ession to 1865,
except that the subjects are of a sort supposed to appeal to young
minds, their conception differs in no way from the work of the same
artists in ordinary literature. The vignettes of scenery have childish
instead of grown-up figures in the foregrounds; the historical or
legendary figures are as seriously depicted in the one class of books as
in the other. Humour is conspicuous by its absence--or, to be more
accurate, the humour is more often in the accompanying anecdote than in
the picture. Probably if the authorship of hundreds of the illustrations
of "Peter Parley's Annuals" and other books of this period could be
traced, artists as famous as Charles Keene might be found to have
contributed. But, owing to the mediocre wood-engraving employed, or to
the poor printing, the pictures are singularly unattractive. As a rule,
they are unsigned and appear to be often mere pot-boilers--some no doubt
intentionally disowned by the designer--others the work of 'prentice
hands who afterwards became famous. Above all they are, essentially,
illustrations to children's books only because they chanced to be
printed therein, and have sometimes done duty in "grown-up" books first.
Hence, whatever their artistic merits, they do not appeal to a student
of our present subject. They are accidentally present in books for
children, but essentially they belong to ordinary illustrations.

Indeed, speaking generally, the time between "Felix Summerley" and
_Walter Crane_, which saw two Great Exhibitions and witnessed many
advances in popular illustration, was too much occupied with catering
for adults to be specially interested in juveniles. Hence,
notwithstanding the names of "illustrious illustrators" to be found on
their title-pages, no great injustice will be done if we leave this
period and pass on to that which succeeded it. For the Great Exhibition
fostered the idea that a smattering of knowledge of a thousand and one
subjects was good. Hence the chastened gaiety of its mildly technical
science, its popular manuals by Dr. Dionysius Lardner, and its return in
another form to the earlier ideal that amusement should be combined with
instruction. All sorts of attempts were initiated to make Astronomy
palatable to babies, Botany an amusing game for children, Conchology a
parlour pastime, and so on through the alphabet of sciences down to
Zoology, which is never out of favour with little ones, even if its
pictures be accompanied