New-York daily tribune., 1865-12-26
nooxs FOR THE YONKt Bs.

Manual" and DR.. Watts's immortal hymns
for children. there we're hardly any books In
our language (not counting the arithme'icS and
grsmmars) specially intended for juvenile
minds. Fairy tales were designed, and 80 were
fables, as much for the grown as the growing;
"GulIver's Travels" read in the nursery for
the story, vas purveyed by its savage author as
strong mea. for men; and there is no evidence
that DE Foe or Bunyan ever anticipated their
popularity with the little folk. Both wio'e' 1t
is true for On adult class unlike any which ex'
ists in this aye Of newspapers and Common
schools, and by their simplicity OF style and at
tractiveness of story they secured the tui-
srsges of all who could read at all. The
genius which they thus displayed secured them
immortality. They are never ont OF fashion,
They will be as fit for the next century as Tor
this or for the last. They are not to be pushed
from their stools by any Peter Parlcy or M s'
Markham, but come to us every year in fresh
aud sumptuous editions, constantly stimulating
the ambition and the invention OF printers. and
engravers, and binders. There are not many
books like these in al languages. Take them.
with "The Vicar Of Wakefield" out OF our Ut
erature, and there would hardly De anything oi
the kind absolutely classical LETT. lew oooSS
of great merit have, for some reason WHOM IL Is
difficult 10 divine, fallen into Obscurty. Mr.
DAYS Senford and Merton" for instance, anu
Mary Lambs Mrs. Leicester's SCHOOL, but
we believe 'Goody Two Shoes" (suPpoSed To
be Goldsmith's) holds it own, and Inc
Vicar of Wakefield" is still read almost
as generally rs "The Arabian Nights
This is ~ emphstically the ago of art-illus'ra-
ton that we fear the charming vienetteo "i
Bewck would how hardly attract the attention
which thev would deserve. The father of wood
engraving. bu,ily at work in his little shop in
Newcastle.upon-Tyne, was the ancestor oi a
long line of illustrators, but none Of them have
yet surpassed his donkeys, hls gip'ies' h''
poultry, his cats and his dogs. His prints are
continually reproduced without his name, and
all the type.founders keep an assortment OF his
cuts on hand, ~ anybody may see by looking
into the specimen books The Germans, excel
lent as they are 10 this department OF art have
nothing finer-hardly anything TO our eyes 80
perfectly fresh, quaint and natural. All
Hoearth's disgusting -Four Stages Of Cruelty
did not tell the story better than that little
yignette. in which the good Bewick shows Us Il
peasant passionately beating his donkey. with
oallows lust family lined in the horizon.
There is a very good moral argument against
too copious an illustration OF books. IL mas
been urged that they make the eye do the WORK
os the mind. and leave too little to healthy
e,eroise of the imagination. But, upon the
other hand, we must take into account the great
advantage of early aocustoming the Sght 70
beautiful forms and to the palpable expression
of ideal gracos. really good plcture-bcok Is
one of tho best of moral monitors. Ii Is
teacher Of veracity, for it is the quntescence OF
abstract and accurate narration. Ii is teacher
of good manners, for it relieves even vulgar
vioissitudes from needless asperty. and idesliSes
the commonest affairs of life. 1t educates the
eve 10 estimate the due relation between the
seen and the unseen--tO comprehend the hidden
meaning of the lsndscspe--to understand why
the great picture is, in its simple fidelity to fact
priceless and immortal
We have an abiding and lively faith not
merely In books of bare instruction for children,
but in the sheer nonsense Of Mother Goose, "
ia the tales of good fairies and of bad ones. in
Mr.. Thackerays "Rose and Ring in Jack
the Giant Killer" and "ked Ridinghood," aud
| "The Three Bears" The good old nursery
RHYMES are quite as classical for the little people
Al Homer and Milton are for US, and perhaps
more so, for in these days, we fancy, very few
people read through the Iliad or Paradise Lost.
Children should be amused, and it is keeping
bad faith with them to lie always in wait for the
moor creatures with a moral or little disguised
instructions they find out the susar-coated pill
after two or three exhibitions Of it, and for tht
future refuse to believe in us They do not care
TO be cheated into learning dry lessons; they
revolt against being made good by stratagem
Ho-ace's mixture Of the stle with the dnlest maj
do well enough fox men and women, bu
children like their duloet pure and gen
uiue. What healthy, Unsuitable an'
natural appetite they have for sound withou
sense-for ridiculous and impossible catastrc
phes-for the introduction Of beasts and birds a
heroes aud heroineO of purely human story
and the inycstiture Of frogs and insects Wit
human propensities and interests They repea
i'm their own childhood the childhood OF tn
world, and while they prattle their little stoc
of legendary lore, they recall to our jaded an
sophisticated minds tho years when We, too