40 JOURNAL AND PROCEEDINGS 



too soon the child becomes the man and forgets the troubles 

 and difficulties of the child. Let education teach him not to 

 forget, but let it train him to deal with those who are to make 

 the future generation. The child has been forgotten to a great 

 extent in the general scope of literature ; but not altogether 

 forgotten. Charles Dickens, as already noticed, and Charlotte 

 Bronte, have done much for them, but he who has touched the 

 tenderest cord in this respect is that great hearted Frenchman, 

 Victor Hugo, lately departed this life. His works have a charm 

 about them, though they are terrible in the extreme. Who that 

 has read Les Miserahles can ever forget the miseries of little 

 Cossette and the care bestowed upon her by that extraordinary 

 man Jean Val Jean ? The pichire would open the eyes of any- 

 one to the miseries which some children have to endure. But 

 Cossette is not the only child in that thrilling book. Wretched 

 little creatures, lost in the streets of Paris, are known by their 

 continued moan "I want something to eat;" and the brave little 

 gamin Gavroche, made to climb almost impossible heights and 

 brave unheard of dangers to suit the wicked plans of men, are 

 thrown out in the boldest colors. Who too that has read Victor 

 Hugo's Quatre-vingt-trieze, or '93, will forget the three little 

 children who might be called the heroes of the book ? It is not 

 the warrior leading his troops up to the cannon's mouth, or 

 the sea captain facing the wildest storm, that seizes our chief 

 attention, but the three little sufferers who are made the point on 

 which the plot of the whole story hinges. Who that has read 

 Victor Hugo's poetry can forget the story of the little child, de- 

 serted and taken by his grandfather, an old man of eighty. He in 

 second childhood, plays from morning till night with the child 

 whose life is as happy as the day is long. What strange play 

 fellows and yet so happy, the octogenarian and the child! 

 Presently the old man dies, and the child is taken to a very 

 different home. He is treated harshly, scolded, beaten, he has 

 no one to play with and his little life is blighted. Suddenly he 

 is missed. Search is made for him throughout the town. 

 In the morning his little body is found lying on his grandfathers 

 grave, with his hand on the railing showing that he had tried 

 to find his old playmate in the place where at the funeral he 



