Literature for Children. ii 



I went to Oxford. She read alteriinte verse.s with me, watch- 

 ing, at tirst, every intonation of my voice, and correctinji; the 

 false ones, till she made me understand the verse, if within my 

 reach, rightly and energetically. It might be beyond me alto- 

 gether — that she did not care about — but she made sure that as 

 soon as I got hold of it at all, I should get hold of it by the right 

 end. In this way she began with the first verse of Genesis, 

 and went straight through to the lastverse of the Apocalypse — 

 hard names, numbers, Levitical law, and all — and began at 

 Genesis the next day. * * * * After our chapters (from 

 two to three a day, according to their length, the tirst thing 

 after breakfast, and no interruption * * * * allowed) 

 I had to learn a few verses by heart, or repeat, to make sure I 

 had not lost, something of what was already known; and with 

 the chapters thus gradually possessed from the first word to 

 the last, I had to learn the whole body of the fine old Scottish 

 paraphrases, which are good, melodious and forceful verse, 

 and to which, together with the Bible itself, I owe the first 

 cultivation of my ear in sound." And concluding his dis- 

 cussion of the whole matter, he says: " Though I have picked 

 up the elements of a little further knowledge — in mathemat- 

 ics, meteorology and the like, in after life — and owe not a 

 little to the teaching of many people, this maternal installa- 

 tion of my mind in that property of chapters I count very 

 confidently the most precious, and, on the whole, the one 

 essenlial part of all my education." It was this which gave 

 him the place accorded him without any reservation by 

 the latest authoritative historian of nineteenth century liter- 

 ature, that of the greatest of English prose writers. 



Such readings in the Bible, and in simple poetry, with a 

 large intermingling of fairy stories and folk lore, will make 

 up the bulk of a child's early reading. What shall follow? 

 Some say, after such a beginning turn a child loose in a well 

 selected library and let him browse. Such an experience is 

 of the utmost value to the child. It leads him into familiarity 

 with books. He tastes many, and is led into fascinating re- 

 gions before unknown. The delight of the explorer is added 

 to the delight of the reader. Lowell began in such a way the 

 extensive browsings which made him what he called himself, 



