exhausted, and he expired."

The book is, on the whole, well written, and was popular enough in its
day. The first edition, published in 1788, was followed by a second in
1791, and a third in 1796. To make it still more attractive, Mr. Johnson
engaged Blake, whom he was then befriending, to illustrate it. But
children of the present day object to the tales with a moral which were
the delight of the nursery in Mary's time. They have lost all faith in
the bad boy who invariably meets with the evil fate which is his due; and
they are sceptical as to the good little girl who always receives the
cakes and ale--metaphorically speaking--her virtues deserve. And so it
has come to pass that the "Original Stories" are remembered chiefly on
account of their illustrations.

The drawings contributed by Blake were more in number than were required,
and only six were printed. A copy of one of those rejected is given in
Gilchrist's Life of the artist. None of them rank with his best work.
"The designs," his biographer says, "can hardly be pronounced a
successful competition with Stothard, though traces of a higher feeling
are visible in the graceful female forms,--benevolent heroine, or
despairing, famishing peasant group. The artist evidently moves in
constraint, and the accessories of these domestic scenes are simply
generalized as if by a child: the result of an inobservant eye for such
things." But of those published there are two at least which, as Mr.
Kegan Paul has already pointed out, make a deep impression on all who see
them. One is the frontispiece, which illustrates this sentence of the
text: "Look what a fine morning it is. Insects, birds, and animals are
all enjoying existence." The posing of the three female figures standing
in reverential attitudes, and the creeping vine by the doorway, are
conceived and executed in Blake's true decorative spirit. The other
represents Crazy Robin by the bedside of his two dead children, the
faithful dog by his side. The grief, horror, and despair expressed in the
man's face cannot be surpassed, while the pathos and strength of the
scene are heightened by the simplicity of the drawing.

Of the several translations Mary made at this period, but the briefest
mention is necessary. It often happens that the book translated is in a
great degree indicative of the mental calibre of its translator. Thus it
is characteristic of Carlyle that he translated Goethe, of Swinburne that
he sele