cherished into strength and beauty, far excelling what can be planted or
reared by art.

Every infant is probably born with a character as peculiar to himself as
the features in his countenance, if his faults and good qualities were
permitted to expand according to their original tendency; but education,
which formerly did too little in teaching "the young idea how to shoot,"
seems now in danger of over-shooting the mark altogether, by not
allowing the young ideas to exist at all. In this age of wonderful
mechanical inventions, the very mind of youth seems in danger of
becoming a machine; and while every effort is used to stuff the memory,
like a cricket-ball, with well-known facts and ready-made opinions, no
room is left for the vigour of natural feeling, the glow of natural
genius, and the ardour of natural enthusiasm. It was a remark of Sir
Walter Scott's many years ago, to the author herself, that in the rising
generation there would be no poets, wits, or orators, because all play
of imagination is now carefully discouraged, and books written for young
persons are generally a mere dry record of facts, unenlivened by any
appeal to the heart, or any excitement to the fancy. The catalogue of a
child's library would contain Conversations on Natural Philosophy,--on
Chemistry,--on Botany,--on Arts and Sciences,--Chronological Records of
History,--and travels as dry as a road-book; but nothing on the habits
or ways of thinking, natural and suitable to the taste of children;
therefore, while such works are delightful to the parents and teachers
who select them, the younger community are fed with strong meat instead
of milk, and the reading which might be a relaxation from study, becomes
a study in itself.

In these pages the author has endeavoured to paint that species of
noisy, frolicsome, mischievous children which is now almost extinct,
wishing to preserve a sort of fabulous remembrance of days long past,
when young people were like wild horses on the prairies, rather than
like well-broken hacks on the road; and when, amidst many faults and
many eccentricities, there was still some individuality of character and
feeling allowed to remain. In short, as Lord Byron described "the last
man," the object of this volume is, to describe "the last boy." It may
be useful, she thinks, to show, that amidst much requiring to be
judiciously curbed and corrected, there may be the germs of high and
generous feeling, and of steady, ri