“THIS Turner, whom you have known so little while he was living, will one day take his place beside Shakspere and Verulam. By Shakspere humanity was unveiled, by Verulam the principles of nature, and by Turner its aspects. Of all the three, though not the greatest, Turner was the most unprecedented. Bacon did what Aristotle had attempted; Shakspere did perfectly what Æschylus did partially; but none before Turner had lifted the veil from the face of Nature; the majesty of the hills and forests had received no interpretation; and the clouds passed unrecorded from the face of the Heaven which they adorned, and the Earth to which they ministered." RUSKIN'S Edinburgh Lectures. |