Excerpt from Thoughts of Beauty and Words of Wisdom: From the Writings of John Ruskin The chief purpose of a volume of selections is, that one mind may thus be made to do service for many. With an author voluminous as John Ruskin, this is especially needful, since otherwise some of his richest thoughts would remain hid den among sealed pages. For, while the company of thought lovers and seekers is vast, time comes to many of them so hedged in by the must be of life's work, their own re search cannot even fill a brief space amid the pleasures held sacred for recreation hours. These busy people are the ones to whom this Spare Min ute Series is cordially dedicated, and by wh m it is no less cordially welcomed. Among them may be those who will ask, Why, in this compilation, Notes on Art and kindred topics have been omitted? I reply, Simply, because they are the subjects I find most freely introduced in other volumes of selections from Ruskin's writings. Hence I have confined myself to his discourses on Nature, Morals, and Religion; gathering for your perusal revelations of the blessed wonders of sky and cloud, mountain and rock, trees, mosses, and the green grass, birds of the air, and flowers, and the marvelous coloring all these display, which in beauty of hue, and deli cacy of tinting as far out-pass the works of man, as the Heavens are higher than the earth. From Nature, it is but a step to the realm where mind and soul reign as King and Queen. And here you will find not only jewels of mental value, and morals of beauty and truth, but buds and blossoms too, of uplifting aspirations and sweet tender heart charity. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.