o radiant with talent,
ingenuity, lambent fire (sheet--and _other_ lightnings) of all
commendable kinds! Never was such a lecture on _Crystallography_
before, had there been nothing else in it,--and there are all
manner of things. In power of _expression_ I pronounce it to be
supreme; never did anybody who had _such_ things to explain explain
them better. And the bit of Egypt'n mythology, the cunning _Dreams_
ab't Pthah, Neith, etc., apart from their elucidative quality,
wh'h is exquisite, have in them a _poetry_ that might fill any
Tennyson with despair. You are very dramatic too; nothing wanting
in the stage-direct'ns, in the pretty little indicat'ns: a very
pretty stage and _dramatis personae_ altogeth'r. Such is my first
feeling ab't y'r Book, dear R.--Come soon, and I will tell you all
the _faults_ of it, if I gradually discover a great many. In fact,
_come_ at any rate!

"Y'rs ever,

"T. CARLYLE."

The Real Little Housewives, to whom the book was dedicated, were not
quite delighted--at least, they said they were not--at the portraits
drawn of them, in their pinafores, so to speak, with some little hints
at failings and faults which they recognised through the mask of
_dramatis personae._ Miss "Kathleen" disclaimed the singing of "Vilikins
and his Dinah," and so on. It is difficult to please everybody. The
public did not care about the book; the publisher hoped Mr. Ruskin would
write no more dialogues: and so it remained, little noticed, for twelve
years. In 1877 it was republished and found to be interesting, and in
1905 the 31st thousand (authorised English edition) had been issued. At
that time, however, Sesame and Lilies had run to 160,000 copies.

Winnington Hall, the scene of these pastimes, is now, I understand, used
by Messrs. Brunner, Mond & Co. as a commonroom or clubhouse for the
staff in their great scientific industry.

CHAPTER VI

"THE CROWN OF WILD OLIVE" (1865-1866)

Mention has been made of an address to working men at the Camberwell
Institute, January 24th, 1865. This lecture was published in 1866,
together with two others,[11] under the title of "The Crown of Wild
Olive"--that is to say, the reward of human work, a reward "which should
have been of gold, had not Jupiter been so poor," as Aristophanes said.

[Footnote 11: Republished in 1873, with a fourth lecture added, and a
Preface and notes on the