AbstractThroughout his life, Ruskin was dominated by a passionate love for the natural world, which he saw as being both beautiful and good. Its goodness was shown in the duties which he thought were assigned to its different components - and the duties themselves were frequently of a moral nature. Mosses generally he saw as decorating and preserving stone surfaces; providing colour and holding water for the streams. In the individual leaves he saw qualities of humility and self sacrifice, his curiosity and keen observation serving to unravel not so much scientific truths as moral lessons for mankind.