The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1894-06-21
ESSAY
Read by Miss Fannie Gloss Par
ker, at Greensboro Female Col
lege, June 7th, 1894.

The following il the essay OF Miss Fan
lie Gloss Parker, daughter OF Mr.. and
Mrs. W s. Parker, of Henderson, read
at Greensboro Female College, where she
graduated with high hoEors. Her sub
Jet was "Child-Life in Literature, and
we publish the paper knowing it will be
read with interest by the friends OF the
young lady:
A careful study OF the evolution of the
child life in literature would include the
evolution OF Christianity and the history
OF customs and manners from time I'M
memorial. "ShOw me a mans friends,
says some one, "and know the man
In like manner, one might say: Show
the the popular type OF child-life, i'll lite
nature, which holds the attention OF the
people in any certain era, and | know
the character OF the age that prOducedit it.
In order to see clearly what position
children occupy in the literature OF the
different ages, we must first make study
OF their cOunterparts-ch i'll rem life.
Sweet is the charm of childhood, that
happy golden age OF pure, fresh exist
"nce, when care and sorrow rest lightly
upon tiIf Soul anu NlltItlII Hol't
and Joy find ever an abiding place. What
perfume is to the flower, the song to the
bird, the sunshine to the shadow, child
hood il to humanity. Could we imagin
II world devoid OF children, inhabited
only by grown people, with their weary
hearts and aching brains, their cares
and sorrows, faults and foibles, strifcs
and chickering's, what IL very Sahara Of
gloom 1T would be.
TO those who have passed beyond
where the brook and river meet, - and
who have experienced the roughness and
Tnggedness OF LIES way, Il little child il
u beng whose every motion awakcnS
feelings Of intense interest.
Great poets and philosophers, for
whom The sun OF life is almost setting,
long to know how golden sunrise OF liz.
looks to these little beings, just from the
hand of God. In his old age, Words
worth bemOans his lost youth, in one, of
the grandest Odes the world ha.; eyer
known. He says:
There was time when meadow, grove
and stream
10 me did seem apparelled in crir,'ia |
light.
1T is not now as it hath been of yorr
For there has passed, with youth, Il glory
from the earth -
Wordsworth, himself, was passlunnt,lv
fond OF children and no more charming
picture has ever been witnessed than
that of the old poet, seated in his gar
den at Rydal Mount, surrounded by
hall dozen OF these merry little beings,
listening to their innocent prattle with
rs much eagerness and interest as if the
nonsense that flowed from their busy
little tongues was the most eloquent
language from inspired writer's.
Hawthorne says; AS the pure breath
OF children revivcs the life OF aged men,
so il our moral nature revived by their
free and simple thoughts their native
feeling, their airy mirth, for little cause
or none, their grief, soon reused and
soon allayed.
When our infancy is almost forgotten,
and our boyhood long departed when
life settles darkly down upon US, and we
are no longer young, then it is good to
steal away and spend an hour or two
with children. We will return to the
world with kinder and purcr heart
and q spirit more lightly wise"
The Bible, that greatest of all books,
~ filled with child characters From Cain
and Abel, those first children of whom
we have any record, as they played un.
der the olive trees on the banks of the
Euphrates, child character is traced
through it's different stages of develop
Inent, until it reaches perfection, in the
form OF the child Christ.
All oyer the world children of Christian
parents know and love the history of the
childhood OF the great prophet, Moses
10 child, the story is one OF intense in
terest and when we, the children OF ar
older growth, read, with awe and ad
mlratiOn, the inspired words of the great
lawgiver, il il pleasant to recall him us
L dimpled, dark haired baby. floating in
his little ark of rushes, upon the sacred
Nile, while his sister, the little Hebrew
maiden, watches from the shore with
eager, anxious eyes. LII the story of the
later life OF the child king of Israel fills us
often with regret, oil OF us loye to think
~ him as q shepherd boy, 'ruddy and
withal OF beautiful countenance and
goodly to look upon
What lesson of faith and willingness
to serve God does the child Samuel pre-
sent to us, as he kneels, in the silent
watches of the night, praying Here am
j Lord, what wOuldst Thou have of me?'
Not only in the literature of antique
ages. but in that OF more modern times
child characters abound. Our TeutoniC
tongue is peculiarly rich in the lore OF
home and tireside and even the oldest oil
our writer's present many striking child
characters. The great master, Shake
speare, has drawn few child portraits
but those few are perfect productions
Amid the intrigue and cunning, the vice
and depravityof the court at that time
how sweetly the character of the gentle
A,tl
childish purity and innocence.
st. Pierre labored to win Immortality
by his learned essays and PHILOSOPHERS
but those have passed away and been
forgotten, while his simple little story OF
Paul and Virginia will keep his name
forever as green as the little tropics
island in which the scene is laid
Who are they among us who do not
read with delight the story of Marjorie
Fleming that mischievous, fascinating
little pet OF the great novelist, Sir Wal
ter Scott, playing upon the hills and
heaths OF Scotland. No other novelist
has dealt SO directly with the chid-life OF
the world as Charles Dickens. Nowher,
else in all the range OF literature have VT
such tender descriptions OF home life and
love, such inruitive knowledge of. and
such wonderful sympathy with, child life
No truer, sweeter picture has ever been
drawn than that of Little Nell. Hel
love for, and her never failing devotion
to, her weak old grandfather, her com
partnership with the school-master, hel
care for the birds and bees and flowers
loving them all because they were
Gods creatures, the place she held il
the hearts OF little children and the love
they bore for her-all are themes which
stir our deepest emotions and move Us
Oftenest to tears
From all over the world come stories
of her Influence unon the baartS ,pC