Summary of John Ruskin's Sesame and Lilies Lecture-3 The Mystery of Life and its Arts

In this lecture, John Ruskin speaks about the mystery of life.  He attempts to touch upon religion, the foundation of art, without talking about the caste.  He also promises to use plain language.

He begins his lecture by saying that life is like a vapour that appears only for a while and then vanishes away.   For many persons life is dark, but they should know that life is not all dark.  For those who have lived a short period of life, life would seem to sad and filled with disappointment.  Such disappointments are like twilights, in which they may see the colours of things with deeper truth.  Ruskin presents himself as an example to this.  In his young years he was disappointed as an aspiring painter but later he was able to prove the excellence of the paintings.

Ruskin says that when human beings are very much disappointed in life they tend to consider life as a mere vanity.  He says that arts can never be right themselves unless their motive is right.  An artist should serve the society.  Art is considered higher than army and navy.  If an army or a navy is lost they could be created once again but arts cannot be done so.

Ruskin says that understanding the real motive of the life is the real mystery.  Not every person can indulge in finding this truth because of his or her daily activities.  Great and wise persons can seek these truths for the future welfare.  These people know how to live.  They could show other how to live and how to make the best of our lives. 

Ruskin speaks of practical men.  They are persons who are without vision.  They consider that life is not a mystery to them.  They could also show us how to live and how to get the best of our lives.  He then talks about persons who are determined to do something woeful.  They do the duty of human dominion even though they are materially poor.  We can learn the clear message of teaching from them.

Arts and labour teach us various lessons.  First lesson is that he more beautiful the art, the more it is essentially the work of people who feel themselves wrong.  The second lesson is arts against misrule bring happiness and arts with lies bring us unhappiness.

Ruskin also speaks of the sadder aspects of hard work.  He talks about people who work all their life and die.  There are three occupations and arts of men.  First is agriculture.  They face a lot of famine and hurdles throughout their lifetime.  Second is weaving.  Second is weaving. Third is building.  It is the strongest and most orderly art.