Ruskin's attack of brain-fever in July 1885 was severe; recovery was only gradual; and the anxiety of his friends had been great. A Complimentary Address, presented to him at Christmas 1885, gave him pleasure, and he was still able to rally after defeats. “ Well and cheerful,” he wrote in his diary (Jan. 1886), “ and doing most useful work.” “ Yesterday,” he says a little later (April 26), “ most successful work; quiet day in the woods.… Got up thinking what marvellous powers and influences I have now, if I use them honestly and bravely”; and again on the next day: “ An entirely blessed and pure morning. All kinds of helpful thought sent with the beauty,D.G.” But in July he was again laid prostrate. Yet again he recovered vigour and good spirits. His limbs still bore him on many a mountain ramble:—

(To C. B. Norton.) “ Beantwood,13th Sept., ‘86.—Darling Charles,—I like the notion of leaving you out of my Autobiography. What would be the use of it, if it did not show under what friendly discouragements I wrote my best works?