too narrow for any possible use, (for even if it had been occupied by a seat, as in old time it might have been, everybody walking along the street would have fallen over the legs of the reposing wayfarer). But ... it was fenced from the pavement by an imposing iron railing, having four or five spear-heads to the yard of it, and six feet high; containing as much iron and iron-work, indeed, as could well be put into the space; and by this stately arrangement, the little piece of dead ground within, between wall and street, became a protective receptacle of refuse; cigar ends, and oyster shells, and the like, such as open-handed English street-populace habitually scatters; and was thus left, unsweepable by any ordinary methods. (18.387)

According to Ruskin, the expensive iron fencing that enclosed this tiny patch of ground and made it "pestilent" represents several things about the nation and the age. First of all, it represents (because it is equal to) the quantity of work necessary have cleaned up some polluted pools several times over. Second, it represents "work, partly cramped and perilous, in the mine" (18.381) from which came the coal that provided energy for its creation. Third, says Ruskin, that miserable bit of fencing represents the dangerous work at the blast furnace required to produce the iron it contains (and he quotes a recent newspaper article about the particularly horrible deaths of two men burned to death by molten metal). Fourth, that pub fence represents "ill-taught students making bad designs" (18.388), so that this bit of contemporary work "from the beginning to the last fruits of it" represents all that is deadly and miserable in British society. Ruskin as sage thereupon inquires why this kind of work was done rather than that which would have been enlivening: "How did it come to pass that this work was done instead of the other; that the strength and life of the English operative were spent in defiling ground, instead of redeeming it, and in producing an entirely (in that place) valueless, piece of metal, which can neither be eaten nor breathed, instead of medicinal fresh air and pure water?" (18.388). Having begun by looking at the litter that has collected behind an ugly, if expensive iron railing, Ruskin reveals the many significant truths that metal barrier embodies, after which he shows its relation to contemporary political economy. The progression is as unexpected as Ruskin's initial choice of such humble materials for his subject; he and other sages take grave rhetorical risks when they work in this manner, but when Ruskin succeeds in thus revealing significance where no such significance seems possible, he authenticates his claims to extraordinary perception and extraordinary understanding.

Last modified 2000