ng fallacy, seem to me combined
therein.

Scott's _Suggestions on Female Education_ I read with unalloyed
pleasure; it is justly, clearly, and felicitously expressed. The girls
of this generation have great advantages--it seems to me that they
receive much encouragement in the acquisition of knowledge and the
cultivation of their minds. In these days women may be thoughtful and
well read, without being stigmatized as "blues" or pedants.

I have lately been reading _Modern Painters_, and have derived from
the work much genuine pleasure, and I hope, some edification; at any
rate it has made me feel how ignorant I had previously been on the
subjects which it treats. Hitherto I have only had instinct to guide
me in judging of art; I feel now as if I had been walking
blindfold--this book seems to give me eyes. I _do_ wish I had pictures
within reach by which to test the new sense. Who can read these
glowing descriptions of Turner's works without longing to see them!
However eloquent and convincing the language in which another's
opinion is placed before you, you still wish to judge for yourself. I
like this author's style much; there is both energy and beauty in it.
I like himself too, because he is such a hearty admirer. He does not
give half measure of praise or veneration. He eulogizes, he reverences
with his whole soul. One can sympathize with that sort of devout,
serious admiration (for he is no rhapsodist), one can respect it. Yet,
possibly, many people would laugh at it. I am truly obliged to Mr.
Smith for giving me this book, not often having met with one that has
pleased me more.

I congratulate you on the approaching publication of Mr. Ruskin's new
work. If the _Seven Lamps of Architecture_ resemble their predecessor,
_Modern Painters_, they will be no lamps at all, but a new
constellation--seven bright stars, for whose rising the reading world
ought to be anxiously agaze.

I am beginning to read Eckermann's _Goethe_--it promised to be a most
interesting work. Honest, simple, single-minded Eckermann! Great,
powerful, giant-souled, but also profoundly egotistical old Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe! He _was_ a mighty egotist. He thought no more of
swallowing up poor Eckermann's existence in his own, than the whale
thought of swallowing Jonah.

The worst of reading graphic accounts of such men, of seeing graphic
pictures of the scenes, the society in which they moved, is that it
excites a too tormenting longing to