The University Of Life, On A Canal

“Then next, take canal life as a form of ‘university’ education. Your present system of education is to get a rascal of an architect to order a rascal of a clerk-of-the-works to order a parcel of rascally bricklayers to build you a bestially stupid building in the middle of the town, poisoned with gas, and with an iron floor which will drop you all through it some frosty evening; wherein you will bring a puppet of a cockney lecturer in a dress coat and a white tie, to tell you smugly there’s no God, and how many messes he can make of a lump of sugar. Much the better you are for all that, when you get home again, aren’t you?”

John Ruskin, Fors Clavigera, Letter LXXV “Star Law” (1877)

2 thoughts on “The University Of Life, On A Canal

  1. I loved this so much I joined Read it Swap it (.co.uk) to get hold of some John Ruskin. Unfortunately, nobody wants to swap my only novel, Tek Lords by William Shattner. What I am saying is, how about a swap Mr Key? Also, I am asking you on live television.

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