Mr Ruskin on Books.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume I, Issue 38, 8 September 1887, Page 4

Mr Ruskin on Books.

Mb Buskin sent the following letter to a student of the Edinburgh University : —“ My dear sir,—You hear a great deal nowadays of the worst honsense ever uttered since men were born on earth. Best hundred books! Have you ever yet read one book well? For a Scotchman, next to his Bible, there is bnt one book—his native land; but one language—his native tongue, the sweetest, richest, subtlest, most musical of all the living dialects of Europe. Study your Burns, Scott, and Carlyle. Scott in his Scottish novels only, and of those only the cheerful ones, with the * Heart of Midlothian,’ but not the ‘Bride of Lammermoor,’ nor the * Legend of Montrose,’ nor the ‘ Pirate.’ Here is a right list:—‘ Waverley,’ ‘ Guy Mannering,’ ‘The Antiquary,’ Rob Roy,' ‘Old Mortality,’ ‘The Monastery,' ‘TheAbbot,’ ‘Red Gauntlet,’ and ‘ Heart of Midlothian.' Get any of them you can in the old print edition when you have a chance, and study every sentence in them. They are models of every virtue in their literature, and exhaustive codes of Christian wisdom and ethics. I have written this note with care. I should be glad that you sent a copy of it to any paper read generally by the students of the University of Edinburgh, and remain faithfully yours, John Ruskin."