gives variety, so that no integral want of human nature shall
be neglected,--so that neither imagination, memory, nor reflection
shall be starved. I own it is difficult to help them in their choice,
when most of us have not learned to choose wisely for ourselves. A
discriminating taste in literature is not to be gained without effort,
and our constant reading of the little books spoils our appetite for
the great ones.

Style is a matter of some moment, even at this early stage. Mothers
sometimes forget that children cannot read slipshod, awkward,
redundant prose, and sing-song vapid verse, for ten or twelve years,
and then take kindly to the best things afterward.

Long before a child is conscious of such a thing as purity,
delicacy, directness, or strength of style, he has been acted upon
unconsciously, so that when the period of conscious choice comes, he
is either attracted or repelled by what is good, according to his
training. Children are fond of vivacity and color, and love a bit of
word painting or graceful nonsense; but there are people who strive
for this, and miss, after all, the true warmth and geniality that is
most desirable for little people. Apropos of nonsense, we remember
Leigh Hunt, who says that there are two kinds of nonsense, one
resulting from a superabundance of ideas, the other from a want of
them. Style in the hands of some writers is like war-paint to the
savage--of no perceptible value unless it is laid on thick. Our
little ones begin too often on cheap and tawdry stories in one or two
syllables, where pictures in primary colors try their best to
atone for lack of matter. Then they enter on a prolonged series of
children's books, some of them written by people who have neither
the intelligence nor the literary skill to write for a more critical
audience; on the same basis of reasoning which puts the young and
inexperienced teachers into the lowest grades, where the mind ought
to be formed, and assigns to the more practiced the simpler task of
_in_forming the already partially formed (or _de_formed) mind.

There has never been such conscientious, intelligent, and purposeful
work done for children as in the last ten years; and if an
overwhelming flood of trash has been poured into our laps along with
the better things, we must accept the inevitable. The legends, myths,
and fables of the world, as well as its history and romance, are being
brought within reach of young readers by writers of w