Whether novels, or poetry, or history be read, they should be chosen,
not for what is _out_ of them, but for what is _in_ them. The chance and
scattered evil that may here and there haunt, or hide itself in, a
powerful book, never does any harm to a noble girl; but the emptiness of
an author oppresses her, and his amiable folly degrades her. And if she
can have access to a good library of old and classical books, there need
be no choosing at all. Keep the modern magazine and novel out of your
girl's way: turn her loose into the old library every wet day, and let
her alone. She will find what is good for her; you cannot: for there is
just this difference between the making of a girl's character and a
boy's--you may chisel a boy into shape, as you would a rock, or hammer
him into it, if he be of a better kind, as you would a piece of bronze.
But you cannot hammer a girl into anything. She grows as a flower
does,--she will wither without sun; she will decay in her sheath, as the
narcissus does, if you do not give her air enough; she may fall, and
defile her head in dust, if you leave her without help at some moments
of her life; but you cannot fetter her; she must take her own fair form
and way, if she take any, and in mind as in body, must have always
Her household motions light and free
And steps of virgin liberty.
Let her loose in the library, I say, as you do a fawn in a field. It
knows the bad weeds twenty times better than you; and the good ones too,
and will eat some bitter and prickly ones, good for it, which you had
not the slightest thought were good.--J. RUSKIN. _Sesame and Lilies._
'Twere well with most, if books, that could engage
Their childhood, pleased them at a riper age.