Literature for Children. 'S 



But is this printed inattor, which is every year pouring out 

 iu a stream of hui:;e volume from the presses of the world, 

 what we want our children to read? Is it enough to turn 

 them loose in a library of such books and papers? If so, then 

 there is no need of my saying anything more. Nothing more 

 can be said except to suggest a classification of the books by 

 which children may be taught to gobble them down system- 

 atically, and so more exhaustively — taught to scrape the plat- 

 ter clean, as it were, at the literary banquet. Children have 

 strong digestions, but such a process, I fear, would justify the 

 words of the " Fable for Critics: " 



"Reading new books is like eating new bread, 

 One can bear it at tirst, but by gradual steps he 

 Is brought to death's door of a mental dyspepsy." 



Is such a process safe for our children? Is it desirable? 



There are great authorities who have given no uncertain 

 answer to these questions. Charlotte Yonge has said: " We 

 have little liking for books for boys,*' and she goes on to say 

 in conclusion of a somewhat extended treatment of the sub- 

 ject: "Our conclusion as to children's literature is a some- 

 what Irish one, for it is, use it as little as possible, and then 

 only what is substantially clean and good. Bring children as 

 soon as possible to stretch up to books above them, provided 

 those books are noble and good." Charles Dudley Warner 

 speaks with still greater emphasis: "As a general thing, I do 

 not believe in books written for children. * * * * I am 

 not sure but it would be a gain if all so-called children's books 

 were destroyed and the children depended altogether on what 

 we call adult literature. I know of a family of young children 

 who read, or had read to them, a translation of the ' Iliad.' 

 They were perfectly captivated by it, and they got more out 

 of it, even though not able to read it themselves, than they 

 would have got from a whole library of the stutt' children now 

 commonly read." 



You remember Emerson's dictum, the first of his three 

 rules of reading: " Never read any book that is not a year 

 old," implying that if you wait a year before reading a 

 book, in a vast majority of cases you will not read it at all. 



