accomplished by the authoress, and that in simplicity, truthfulness, and power of sympathizing with children, her book is a model well worthy of imitation. Or the writers of the present generation, we think Mrs. Howitt has been most successful in investing familiar incidents with the sort of novelty and freshness which are so delightful to children. In the six stories comprised in Round In the Children's Year she has recounted the Fire, the authoress has fallen far short the story of the lives of her own two child- of Mrs. Howitt's standard. The supren for twelve months, detailing their posed chroniclers are young children who amusements and occupations, their little relate adventures which, on the whole, are joys and troubles. The book is an espe- happily conceived, and not ungracefully cial favorite with children, owing, we be- told. But no children could talk in the lieve, to the perfect honesty and fidelity way described, unless indeed they had with which the narrative is told. The very early learnt the art of moralizing, or little hero and heroine of the book are by of talking with a view to being praised no means pattern children, nor do they by good people. We wish the little inmeet with any remarkable adventures. terlocutors were less self-conscious, and They are not designed as the exemplars that their acts of benevolence were less of any childish virtue or vice. They are demonstrative; and to say the truth, we fair representatives of hundreds of good should be sorry to see our nurseries peochildren, surrounded by the comforts and pled with inmates whose talk was so very sheltered by the influences of an ordinary proper, and who had contrived so early middle-class English home, and lovingly to adopt that mode of looking at actions watched by intelligent parents. Their which we had thought characteristic of talk is never stilted or unnatural. They are not made to reflect upon or discuss their own acts much, and no fine things are put into their mouths. But children who read it feel at once that the incidents are such as might have happened to themselves, and so identify themselves gleefuly with the adventures it relates. The description of the house in the garden, and of the children's contrivances for embellishing it, and for making it comfortable, is quite a model of story-telling, and is well adapted not only to develop fertility of resource, and a desire to be the contriver of some similar fairy palace, but also to leave happy and suggestive impressions behind. Mrs. Howitt says in her preface, that she has "often wished that in books for children the writer would endeavor to enter more fully into the feelings and reasonings of the child; that he would look at things as it were from the child's point of view, rather than from his own." We feel bound to say that this aim has been most successfully *Continued from page 464, Vol. XLIX. anxious mammas. Jacob Abbott's Caleb in the Country, and Caleb in Town, can not be too highly praised for their extreme simplicity and fidelity, but they do not wholly avoid the same fault. Their main defect is the desire to make every thing intelligible to the little readers, a desire which often leads the author to explain matters on which, in our judgment, it would be far better to leave the children to ruminate, and to feel their own way to a solution. He is free from the absurd affectation of some book-wrights, who introduce difficult topics on purpose that they may have an opportunity of teaching something; but he is nevertheless haunted by the notion that no difficulty, however slight, must be left unexplained, and hence is constantly making needless appeals to the child's judgment. Yet there is a variety and beauty about the author's conception of child-life, and a deep sympathy manifested on the author's part with all that is noblest and fairest in child-nature, which will more than justify the remarkable popularity which his works have enjoyed in this country and America. Among stories of real life and adventure adapted for boys, Captain Basil Hall's Voyages and Travels, Bruce's Abyssinian Researches, Miss Martineau's Feats on the Fiord, and Sir Walter Scott's Tales of a Grandfather, appear to us the least likely to be displaced by any modern rivals, while at present we have seen no books for girls which are calculated permanently to eclipse the well-deserved fame of Mrs. Sherwood, Mary Howitt, Miss Bunbury, and Madame Guizot. II. Of the purely fictitious and extravagant class of children's story-books, we have already spoken at length. We have shown that they occupy a place and serve a purpose in which no stories of actual life can be a sufficient substitute; and we can not share the hopes of those who think that as our race improves, and as our methods of education become more intelligent, all that seems silly and fantastic to the grave man will be banished from the nursery. We do not desire that childhood should die or grow old, or become in future generations other than the beautiful thing it is. We are glad, therefore, to find that some of our ablest and most accomplished modern writers have not disdained to make a contribution to the stock of fairy tales and romances, and that there is at present no sign that the demand for books of pure imagination is on the decrease. But we doubt whether any thing can supersede our old favorites, the Arabian Nights, Jack the Giant-Killer, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, and their congeners. There is a wildness, a remoteness, a dimness of outline about these stories, which will always serve to set the fancy of the dullest child at work, and we scarcely believe it possible that their popularity in our juvenile libraries will ever be seriously endangered. Perhaps the most charming modern edition of the old favorites is the Treasury of Pleasure Books for Young People, published by Mr. Sampson Low. It contains the best of the familiar nursery rhymes, and two or three only of the simpler stories, such as The Three Bears, and Goody Two Shoes. But the illustrations by Messrs. Absolon and Harrison Weir are very telling and effective, and the book itself is quite an editio princeps in its way. Few of our popular fairy tales are of English origin. The collection of German Stories, by the Brothers Grimm, which has been translated into English, contains many with which we had long been familiar, and which we supposed of home growth. Even apart from the illustrations of Mr. George Cruikshank, which are among the happiest efforts of the artist's grotesque pencil, this book is a treasure. A child will hardly stop to look at the pictures, so complete is the illusion produced by the stories themselves, and so daring the demand. they make upon whatever fancy or picto. rial power he possesses. Some of the tales recently translated by Dr. Dasent from the Norse, are admirably suited for children, and a selection from his larger volume is now in course of publication for this special purpose. But we doubt if they will ever become so popular as the Fairy Stories of Hans Christian Andersen, whose name has become deservedly familiar not only to the little auditors for whom he composed them, but also to many older readers who have been delighted with his book. Few writers appear to us to have been more successful in placing themselves in a child's attitude, and looking at things from a child's point of view, than the author of the Steadfast Lead Soldier, and the Dream of Little Tuk. It is difficult to understand how fancies so artless and so grotesque could have been conceived in the brain of a grown man. And, indeed, until we look further, and see how much of pure, right thought there is at the bottom of all his stories, though never obtruded or brought to the surface, we might be tempted to think that they were the production of a child who had been strangely gifted with the power of writing out some of his pleasantest dreams. It is not uninteresting to observe that in our own country three or four of the writers who stand respectively at the head of the several departments of literature which they adorn, have taken the pains to publish books, the sole object of which is to give delight to little children. Mr. Thackeray, in the Rose and the Ring, has it is true, given us a mere extravaganza, as full as possible of startling absurdities. He has adorned it with some drawings of his own, happier in design and more finished in execution than the average illustrations of his books; and the whole performance has the look of one which was thrown off by the author con amore, and in a fit of exuberant merriment. The might be made available in the composition of noble stories, even for those who were not likely ever to read the originals; and that there were wise lessons deeply embedded in the old legends, "would men observingly distill them out." We are thankful, therefore, to Mr. Kingsley for having sought so earnestly to turn his classical reading to good account, and for having imparted even to the fable of Theseus and the Minotaur a moral significance and a new beauty. more thoughtful and matter-of-fact child-| fluence a young reader powerfully. The ren will, we think, be somewhat mystified author's strong desire to make his stories by this performance; but those who have instrumental in enlightening the conany sense of humor will not fail to be de- science, and bracing the moral vigor of lighted with its droll descriptions and pre- his youthful readers, never betrays him posterous incidents. Older readers also into sermonizing, but nevertheless makes will discern traces of the half-mournful, itself felt in every part of the book. We half-kindly cynicism of the writer, and have always felt that there were materials will find themselves entrapped perhaps in Hesiod, in the Tragedians, and in Hointo that sentiment of disgust at the gew-mer, especially in the Odyssey, which gaws and pretenses of life which it is Mr. Thackeray's mission to promote; but to a boy of ten or twelve years, the book is one of pure fun, wholly unsophisticated by any moral or other secondary aim. Mr. Ruskin's Black Brothers is a masterpiece of its kind. A story of three brothers, two of whom show themselves selfish and unkind, and are turned into black stones; while the third, who behaves with ordinary kindness, and shows a desire to do right, obtains the promised protection and blessing of the good fairy-would seem at first sight to be common-place and conventional, and open to the objection which we have already urged against too obvious an exhibition of the moral purpose. But there is something exquisitely fresh and charming in the way in which the story is told; and it is impossible for a child to read it without feeling a genuine sympathy and admiration for little Gluck, the hero, and a desire to imitate his kindness and self-denial. There is enough improbability in the story to gratify the most extravagant appetite for the supernatural; but the vraisemblance is so perfect, that even older readers can not avoid being carried away with it for a while, half-believing that it is true. Mr. Charles Kingsley has published, under the title of The Heroes, three of the most famous of the old Greek legends: "Perseus," The Argonauts," and Theseus." We do not think these heroic stories have ever been more attractively told. The language, though extremely simple, is good and pure, the descriptions of characters and of places are vivid, and the narratives and conversations themselves are invested with all that glamor and brightness which the author knows how to throw over any subject on which he writes. The book, however, possesses higher attractions than even the beauty of the stories, and the grace with which they are told. There is a deeper undercurrent of religious feeling traceable throughout its pages, which is sure to in 66 66 The three last-mentioned books illustrate, in a striking manner, our former remark, that the composition of a child's book is a worthy task for the greatest writers. Mr. Thackeray, Mr. Ruskin, and Mr. Kingsley differ so widely in aim, as well as in the nature of the gifts which they possess, that it is almost an impertinence to put them into the same class, or to characterize them in a single sentence. But we may nevertheless say, that each in his own way is a master of the English language, and that all are conspicuous for an honesty and directness of purpose which have given a marked individuality and 'force to their respective styles. And we believe that one great reason which unconsciously causes the childish reader to enjoy their story-books, is the beauty of the English in which they are written. The importance of style in a child's book can hardly be over-estimated, and, ceteris paribus, we believe that children always like best that book the diction of which is the purest. But whether this be true or not, it is certain that for the cultivation of good taste and of due care in the future choice of language, pains should be taken to familiarize children, as early as possible, with books which, apart from their intrinsic merits, possess the recommendation of being above the average standard of English composition. Other writers have modernized some of the most striking incidents of classic story with considerable success. Dr. Moberly, in his Stories from Herodotus, and the late Mr. W. Adams, in his Fall of Croesus, have availed themselves of legends from ancient history, and have rendered them very attractive to young people. But these books can hardly be placed in the class of pure fictions, and there is an air of real history about them which will always make them liable to be considered as disguised school-books. The translations from the Gesta Romanorum, which are contained in Evenings with the Old Story Tellers, or those from La Motte Fouque's exquisite Romances of Sintram, Undine, Aslauga's Knight, are far more likely to arrest the attention of elder children, although they were not written as juvenile books, and although their meaning, not lying on the surface, requires thought and attention to discover it. silent. But in speaking or writing about them, his desire to render himself intelligible is apt to betray him into a style of explanation and illustration which is not only beneath the dignity of the subject, but wholly inadequate even for the purposes contemplated; and this is an error into which the writers of juvenile religious books have often fallen. These high themes can not be made cognizable to a child's understanding; but it is very easy, by flippant and superficial treatment of them, to make a child think that he understands them; and the result is to engender a self-conceit and a mistaken estimate of his own acquisitions, which, though always mischievous, is especially so in regard to religious subjects. For whatever diminishes the reverence with which a child regards the Bible and its author, saps the very foundations of a religious life. The best juvenile books. on religious subjects are those which, being first of all pervaded with a profound fear and love of God, teach clearly the plainest and most elementary truths of revelation; but at the same time convey the impression that there are many things which, for the present, are mysterious and difficult. "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me: it is high, I can not attain unto it." III. A very important class of juvenile books comprises those which, though outwardly assuming the form of a story or allegory, are really designed to convey instruction. Most religious books for the young come under this catagory. The difficulty of presenting sacred truth to a child's mind in a purely abstract form, seems to be generally admitted; and hence attempts have been made to find an entrance for it by a great variety of ingenious expedients. We have anecdotes, histories, conversations, parables, It not unfrequently happens that in books fables, and even fairy tales, expressly de- designed to inculcate some moral or resigned to aid in the elucidation of scrip- ligious truths, those truths are exemplified tural doctrines, or moral precepts. It by descriptions of little children whose would be an endless task to attempt even goodness or badness is quite exceptional, a hasty enumeration of the noteworthy and who meet with rewards or punishbooks of this class; but the deep import- ments of a remarkable or unusual kind. ance of the subject to every Christian We confess that, to our minds, there is parent will justify us in pointing out some nothing more unnatural than the typical of the faults which occur most frequently bad boy, so often portrayed in such in such books, and which ought to be books, except, indeed, it be the good boy, most sedulously guarded against. who is not content with behaving, in all A common fault in religious books for respects, as a model of primness and the young is the presumption with which virtue, but is able also to make edifying the authors undertake to explain the diffi- remarks upon his own conduct besides. culties and mysteries of Christianity. At- Some of Mrs. Sherwood's books are espetempts are not unfrequently made, as in cially open to objection on this score. Gallaudet's Child's Book of the Soul, to Robert and Frederick, the pattern boy is bring down the grandest and most awful so very good, and so conscious of his truths of religion to the level of the child's goodness, that we doubt whether any understanding. It is in the nature of child who reads the book thinks it pos things that such attempts must always be sible to attain the standard of that young unsuccessful. Eternity, the nature of the gentleman's perfections. Indeed, we soul, the Divine omnipresence, the mys- should very much regret to see any extery of the atonement, or the efficacy of tensive imitation of this class of hero. sacraments, are all topics on which a No healthy child, who preserves his naChristian parent feels he can not be wholly | tural frankness and openness, can or In will then be found that the childlike faith has received an incurable wound, and that the teaching which has aimed at so much, has accomplished less than nothing. Let us beware of attempting to cheat children into religion. Let us, above all things, determine to deal with them truthfully in this matter. Let us put before them images of the sort of excellence which they can attain, and warn them against the faults into which they are really liable to fall. Do not let us set before them imaginary goodness and vice, out hypocrisy. There is not in the world a sight more beautiful than a Christian child filled with love and reverence, and just beginning, however faintly and fitfully, to desire a knowledge of God and of his will. But such a child will not and can not be the talkative and self-conscious little personage who figures so often in juvenile memoirs and obituaries. Nay, in just the proportion in which he is impressed with the sacredness of Divine things, will he be absolutely disqualified from ever becoming such. ought to use the language of such books; | fairies, and genii, the time will assuredly and every right-minded parent knows come when their eyes will be open, and that the stilted and artificial phrases when a fatal reäction will take place. It which are to be met with in many evangelical stories can not possibly correspond to the real experience of a child. We have met with a little book, called The Life of a Baby, in which a girl of two years old reproves its parents for Sabbath-breaking, and refuses to take its food if the family morning prayer is omitted, and gives edifying tokens of religious feeling on its death bed. Preposterous as this is, it is not worse than Little Annie; or, Is Church-Time a Happy Time? scarcely worse than Ministering Children, and many similar attempts or talk which they can not imitate withmade in story-books to represent children of tender age as examples of. Christian experience, as well as the most exalted piety. We do not for a moment doubt the religious influences which rest on many children; but they are exactly of a kind which no fictitious representations can adequately or safely set forth. No youthful reader profits by extraordinary models. If he believes them, he gets what seems to him an impossible standard of youthful piety before him; he knows that such language and behavior are very unlike his own; so he either We are glad to know that there are gives up the thought of religion, and many thoroughly healthy and truthful looks upon goodness as unattainable, or, religious books, and that the number of what is still worse, he learns to use the them is increasing. Mrs. Mortimer's phrases and imitate the outward deport-Line upon Line and Peep of Day are ment of the hero of the book, and so becomes prematurely a dissembler before God and himself. But if, on the other hand, he does not believe the story, if he detects the man's voice under the child's mask, and knows all the while the thing is a fable and an imposition, who can tell how deep a disgust will lurk in his mind for life, and how surely the seeds of irreverence and irreligion are being sown in his heart! And this is, in fact, what happens most frequently. Children know very well the difference between the real and the fictitious characters in a story-book. They very early learn to mistrust the representations of unnatural or impossible goodness; they know even better than we do what is the form of utterance that a child's feelings spontaneously take, and how they and their fellows are in the habit of talking. If deluded for a time, and led by their own natural trustfulness to wonder at little evangelical prodigies, and to believe in their existence, as in not free from the defects we have indicated; but are thoroughly right in their general tone. Bishop Wilberforce's two little books of allegories, Agathos and the Rocky Island, although in one or two slight details characterized by what appears to us an unwise attempt to inculcate High Church doctrines, are singularly pure and beautiful in conception; and though told thoughtfully and reverently, are very attractive and intelligible to children. Mr. W. Adams's Shadow of the Cross and Old Man's Home have the same kind of merit in an inferior degree; but are by no means free from the same faults. Among books more didactic in their tone, we have found that Abbott's Young Christian, and Todd's Lectures to Children, and Dr. Hamilton's Life in Earnest challenge and keep the attention of more thoughtful juvenile readers. But we must content ourselves with this brief indication of the conditions which good religious books should fulfill; and must |