The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1867-03-01
hooks of Fiction fer Children

The London Quarterly remarks: "The
mind of child says wise thinker, sis like
the acorn; its powers are folded up, thew do
not yet appear, but they are all there. The
memory, the judgment, the invention, the
feeling of right and wrong, are all In his
mind, even of an infant just born. One by
one they awake" His imagination-one of
the earliest powers that awakens within him
even before he has passed through the mys
teries OF pap and found out that being
naughty differs from being good-must be fed.
And fed he will be- either on the make be-
lieve talk of his sister Mary nursing her doll,
the idle stories Of Betsey the nursemaid
when he is naughty about "bogey" and the
"black man" who carries off bad bows: or
about the golden fairy who is to give him
tatiey and gingerbread when he is good. By
and-by, as he grows older, his sister Mary
reads to him, and at last he learns to read for
himself the charming adventures of the Fox
and the Grow" Billy goat Gruff, 'Sinbad the
Sailor" or Diamonds and Pearls" the deli
cious history of "Puss in Boots" the tragedy
of Blue Beard. " or the heroic drama NJ
"Jack the Giant-killer."
But whichever OF these, or a hundred other
such delightful pages, it be, his faith is bound
less Happiest OF NOR sals, for time at least.
he can belleve all he reads; with the one hap
Ply proVlso that ii it is not true, it ought to
be, ay, and is, because his sister saws So
While he is absorbed in the mistortunes of
the " lin Soldier or the ugly Duck" the
breakfast bell is unheard, and dinner unheed-
ed; he is teasting in Dreamland, on stirabout
ID the GIANTS Castle, or on those famous
cheesecakes OF Queen Scheherezade. whose
vital charm was pepper. Not that he is fo,..
getiui OF TACT, even while in the full pursuit Of
lictlon. indeed ne is always burning tor facts.
lie wishes 10 know what glass is, where Rob-
'1nsoD CruSoe was buried, how much gold II
takes to make the inside of watch, WIN the
sun sets later in June than December. whal
thunder is, if the end OF the rainbow touches
the ground, why firing otfa cannon once made
man 1eaf, what sago is, and IL ousand 9th
er thlne5s, which papa, not being a WALKING
encyclopedia, is not always ready to tell him
Anu whatever answer he can obtain he is
ready to believe implicitly, as long as he is
dealt fairly with
D." Yet, though st. George and the Dragon.
Ali Bahia and Robinson Crusoe, are i'm one
sense as true to him as the history of England.
there are shades and degrees of belief IN his
own MIND both as regards the domains of fact
ana hction, which he cannot perhaps define,
and OF which he is scarcely sensible. vet on
which he unconsclously acts; setting each
narrative or story, tale or table, romance or
chronicle, IN lis own due place, and giving to
each ms own roy al favor and approval as
good, bad, or Indifferent. A child IN good
sound health is insatiably curious, his thirst
Tor Notion OF one shape OF other is quenchless.
and If ne never asks questions, and cares no
thing for Jack and the Bean-stalk.' or the
Lad VINO went to the North Wind there is a
screw loose somewhere or other; he is in
morbid, unhealthy state of body and MIND
probably OF both; his natural growth and
tastes, as child, are becoming stunted and
diseased; forced into some narrow, petty chan
nei, where ignorance or bigotry viii soon blot
OUT Inc freshness, grace and light that are
ehlidhood's most precious possesslons.n