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Sesame and Lilies-Part7_John Ruskin(1819-1900)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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the only book, properly to be called a book, that I have yet written



myself, the one that will stand (if anything stand), surest and

longest of all work of mine.



"It is one very awful form of the operation of wealth in Europe that

it is entirely capitalists' wealth which supports unjust wars. Just



wars do not need so much money to support them; for most of the men

who wage such, wage them gratis; but for an unjust war, men's bodies



and souls have both to be bought; and the best tools of war for them

besides, which make such war costly to the maximum; not to speak of



the cost of base fear, and angry suspicion, between nations which

have not grace nor honesty enough in all their multitudes to buy an



hour's peace of mind with; as, at present, France and England,

purchasing of each other ten millions sterling worth of



consternation, annually (a remarkably light crop, half thorns and

half aspen leaves, sown, reaped, and granaried by the 'science' of



the modern political economist, teaching covetousness instead of

truth). And, all unjust war being supportable, if not by pillage of



the enemy, only by loans from capitalists, these loans are repaid by

subsequent taxation of the people, who appear to have no will in the



matter, the capitalists' will being the primary root of the war; but

its real root is the covetousness of the whole nation, rendering it



incapable of faith, frankness, or justice, and bringing about,

therefore, in due time, his own separate loss and punishment to each



person."

France and England literally, observe, buy PANIC of each other; they



pay, each of them, for ten thousand-thousand-pounds'-worth of

terror, a year. Now suppose, instead of buying these ten millions'



worth of panic annually, they made up their minds to be at peace

with each other, and buy ten millions' worth of knowledge annually;



and that each nation spent its ten thousand thousand pounds a year

in founding royal libraries, royal art galleries, royal museums,



royal gardens, and places of rest. Might it not be better somewhat

for both French and English?



It will be long, yet, before that comes to pass. Nevertheless, I

hope it will not be long before royal or national libraries will be



founded in every considerable city, with a royal series of books in

them; the same series in every one of them, chosen books, the best



in every kind, prepared for that national series in the most perfect

way possible; their text printed all on leaves of equal size, broad



of margin, and divided into pleasant volumes, light in the hand,

beautiful, and strong, and thorough as examples of binders' work;



and that these great libraries will be accessible to all clean and

orderly persons at all times of the day and evening; strict law



being enforced for this cleanliness and quietness.

I could shape for you other plans, for art-galleries, and for



natural history galleries, and for many precious--many, it seems to

me, needful--things; but this book plan is the easiest and



needfullest, and would prove a considerable tonic to what we call

our British constitution, which has fallen dropsical of late, and



has an evil thirst, and evil hunger, and wants healthier feeding.

You have got its corn laws repealed for it; try if you cannot get



corn laws established for it, dealing in a better bread;--bread made

of that old enchanted Arabian grain, the Sesame, which opens doors;-



-doors not of robbers', but of Kings' Treasuries.

LECTURE II.--LILIES OF QUEENS' GARDENS



"Be thou glad, oh thirsting Desert; let the desert be made cheerful,

and bloom as the lily; and the barren places of Jordan shall run



wild with wood."--ISAIAH XXXV. I. (Septuagint.)

It will, perhaps, be well, as this Lecture is the sequel of one



previously given, that I should shortly state to you my general

intention in both. The questions specially proposed to you in the



first, namely, How and What to Read, rose out of a far deeper one,

which it was my endeavour to make you propose earnestly to



yourselves, namely, WHY to Read. I want you to feel, with me, that

whatever advantages we possess in the present day in the diffusion



of education and of literature, can only be rightly used by any of

us when we have apprehended clearly what education is to lead to,



and literature to teach. I wish you to see that both well-directed

moral training and well-chosen reading lead to the possession of a



power over the ill-guided and illiterate, which is, according to the

measure of it, in the truest sense, KINGLY; conferring indeed the






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