and velocity of the ocean current that swept along there. Incorporated with this information was the request that anyone picking it up in any quarter of the world should return it to Washington, D. C, where the facts gained would be valuable to that department of the national government interested in such work. This was done by Elder Sanders. Now for a summary. In little more than eight months, with- out other aid than drifting with the current, the bottle had crossed the intervening four thousand-mile span of ocean waste between Mexico and Samoa, proving conclusively the existence of an ever- moving "ocean river" in that latitude.We are all aware of the peculiarly restless nature of the ocean. Its waters are never perfectly stationary, but move, not only in an up and down wave action, but also as huge rivers moving in varying directions and velocities in dif- ferent latitudes. To further substantiate the presence of the current in question, an Englishman, four years after the occurrence related above, accidentally was set adrift in a THE WAR CANOE On which the islanders could have from the Marquesa been canoe transported. islands near Tahiti, and he, too, followed the drifting course of the bottle, eventually bringing up at Samoa.