composed the above-mentioned "Hundred-and-fifty moral Tales for little Children." With very few exceptions, one principle pervades them all. We have heard of a certain traveller who inquired of the king of a savage tribe as to his penal code. His black majesty calmly replied, "Our code is perfect. Our least punishment is death." The suggestion of gradations of torture was sufficiently obvious. So of this author's code of morals, in writing stories for the good of children, as he pretends, and the correction or prevention of their disobedience. We should prefer death, as the lesser punishment, instead of many of the shocking mutilations he depicts, as the consequence of little acts of wilfulness in children. A boy has been told not to swing so high; he forgets the injunction, and has a fall, which fractures his leg. A little girl, named Meta, plays with scissors, after being warned-and jobs out one eye. But the author, not content with this, follows up poor Meta, for putting pins in her mouth. She happens to have some in her mouth, when her aunt, whom she loves, suddenly arrives, and in the joy of the moment, running to embrace her, little Meta falls—pins stick in her throat—she suffers tortures, and then dies. A little boy gets upon a great horse—the horse runs away with him-the little fellow is thrown-breaks his arm, and the author takes care to inform his young friends, that the broken arm caused "frightful pain." Another boy gets up a tree after a hawk's nest. As a salutary warning, the hawk tears out one of his eyes, and we are assured that the boy “remained a hideous object all his life." As to what the King of the savages called his "least" punishment-namely, death-there is abundance of it in this book; but in most cases it is attended or preceded by torture; bites of adders and apes, tearing of limbs by dogs, shots from guns, and lacerations from fox-traps, tumbles

headlong from high towers, drownings, pursuits by lions, &c., most impressively illustrated by prints and vignettes. We hence discover that the "morality" of these tales is that of vengeance, and its code one of the most cruel for the most common of children's offences.

In educational books-education of children by means of books of a direct and practical kind—we are supplied to overflowing. More than enough have we of little primers of all the arts and sciences, and geographies, and histories, and the useful knowledges; but, of books well suited to the earliest and best feelings, and the purest moral principles, as indirectly, but no less profoundly, instilled through the heart and the imagination-oh! how few in comparison. with the masses of trash, or of sanguinary and otherwise unwholesome excitement ! At the top of the best of this class of books we should place the children's stories of Hans Christian Andersen; and (with the exception, here and there, of an objectionable touch of the dark and terrific) those of the author of the " Ostereier ;"—the "Fable Book," of Otto Specter; the "Alte und Neue Kinderlieder" collected by G. Scherer; the German "A. B. C. Buch,"—both these latter being illustrated by several of the first artists in Germany. There the first artists really are engaged for the purpose; with us it is only pretended, as a matter of advertisement. Hence the extraordinary superiority of the foreign illustrations. The fanciful magic tale of "Good Lady Bertha's Honey Broth," from the prolific pen of Alexandre Dumas, is far surpassed in the fertility of necromantic invention by the extraordinary designs furnished by an eminent artist. Our own authors, the few who have written excellent stories and songs for children-Mrs. Barbauld, Mary Howitt, Mrs. Marcet, Miss Martineau, Mrs. Harriet Myrtle, Jane and Emily Taylor, the authors of

"Parent's Cabinet," and some others,-how much more extensive would have been their success had they found such artists to illustrate their books, as we find with the best of those produced in Germany, France, and Holland! And here we may mention that we have never met with songs more pure and innocent, and more truly adapted for children, than those of the Dutch poet, Van Alphen (Kleine Gedichten voor Kinderen, door Hieronimus van Alphen.) The "Gou den Boeksen" of Van Hasselt, another Dutch poet, is also worthy of high commendation for the same reasons. The illustrations are excellent; the verses of charming simplicity and innocence.

excess.

But now we may be asked-will children be interested in this purity-this innocence? Is it not too much like themselves, and do they not crave for more exciting aliment? Do they not delight in horrors, and such things? Not a doubt of it. In like manner, children of a larger growth delight in gin, and take other stimulating things to If a child cries for a nice mixture of poisoned plums and sweetmeats, are we to give them because of the pleasure they excite at the moment? There is no philosophy, no moral firmness, in this; though it may be natural enough in a bookseller to advance such an argument. His object is to supply a market. What children like, is considered "the demand," and obedient parents, bowing to indulgent children, obtain whatever the rosy-cheeked little tyrants require.

What is to be done for children in this matter? The first step towards a reform that will strike most people, is by no means so easy of practical accomplishment. Some years ago, the author of "The Good-natured Bear,—a Story for Children of All Ages," went to a publisher, eminent for his juvenile books, and proposed the following work. He

wished to awaken parents and guardians of children to the condition of nursery literature, and to warn them against a heap of "favourite " books and tales, as of most injurious tendency. The publisher was struck with the proposal; but, after some days' consideration, he demurred to it, on the ground of the large amount of capital already embarked by many respectable houses in the trade, in these very books, hundreds of thousands of which were profusely illustrated, and great numbers beautifully bound; he therefore thought it would seem invidious towards the trade, and that his motives would, at best, be misconstrued. The Good-natured Bear saw some reason in this, or, at any rate, received it as a good commercial objection; and, bowing to fate, agreed to modify his original proposal. Instead of denouncing the bad books and tales by name, with all their deathdealing and alarming illustrations, he now proposed to denounce them only in general terms, on broad principles,and to specify by name only such books, tales, and songs as were good-beautiful and poetical in spirit, or humorous and amusing; and in no case containing cruelties, horrors, vices, and terrors of any kind. The publisher rubbed his hands with a beaming smile. "This will do," said he; "this will do; and, by the way, I have myself published a number of books exactly of this latter kind—beautiful in poetry, amiable in prose, humorous and amusing in spirit; and the illustrations and binding among the best in the trade; all of which you would, no doubt, specially mention." The Good-natured Bear was carried, fainting, into a cab.

Where is a reform in the nursery library to come from? A real reform, both in the spirit, and the letter, and not a 66 sham," that will look well in the advertisements ? One cannot expect it to come from the children; for they are

fascinated by what they fear. Almost as little reasonable will it be to expect such a reform to originate with the publishers of children's books, nearly all of whose present stock in trade is full of the old leaven of direct evil, or reckless fun. The real reform must begin with the parents. Directly they begin to think, the publishers will feel it, and respond.