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July, 1878.



CHATTO & WINDUS’S

List of Books.


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ON BOOKS AND BOOK-BUYERS.
By John Ruskin, LL.D.

“I say we have despised literature; what do we, as a nation, careabout books? How much do you think we spend altogether on ourlibraries, public or private, as compared with what we spend on ourhorses? If a man spends lavishly on his library, you call him mad—abibliomaniac. But you never call one a horse-maniac, though menruin themselves every day by their horses, and you do not hear of peopleruining themselves by their books. Or, to go lower still, how much doyou think the contents of the book-shelves of the United Kingdom, publicand private, would fetch, as compared with the contents of its wine-cellars?What position would its expenditure on literature take as comparedwith its expenditure on luxurious eating? We talk of food forthe mind, as of food for the body: now, a good book contains such foodinexhaustible: it is provision for life, and for the best part of us; yethow long most people would look at the best book before they would givethe price of a large turbot for it! Though there have been men whohave pinched their stomachs and bared their backs to buy a book, whoselibraries were cheaper to them, I think, in the end, than most men’sdinners are. We are few of us put to such a trial, and more the pity;for, indeed, a precious thing is all the more precious to us if it has beenwon by work or economy; and if public libraries were half as costly aspublic dinners, or books cost the tenth part of what bracelets do, evenfoolish men and women might sometimes suspect there was good in readingas well as in munching and sparkling; whereas the very cheapnessof literature is making even wiser people forget that if a book is worthreading it is worth buying.”—Sesame and Lilies; or, King’sTreasures.

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Chatto & Windus’s
List of Books.

Square 8vo, cloth, extra gilt, gilt edges, with Coloured Frontispieceand numerous Illustrations, 10s. 6d.

The Art of Beauty.

By Mrs. H. R. Haweis, Author of “Chaucer for Children.”With nearly One Hundred Illustrations by the Author.

“A most interesting book, full of valuable hints and suggestions.... Ifyoung ladies would but lend their ears for a little to Mrs. Haweis, we are quitesure that it would result in their being at once more tasteful, more happy, and morehealthy than they now often are, with their false hair, high heels, tight corsets, andever so much else of the same sort.”—Nonconformist.