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profondement ombiliquée,"-but how on earth can I tell when a shell is navelled to a depth, in the author's opinion, satisfactory?), and that the turns (taken by the family) are "little numerous" (" peu nombreux "). On the whole, I am not disposed to think my shell is here described, and put my splendid book in its place again.

19. I next tried my English Cuvier,' in sixteen octavo volumes; in which I find no notice whatever taken of these minor snails, except a list of thirty-three species, finishing with an etc.; out of which I mark "Cretacea," "Terrestris," and " Nivea," as perhaps likely to fit mine; and then I come, by order of Atropos, on this amazing account of the domestic arrangements of a little French snail, "Helix decollata" (Guillotined snail?) with references to "Cm. Chemn. cxxxvi. 1254-1257," a species which "has the singular habit of successively fracturing the whorls at the top (origin, that is,-snails building their houses from heaven towards earth), of the spire, so that at a particular epoch, of all the whorls of the spire originally possessed by this bulimus, not a single one remains." Bulimus,-what's a bulimus? Helix is certainly a screw, and bulimus-in my Riddle's dictionary-is said to be " empty-bellied."2 Then this French snail, revolutionary in the manner of a screw, appears to be a belly-walker with an empty belly, and no neck,-who literally "breaks up " his establishment every year! Query-breaks? or melts? Confraction, or confusion? 20. I must put my fine English book back in its place, too;-but here, at last, comes a "work of light" to help us, from my favourite pupil, who was out with me that day on the Downs, and nearly killed himself with keeping a fox in sight on foot, up and down them;-happily

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1 [The Animal Kingdom arranged in Conformity with its Organisation, by the Baron Cuvier, with additional descriptions . by Edward Griffith and others, 16 vols., London, 1827-1835. Ruskin quotes from vol. xii. pp. 30, 31. "Helix decollata, Gm.," ie., as explained in vol. xvi. ("Table of Authors quoted "), so called in E. Germar's Magazin der Entomologie ; "Chemn." refers to J. J. Chemnitz's Conchyliology.]

2 [See below, p. 709 n.]

[See above, § 3 (p. 540).]

[See above, Letter 62, § 16 (p. 526).]

surviving, he has pursued the slower creature for me to its cave of silver earth; and writes thus:

"I have sent you two little boxes-one containing common garden snail shells of various ages, and the other black striped Down shells; and you will see that in Box 1 the full-grown ones, with the strong finished lip, have four whorls each, and all the full-grown garden shells I have noticed had the same number, though they varied a little in size. The next largest in the box have only three and a half turns, but if they had lived longer they would have added on another half turn, bigger than all the rest of the shell put together. In fact, if one looks at this shell, one sees that any half whorl is half as large again as all the rest of the shell before it. Then, besides these, there are four or five younger shells, the smallest of which has only two and a half whorls, which exactly correspond to two and a half whorls taken from any of the larger shells; so

Fig. 9

I think we may conclude that a shell grows by adding on length only to the large end of a tapering tube, like a dunce's cap, which, however, is curled up like a ram's horn, to look prettier, take up less room, and allow the occupant to beat a retreat round the corner when a robin comes. Bythe-bye, I wonder some birds don't grow bills like corkscrews, to get at the snails with.

"Then in Box No. 2 there are several black striped Down shells, and the full-grown ones have six whorls, and the smallest ones, which died young, some four and some five, according to age; but the dunce's cap is longer, and so there are more whorls.

"I couldn't get these facts clearly stated in two handbooks which I read. I suppose they took it for granted that one knew; but I found, what after all would lead one to infer the rest, that the young snail at birth corresponds to the colourless APEX of the shell, and that the colour only comes in that part which grows under the influence of light and air."

Wednesday, Feb. 9.

"Another fact is, that all the shells I ever remember looking at grow in the direction of the sun.

"Another fact. Since the shells have been in this room, my chimneypiece has been full of sleepy, small, long-bodied spiders, which had gone to sleep for the winter in these black and white caverns, out of the reach of flocks of half-starved larks and starlings."

21. I drew the three advancing stages of the common snail's houses, thus sent me, forthwith; and Mr. Burgess swiftly and rightly engraves them. Note that the apparent irregularities in the spirals are conditions of perspective, necessarily affecting the deeply projecting forms; note also that each whorl is partly hidden by the subsequent one, built with its edge lapping over it; and finally, that there is really, I believe, a modification, to some extent, and enlargement, of the inner whorls; until the domestic creature is satisfied with its length of cave, and expresses its rest in accomplished labour and full age, by putting that binding lip round its border, and term to its hope.

Wherein, building for the earth, we may wisely imitate it. Of other building, not with slime for mortar,1 yet heavenward, we may perhaps conceive in due time."

22. I beg all my readers, but especially my Companions, to read with their best care the paper by Mr. Girdlestone,3 which, by the author's kindly gift, I am enabled to send them with this Fors. It is the most complete and logical statement of Economic truth, in the points it touches, that I have ever seen in the English language: and to master it will be the best possible preparation for the study of personal duties to which I shall invite my Companions in my next letter.1

1 [Genesis xi. 3; quoted also in Vol. XIX. p. 75.]

2 [For a letter from another correspondent on the subject of these shells, see Letter 64, § 24 (p. 584).]

3 [Society Classified: in reply to the question, "How far is the saying true that every one lives either by Working, or by Begging, or by Stealing?" A paper read at a meeting of the Weston-super-Mare Social Science Club, February 8, 1876, by E. D. Girdlestone, B. A., Weston-super-Mare, 1876. A penny tract, pp. 12. On the title-page of a second edition (pp. 16) Ruskin's words of commendation were printed.] 4 See pp. 564 seq.]

NOTES AND CORRESPONDENCE

23. (I.) AFFAIRS of the Company.

I give below our banker's account to the end of last year, drawn up by my friend Mr. W. Walker, whom I asked to take salary as the Company's accountant, but who, as will be seen by the part of his letter I take leave here to print, gives us his work in true sympathy.

18, YONGE PARK, HOLLOWAY, N., Nov. 11th, 1875.

DEAR SIR,-I am of the same opinion as your printseller, and agree with him that "it is delightful to do business with you,' "2-so you must please let me volunteer to be of any practical service so far as keeping accounts, etc., can be useful to you or the St. George's Company.

I readily accept the duties as honorary but not titled accountant, and as the labour is light, entailing very little trouble, my reward shall be the self-satisfaction in thinking I have done very little in the cause wherein you have done and are doing so very much.

Nevertheless, your kindly worded offer was gratefully received, and I was really pleased.

The enclosed accounts are a mere copy of the ledger items. I would have put all the names of the donors (I found a few), but you have a record, if I may judge from the notices in the December number of Fors.

JOHN RUSKIN, ESQ., LL.D.

With sincere respect, yours faithfully,
WM. WALKER.

[The following is an earlier letter to Mr. William Walker (of the Union Bank of London), here reprinted from pp. 82-83 of the privately-issued Letters from John Ruskin to F. J. Furnivall and other Correspondents (1897):—

"BRANTWOOD, CONISTON, LANCASHIRE, "" April 6th, 1875.

"DEAR MR. WALKER,-I do not know when I have received more pleasure than from your kind letter to-day, and I very sincerely thank you for it, and for the interest you express in Fors, which is especially encouraging to me when I can meet with it in practical men.

"I do not feel less ashamed for trespassing on your time because you give it me so willingly, and I must indeed in future be more regular in my business proceedings-both in the facts and the notification of them. I suppose it is a long-established principle in human nature that men accumulating money are careful of it, and men diminishing it, careless; and I do not wonder that my friends begin to inquire of me with grave faces whether I am not ruining myself?' However, it will be some time yet before I come to my last ten thousand; and when I do-I must stop my gift-giving, and live, like the rest of my college fellows, on three hundred a year. At that rate my ten thousand will last me till I'm ninety-five. If my flesh and bones do as much-it's more than I expect of them. "Ever very gratefully yours, "J RUSKIN."]

2 [See above, p. 458.]

Dr.

1872.

THE UNION BANK OF LONDON (CHANCERY LANE BRANCH)
IN ACCOUNT WITH ST. GEORGE'S FUND

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Nov. 27. To Cashi

Cr.

£ s. d. 042

Dec. 27. Power of Attorney to re

ceive Dividend on Con-
sols

Dec. 31. By Balance

£125 0 0

050 124 10 10

£125 0 0

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The £40 here acknowledged was an additional subscription from No. 8 subscriber, whose total subscription is therefore £60, not £20, as in above subscriber's account [p. 530]: in which also the initials of No. 38 should be S. G., and the sum £2, 28. These errors will be corrected in next Fors [see p. 578], in which also I will separate the interest from the subscriptions.

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