g2 THE HOME, FARM AND BUSINESS CYCLOPAEDIA. 



lies behind good reputation to which we would appeal. It is to the sacred 

 sense of the reality of home. It is to the feeling that Wordsworth ex- 

 presses in his well-known lines respecting those 



" who never roam. 



True to the sacred points of heaven and home." 



Still less have we been able to tell parents, except very generally, what 

 books their children should read. We are very great believers in fairy 

 tales, and think that the nursery circle should be entertained by the 

 mother in reading aloud those delightfully fantastic productions of Grimm 

 and others who have explored the world under the fern-leaves. There is 

 no danger that these stories will make liars of children, as some conscien- 

 tious people have feared. A child perceives at once the difference between 

 fact and fancy. 



And the fairy stories are as true as " Sandford and Merton" or the "Hollo 

 Books." Let children read both. Let the delicate instruction which fil- 

 ters through " Jack and the Bean-Stalk," " Cinderella," and through the 

 immortal pages of the " Arabian Nights," reach a youthful mind early. 

 These books give an elegance and a fulness to the intellect of a child 

 which no practical book can reach. A child is nearer heaven than we are 

 he still sees the unseen. 



" And trailing clouds of glory, does he come 

 From God, who is his home. 



We should remember that his clear and unpolluted mind still revels in 

 dimly remembered wonders, of which we have lost sight, and the univer- 

 sal craving of a child's mind for the wonderful is not to be despised. 



As for the growing man and woman, we can only say : give them good 

 books at first, and they will never wish for any other. Form a taste, and 

 then turn them into a well-selected library. If a little girl comes to her 

 mother and asks, " What shall I read ? " she should always be helped to a 

 good book. But, after her tastes are pronounced, she will read what she 

 likes or will not read at all. 



And we would earnestly urge upon American mothers to go into society 

 with their daughters, to make the greatest effort to be with them, to know 

 well their intimates, to keep young for their daughters' sake. It is very 

 often that, with small means and with young children, a mother finds her- 

 self unable to do this thing. Indeed, it is sometimes the case that a 

 mother economizes on her own dress in order that her daughter may be 

 better dressed, and stays at home herself to send her daughter. This is a 

 great mistake. The mother's presence as chaperon to her daughter would 



