interchangeable.

Before noticing any pictures in detail from old sources or new, it is
well to explain that as a rule only those showing some attempt to adapt
the drawing to a child's taste have been selected. Mere dull transcripts
of facts please children no less; but here space forbids their
inclusion. Otherwise nearly all modern illustration would come into our
scope.

A search through the famous Roxburghe collection of broadsheets
discovered nothing that could be fairly regarded as a child's
publication. The chap-books of the eighteenth century have been
adequately discussed in Mr. John Ashton's admirable monograph, and from
them a few "cuts" are here reproduced. Of course, if one takes the
standard of education of these days as the test, many of those curious
publications would appear to be addressed to intelligence of the most
juvenile sort. Yet the themes as a rule show unmistakably that children
of a larger growth were catered for, as, for instance, "Joseph and his
Brethren," "The Holy Disciple," "The Wandering Jew," and those earlier
pamphlets which are reprints or new versions of books printed by Wynkyn
de Worde, Pynson, and others of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth
centuries.

[Illustration: _Henry quitting School._

ILLUSTRATION FROM "SKETCHES OF JUVENILE CHARACTERS" (E. WALLIS. 1818)]

In one, "The Witch of the Woodlands," appears a picture of little people
dancing in a fairy ring, which might be supposed at first sight to be an
illustration of a nursery tale, but the text describing a Witch's
Sabbath, rapidly dispels the idea. Nor does a version of the popular
Faust legend--"Dr. John Faustus"--appear to be edifying for young
people. This and "Friar Bacon" are of the class which lingered the
longest--the magical and oracular literature. Even to-day it is quite
possible that dream-books and prophetical pamphlets enjoy a large sale;
but a few years ago many were to be found in the catalogues of
publishers who catered for the million. It is not very long ago that the
Company of Stationers omitted hieroglyphics of coming events from its
almanacs. Many fairy stories which to-day are repeated for the amusement
of children were regarded as part of this literature--the traditional
folk-lore which often enough survives many changes of the religious
faith of a nation, and outlasts much civilisation. Others were
originally political satires, or social pasquinades; indeed not a few
nursery rhymes mask al