2 Colorado College Studies. 



Judged by these high standards, there is not much which 

 can be called literature. Our question to-day is, to what part 

 of this body of writing shall children be introduced? This 

 involves the larger question, are children capable of appreciat- 

 ing literature at all? Shall we give literature to children? 



Children will read — that is, most children will. This fact 

 may be taken for granted. The child who will not read under 

 right conditions is an anomaly. The mind in childhood is as 

 hungry as the body, and those of us who are parents know 

 that our boys, as some one has put it, are hollow to their boots. 

 The mental digestion of the child is as strong as his appetite, 

 and he reads and digests with marvelous rapidity. Harriet 

 Martineau once told a story that well illustrates the point. "I 

 have seen a schoolboy of ten," she says, "lay himself down, 

 back uppermost, with a quarto edition of 'Thalaba' before him, 

 on the first day of the Easter holidays, and turn over the leaves, 

 notwithstanding his inconvenient position, as fast as if he was 

 looking for something, till in a few hours it was done, and he 

 was off with it to the public library, bringing back ' The Curse 

 of Kehama.' Thus he went on with all of Southey's poems 

 and some others through his short holidays, scarcely moving 

 through all those days except to run to the library." And 

 Miss Martineau adds : " He came out of the process so changed 

 that none of his family could help being struck by it. The 

 expression of his eye, the cast of his countenance, his use of 

 words, and his very gait were changed. In ten days he had 

 advanced ten years in intelligence; and I have always thought 

 that this was the turning point of his life. His parents wisely 

 and kindly let him alone, aware that school would presently 

 put an end to all excess in this new indulgence." 



Children will read, and read voraciously. Publishers are 

 more and more recognizing this fact. The law of demand and 

 supply is finding new proof in the rapid accumulation of juve- 

 nile literature. Every publisher's list contains large numbers 

 of new books for the young. Library tables swarm with maga- 

 zines and weekly papers — good, bad and indifferent — designed 

 to supply this voracious appetite. Children will read, and the 

 j)ublishers are giving them reading. 



