316 THE OLIVE LEAF. CHAP. 



are the same as his grandchildren now pursue with un- 

 abated interest. Year after year and generation after 

 generation these games are perpetuated, as if exempt 

 from the ordinary causes of human decay and forget- 

 fulness. Fashion has no power over them. Whatever 

 may be the changes in other respects in social habits 

 and pursuits, however great may be the progress in 

 knowledge, art, and social refinement, they change not. 

 This, if we think deeply of it, is a curious circumstance. 

 We are apt to fancy that the games of children 

 originated in caprice, and that another caprice might at 

 any time supersede them. Especially in an age of in- 

 ventions like this, when everything is revolutionized, 

 when school-books and methods of education are 

 entirely changed, we might expect that some new sug- 

 gestions, some fresh novelties would displace the 

 familiar sports of children from their old position. But 

 it is not so. They seem as suitable to the wants and 

 tastes of the young people of the present day as they 

 were to those of our youthful ancestors. Like the 

 favourite stories of the nursery, they come with new 

 power of adaptation to each generation. As the fathers 

 and children alike begin the experiences of life in the 

 same Eden of innocence and joy, so they each find 

 there the same means of amusement and delightful 

 exercise ; and the world grows continuously young 

 again over the same toys, sports, and story-books. 



When we come to investigate this matter, to apply to 

 it the scientific method which has been so fruitful of dis- 

 coveries in other directions, we find that the games 



