for a more socialistic form of government in which reform might be possible.  The essays were published in the Cornhill Magazine, of which Thackeray was editor, and they aroused such a storm that the publication was discontinued.  Ruskin then published the essays in book form, with the title Unto This Last, in 1862. Munera Pulveris (1862) was another work in which the principles of capital and labor and the evils of the competitive system were discussed in such a way that the author was denounced as a visionary or a madman.  Other works of this practical period are Time and Tide, Fors Clavigera, Sesame and Lilies, and the Crown of Wild Olive.

The latter part of Ruskin’s life was a time of increasing sadness, due partly to the failure of his plans, and partly to public attacks upon his motives or upon his sanity.  He grew bitter at first, as his critics ridiculed or denounced his principles, and at times his voice is as querulous as that of Carlyle.  We are to remember, however, the conditions under which he struggled.  His health had been shattered by successive attacks of disease; he had been disappointed in love; his marriage was unhappy; and his work seemed a failure.  He had given nearly all his fortune in charity, and the poor were more numerous than ever before.  His famous St. George’s Guild was not successful, and the tyranny of the competitive system seemed too deeply rooted to be overthrown.  On the death of his mother he left London and, in 1879, retired to Brantwood, on Coniston Lake, in the beautiful region beloved of Wordsworth.  Here he passed the last quiet years of his life under the care of his cousin, Mrs. Severn, the “angel of the house,” and wrote, at Professor Norton’s suggestion, Praeterita, one of his most interesting books, in which he describes the events of his youth from his own view point.  He died quietly in 1900, and was buried, as he wished, without funeral pomp or public ceremony, in the little churchyard at Coniston.

WORKS OF RUSKIN.  There are three little books which, in popular favor, stand first on the list of Ruskin’s numerous works,—­Ethics-of-the-Dust, a series of Lectures to Little Housewives, which appeals most to women; Crown of Wild Olive, three lectures on Work, Traffic, and War, which appeals to thoughtful men facing the problems of work and duty; and Sesame and Lilies, which appeals to men and women alike.  The last is the most widely known of Ruskin’s works and the best with which to begin our reading.

The first thing we notice in Sesame and Lilies is the symbolical title.  “Sesame,” taken from the story of the robbers’ cave in the Arabian Nights, means a secret word or talisman which unlocks a treasure house.  It was intended, no doubt, to introduce the first part of the work, called “Of Kings’ Treasuries,” which treats of books and reading.  “Lilies,” taken from Isaiah as a symbol of beauty, purity, and peace, introduces the second lecture, “Of Queens’ Gardens,” which is an exquisite study of woman’s life and education.  These two lectures properly constitute the book, but a third is added, on “The Mystery of Life.”  The last begins in a monologue upon his own failures in life, and is pervaded by an atmosphere of sadness, sometimes of pessimism, quite different from the spirit of the other two lectures.