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In 1877 Ruskin was influenced in part by his friend Thomas Carlyle (whom he had first
met in 1850), Ruskin shifted his emphasis in the late 1850s from art towards social
issues. Nevertheless, he continued to lecture on and write about a wide range of
subjects including art also.. He continued to draw and paint in watercolours, and to
travel extensively across Europe with servants and friends. In 1868, his tour took him
to Abbeville, and in the following year he was in Verona (studying tombs for the Arundel
Society) and Venice (where he was joined by William Holman Hunt). Yet increasingly
Ruskin concentrated his energies on fiercely attacking industrial capitalism, and
the utilitarian theories of political economy underpinning it. He abandoned his
grandiloquent style, writing now in plainer, simpler language, to communicate his
message straightforwardly.[92]
“There is no wealth but life. Life, including all its powers of love, of joy, and of
admiration. That country is the richest which nourishes the greatest number of noble
and happy human beings; that man is richest who, having perfected the function of his
own life to the utmost, has always the widest helpful influence, both personal, and by
means of his possessions, over the lives of others.”
— John Ruskin, Modern Painters V and Unto This Last: Cook and Wedderburn 7.207
and 17.25.
Ruskin further explored political themes in Time and Tide ,the letters, Ruskin promoted
honesty in work and exchange, just relations in employment and the need for co-
operation.
Ruskin's sense of politics was not confined to theory. On his father's death in 1864, he
inherited a considerable fortune of between £120,000 and £157,000 (the exact figure is
disputed).[103] This considerable fortune, inherited from the father he described on his
tombstone as "an entirely honest merchant",[104] gave him the means to engage in
personal philanthropy and practical schemes of social amelioration.