deals free from doubt, except the
reverence for the sanctity of childhood. Those who have forsaken beliefs
hallowed by centuries, and are the most cynical and worldly-minded, yet
often keep faith in one lost Atalantis--the domain of their own
childhood and those who still dwell in the happy isle. To have given a
happy hour to one of the least of these is peculiarly gratifying to many
tired people to-day, those surfeited with success no less than those
weary of failure. And such labour is of love all compact; for children
are grudging in their praise, and seldom trouble to inquire who wrote
their stories or painted their pictures. Consequently those who work for
them win neither much gold nor great fame; but they have a most
enthusiastic audience all the same. Yet when we remember that the
veriest daubs and atrocious drawings are often welcomed as heartily, one
is driven to believe that after all the bored people who turn to amuse
the children, like others who turn to elevate the masses, are really, if
unconsciously, amusing if not elevating themselves. If children's books
please older people--and that they do so is unquestionable--it would be
well to acknowledge it boldly, and to share the pleasure with the
nursery; not to take it surreptitiously under the pretence of raising
the taste of little people. Why should not grown-up people avow their
pleasure in children's books if they feel it?

[Illustration: THE SPOTTED MIMILUS. ILLUSTRATION FROM "KING LONGBEARD."
BY CHARLES ROBINSON (JOHN LANE. 1897)]

[Illustration: ILLUSTRATION FROM "THE MAKING OF MATTHIAS" BY LUCY
KEMP-WELCH. (JOHN LANE. 1897)]

If a collector in search of a new hobby wishes to start on a quest full
of disappointment, yet also full of lucky possibilities, illustrated
books for children would give him an exciting theme. The rare volume he
hunted for in vain at the British Museum and South Kensington, for which
he scanned the shelves of every second-hand bookseller within reach, may
meet his eye in a twopenny box, just as he has despaired of ever seeing,
much less procuring, a copy. At least twice during the preparation of
this number I have enjoyed that particular experience, and have no
reason to suppose it was very abnormal. To make a fine library of these
things may be difficult, but it is not a predestined failure. Caxtons
and Wynkyn de Wordes seem less scarce than some of these early nursery
books. Yet, as we know, the former have been the quest