Page:Sesame and Lillies - Ruskin (1895).djvu/45

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SESAME AND LILIES.

LECTURE I.—SESAME.

OF KINGS' TREASURIES.

"You shall each have a cake of sesame,—and ten pound."
Lucian: The Fisherman.

I. My first duty this evening is to ask your pardon for the ambiguity of title under which the subject of lecture has been announced: for indeed I am not going to talk of kings, known as regnant, nor of treasuries, understood to contain wealth; but of quite another order of royalty, and another material of riches, than those usually acknowledged. I had even intended to ask your attention for a little while on trust, and (as sometimes one contrives, in taking a friend to see a favourite piece of scenery) to hide what I wanted most to show, with such imperfect cunning as I might, until we unexpectedly reached the best point of