Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in its head.
The value of minute and thoughtful reading has been set forth by John Ruskin, in his Sesame and Lilies, a book well worth reading, if one is willing to take in good part the earnest, somewhat dogmatic tone which Ruskin so often uses. The oft-quoted passage in which he illustrates his idea of how a poem should be read, is given below. The student who every day reads a few pages as conscientiously as Ruskin would have him, will find his command of words rapidly increasing, and his power of thought increasing likewise.
And now, merely for example’s sake, I will, with your permission, read a few lines of a true book with you carefully, and see what will come out of them. I will take a book perfectly known to you all. No English words are more familiar to us, yet few perhaps have been read with less sincerity. I will take these few following lines of Lycidas:—
“Last came, and last did go,
The pilot of the Galilean lake.
Two massy keys he bore of metals twain
(The golden opes, the iron shuts amain):
He shook his mitred locks, and stern bespake:
‘How well could I have spared for thee, young swain,