The following passages are taken from a notebook now in the Coniston Museum which contains Sermons IX, X, XI, and part of XII. The rough notes for these Sermons are to be found among Ruskin's juvenilia at Yale. Marjorie G. Wynne, Research Librarian at the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale has kindly advised me that Professor Helen Gill Viljoen has expressed the intention to publish Ruskin's childhood sermon notes, but attempts to confirm this or to locate the other four notebooks containing final drafts have not proved successful.
A comparison of Ruskin's first and final drafts proves his sophistication at the age of nine. The tenth sermon "The law of sacrifice," for example, has the following opening in the rough draft: "Today Remarks on the law of Moses. Leviticus 1st. is the first to wllicll we should go for it contains more specifically law of sacrifice which is foundation of Mosaic economy. Let us consider the doctrine of atonement and sacrifice here then in Christ. Law Shadow First A real sacrifice is brought before us." The Coniston Ms. version reads: "The 1st chapter of Leviticus, from the beginning. I think that in the rcmarks on the law of Moses which are to employ us today it is better to enter upon Leviticus as the book which contains more specifically the details of the law of sacrifice, which is the very foundation of the Mosaic economy. We shall first consider the doctrine of atonement here 8c then follow it up to its antitype, the death of Christ. ~Tow this is a real form of sacrifice, and a simple form. It is not for confirmation of testimony, now announcement, now instruction to be communicated."
I am espccially grateful to Mr. W. Rawdon Smith, Low How, Coniston, for his generous aid in obtaining copies of this Ms.