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    22 WHAT SHALL THE CHILDREN READ ?

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    Sense "The Of Children , The ' Word !" *...

    variety of style and ornament , and in as many degrees of excellence .

    Looking * then upon these many books in the mass , what is * their tendency ?—what general effect has the juvenile literature

    of the present day upon the minds of the young ? simp Time le tales was _, when when the th children learnt humility were taug and ht sim patient ple truths endurance from

    from Cinderella ; ; the evil ey of gossipping idle talk from the fate of Red Riding- Hood ; and when the horrors of the Blue

    Chamber warned them for ever against curiosity . The children loved sank into these their tales little , and hearts the hom all el the y lesson more that deepl each y because conveyed the

    shaft was whetted by the strange power of imagination .. These stories never became less fascinating through repetition ; the

    g equall iant y was trag always ic . Nor terrible was , the and reading little * Red of a Riding former Hood generation 's fate

    of children confined to fairy tales- They had no u Modern Crusoes , " achieving * all kinds of improbabilities without any

    material aids , but the original " Robinson ; " and Miss Edgepractice worth ' s admirable of some simp stories le virtu _—admirable ea lesson , because that the inculcating child could the

    understand and follow , such as , the reward of honesty 5 the read books pleasures ; and were of being generosity few in clear number , and the happ simp , they iness le in were of their a therefore good purport temper th the oroug . lesson These hly

    of each was remembered . , The How child is it ' with s mind the children now is too of the often present a mass day ? of undigested '

    fal matter l into — the fact hands and fiction of a , reading historical child tales as , and soon gilded as he science oversteps , all

    scrap the spelling s and - fragmen book , and ts , fill without him with one a distinct confusion idea of unconnected or definite

    lesson ; and even if he now and then grasps a truth , yet , with appetite the variety lie and " bolts novelty his food alway " s so waiting that it affords to appease no nourishment his literary .

    So much , for the evil of quan , tity ; but does the quality of the generality of children ' s books go far to justify the enormous

    increase in their circulation ? Let it not be supposed that we look back with fond regret

    to consider the the stap age le how when produce far tales the of faults of juvenil , giants which e and literature characteriz beautiful ; we princesses e wish the children simp formed ly to of

    the present day , may have their origin in the general tone of the books with which they are familiar .

    our are True the children , treasures these ' s are feet not which . Some to be the of condemned press the most of the en gifted masse present of * Eng Very day land pour precious 's sons s at

    22 What Shall The Children Read ?

    22 WHAT SHALL THE CHILDREN READ ?

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), March 1, 1864, page 22, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01031864/page/22/