Natural abilities can almost compensate for the want of every kind of cultivation, but no cultivation of the mind can make up for the want of natural abilities.

) (eds. Lectures in the 1860s
Ruskin lectured widely in the 1860s giving the Rede lecture at the University of Cambridge in 1867 for example. John James had sent the piece to Turner who did not wish it to be publiJohn Ruskind.

Today his ideas and concerns are widely recognised as having anticipated interest in environmentalism sustainability and craft. His writing styles and literary forms were equally varied. He wrote on subjects ranging from geology to architecture myth to ornithology literature to education and botany to political economy.