[From "The Y. M. A. Magazine," November, 1879, Vol. iv., No. 2, p. 36.]
POLITICS IN YOUTH.

To the Editor of "The Y. M. A. Magazine."

My dear Sir: I am heartily obliged by your publication of those pieces of "Eagle's Nest," and generally interested in your Magazine, papers on politics excepted. Young men have no business with politics at all; and when the time is come for them to have opinions, they will find all political parties resolve themselves at last into two—that which holds with Solomon, that a rod is for the fool's back,[134] and that which holds with the fool himself, that a crown is for his head, a vote for his mouth, and all the universe for his belly.

Ever faithfully yours,
(Signed) J. Ruskin.

The song on "Life's Mid-day" is very beautiful, except the third stanza. The river of God will one day sweep down the great city, not feed it.[135]

Sheffield, October 19th, 1879.

FOOTNOTES:

[134] Proverbs xxvi. 3, and x. 13.

[135] The following are the lines specially alluded to:

Shall the strong full-flowing river, bearing on its mighty breast
 Half the wealth of some proud nation, precious spoils of East and West,
 Shall it mourn its mountain cradle and its infant heathery bed,
 All its youthful songs and dances, as adown the hills it sped,
 When by it in yon great city half a million mouths are fed?

[Y. M. A. Magazine, October, 1879.]