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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
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