Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1869-07-29

Books OF FICTION FOR tHlhtRES -
The London Quarterly Rcriee remarks !:
The mind of child says wise think
er, is like the acorn itspowers are folded
up, they do not yet appear, but they are
all there. The memory, the Judgment,
the invention, the feeling of right and
wrong. and all in his mind. even of an
infant Just born One by one they awake
His imacination-one of the earliest pow
ers that awakens within hin. even before
he has passed through the mysteries of
pap and found out that being naughty
differs from being good be fcd =
And fed it Will be ;; either on the make
beleye tar.is sister Mary nursing
her Doll - Ne stories Of Betsey the
nursemaid when he is naughty about the
''bocey" and the ''black man who car
ries off bad boys; or about the golden
fairy who is to give him tafey and GIN
gerbread- 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, y
"Sinbad the Sailor or "Diataonds and
Pearls, the delicious history of "Puss
in Boots" the tragedy of Blue Beard, J"
or the heroic drama of Jack the Giant
killer"
But whichever Of these, or hundred
other delightful pages, it be, his faith is
boundless Happiest of mortals, for a
time at least, he can believe all he
ads; with the one happy proviso that
if it is not true, it ought to be, nv, and
is, because his sister says so. While he
is absorbed in the misfortunes of the Tin
Soldier" OF the Ugly Duck the break
fast bell is unheard, and the dinner I'M
needed he is feasting in dreamland, on
siir-about in the Giants Castle. OF on
these famou, cheese cakes of Queen
Scheherezade whose vital charm is pep
per- Not that he is forgetful of the fact,
even while in the full pursuit of fiction
Indeed. be IS always burning for facts -
He wishes to know what glass is, where
Robinson Crusoe va, buried, how much
gold it takes to make the inside of
watch, why the sun sets later in June
than in December, what thunder is, if the
end of he rain bow touches the ground.
why firing eff cannon once made a man
deaf, what sage is, and Tho uSand other
things, which papa, not being. "a walking
encyclopedia, is not always rea iy to tell
him And whatever answer he can OBJ
tain he is really to believe implicitly, as
long as he is fairly dealt with.
Yet. though St George and the Drag
on, Ali Baba and Robinson Crusoc. are
in one sense as true to him az the history
of England, thcre are shades and degrees
of belief in his own mind both a. regards
the domains Of fact and fiction, which he
cannot perhaps define, and of which he is
scarcely sensible, yet on which he I'M
consciously acts; setting each narrative
or story. tale or fable, romance or chron-
iclc, in It's own due place, and giving to
each his own royal favor and approval as
good, bad and md tfcrent. a child in
good sound health is insatiably curious,
his thirst for fiction of one shape or other
i aucnchlcss, and If be never asks ques-
tons. and cares nothing for Jack and
the Beanstalk" or the Lad who went to
the North Wind" there is a screw loose
some where or other; he is in morbid,
unhealthy state Of body and mind, prob
ably OF both bis natural growth aud
tastes as child are becoming stunted
and diseased-forccd into some narrow,
petty channel, wherc ignorance or big
otrv will soon blot out the freshness, grace
and light, that are childhood's most pre-
clous possessions.