Something about Books by James Baldwin — Read

A beautiful book, and one profitable to those who read it carefully, is "Sesame and Lilies" by John Ruskin. It is beautiful because of the pleasant language and choice words in which it is written; for, of all our later writers, no one is the master of a style more pure and more delightful in its simplicity than Mr. Ruskin's. It is profitable because of the lessons which it teaches; for it was written "to show somewhat the use and preciousness of good books, and to awaken in the minds of young people some thought of the purposes of the life into which they are entering, and the nature of the world they have to conquer. " The following pertinent words concerning the choice of books have been taken mainly from its pages:

All books may be divided into two classes, -- books of the hour, and books of all time. Yet it is not merely the bad book that does not last, and the good one that does. There are good books for the hour and good ones for all time; bad books for the hour and bad ones for all time.