"THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF ART" (1857-1858) The humble work of the drawing-classes at Great Ormond Street was teaching Ruskin even more than he taught his pupils.

It was showing him how far his plans were practicable; how they should be modified; how they might be improved; and especially what more, beside drawing-classes, was needed to realize his ideal.

He was anxiously willing to co-operate with every movement, to join hands with any kind of man, to go anywhere, do anything that might promote the cause he had at heart.
Already at the end of 1854 he had given three lectures, his second course, at the Architectural Museum, specially addressed to workmen in the decorative trades.

His subjects were design and colour, and his illustrations were chiefly drawn from mediaeval illumination, which he had long been studying.

These were informal, quasi-private affairs, which nevertheless attracted notice owing to the celebrity of the speaker.