AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED (ALS)

Hernehill, 4 January 1837. Letter. Creases from mailing; minor soiling. Very Good. An early one-page AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED "J Ruskin," written when he was just 17 years old, on one panel of a 10" x 8" sheet folded in fours addressed to W. H. White, Secretary of the British Meteorological Society. In full: "I take the liberty of troubling you with the accompanying papers [not present], as I am not aware of the manner in which communications are usually presented to the Society. I shall be highly gratified of the members of the Meteorological Society consider these observations, for the accuracy of which I can answer, though of their utility I am doubtful, as in any degree interesting." In a letter to his father three days later, Ruskin wrote, "The Society would be much better employed, instead of listening to anticipations which never will be realised, and prophecies which the weather takes good care not to fulfil, in as certaining the causes and effects of phenomena which have actually taken place, or in perusing such scientific and interesting communications as one which I sent in to Mr. White, and which he says in a note he will have great pleasure in laying before the Society at their next meeting (to-morrow, Tuesday evening)" (THE LETTERS OF JOHN RUSKIN 1827 - 1889, from THE COMPLETE WORKS OF JOHN RUSKIN, Library Edition 1909, Volume XXXVI, page 10). "[The paper was 'On the Formation and Colour of such Clouds as are caused by the Agency of Mountains.' It was not printed" (ibid). Ruskin, throughout his life, was interested in geology and meteorology, and in his writings he contributed to the environmental aspect of climate science, the moral concept that human beings should not pollute the environment, which could have consequences for local and even global climate. In an article Ruskin would write two years later for the Society (“Remarks on the Present State of Meteorological Science,” TRANSACTIONS OF THE METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY London 1 (1839): pages 56–59), he argued for universal cooperation: "The Meteorological Society ... has been formed, not for a city, nor for a kingdom, but for the world." Accompanied by a carte-de-visite photograph of Ruskin. As far as we can determine, this letter is unpublished.