Norwich bulletin., 1913-06-27
CHILDRENS BOOKS

| question the good of childrens book! bat all. Tieck Is said never to hay. allowed one to enter his house Gu
 books give them q world of new ideas
 put they do more. for they purify ane 1 Ireshen our old ones As regards alSt 1 the old childrens' books. or to speal
 more literally the childrens' old books i of about forty years ago. the ham
 nered friends of our youth. whose crazy Joints and soft old leaves have stood the Sturm and Drang period l These tell not only of the times whes 1 they were eagerly devoHred but of the very places, the topmost bough 0. some old apple tree perhaps, fror1 whence the youthful imagination soar ed to heights unknown, or some quie; little nook where engrOSSed in the be- loved pages. all sorrows seemed s}sorl l lived, and even solitary confinement easily borne without a murmur.. Talk ing a retrospective view of the matter we must admit that the whole mistake hinges upon the slight but important distinction between childish books and childrens books. the first requires no
 mind at all, the second. mind of T
 common class. In short. the beau- ideal of this class of composition has
 in the union of the Eightest art with the simplest form.
 The Earliest Books.
 Among the earliest books for chil
 dren was the horn book. A leaf, con taining the alphabet. nine digits. and the Lords Prayer covered with trans parent horn and fixed in frame. There was generally a handle to hold it by, and thro' a hole in the handle Il cord was put. by which the scholar could sling 1t to his girdIe. In a booE printed in 1731. we read of a child III g bodice coat and leading strings with a horn book tied to her side. Thesa n ora T9r a Sherstone speaks of them in The School Mistress
 Their books of stature small they
 take in hand
 Which with pellucid horn secured To save from fingers wet the letters
 fair
 We read that down to the time of George H. no book was used so uni yersa1ly.
 We are told of "a si1eneed minister who came over to New England, and brought great Bundell of Horne books with him, and careful hee was (good man) to blott out all the crosses on them for fear least the people of the land should become Idolaters." No edition Is known to contain the cross.
 New England Primer.
 The New England Primer is perhaps our best known Child's book. It was compiled by ministers and known as the little Bible of New England" We have often heard of reverential fam ities putting it on the shelf with the Bible and Almanac! More than half the book is filled with the Lords Pray CT, Creed. some of Watts hymns. the whole of the Catechfs1n, and excellent admonitions, not to cheat at play, not to lie, not to use ill words, nor cail i'll names. not to be a dunce. and to love school. It is rather difficult to say whether cuts or texts in cid nursery literature are the more amus ing. The lady who thought it neces sary to teach children that fishes have no legs. and that sea-water when boiled becomes fresh. is quite on a par with the young lady falling into the water head first with skirts tightly drawn down to the tops of her trim decorous little boots. Writers of book7 were given to italiciSing. and illuStra tions made the punishment fit the crime" Hence if we hear a bird des- cribed as large, it will almost cer- tainly be drawn the size of a man. I remember book of my grandmothers in which was the picture of a robin and house The wing of the bird was larger than the house. The frs1J picture book ever made for children and, for a time the most popular text book in Europe was Orbis Pictus, or World Illustrated by John Amos Comenius. Children loved it. as it ap- pealed strongly to their senses. The first edition was published in Nurem- burg in 1857 I believed it was not until the early part of the seventeenth century. that the English words were so arranged as to stand opposite their Latin equivalents. It was first in tended for a child's encyclopedia, and e IL of the seventeenth century, the work has great interest. It was really the first attempt to reach the child's un- derstanding, through what we call object lessons. We cannot help feel ing some surprise that school masters could have been so progressive. two hundred and fifty years ago. but t certainly proved the principle that words and things should be learned together. Comenius says it was written so that the scare crows may be taken away out of wisdom's gar dens There are about 150 illustra- tions in the book. It all brings Com enius nearer home to us. when we learn that upon the resignation of President Dunster in 1854. Comenius was solicited to become President Of college. The Bay Psalm Book was the first book printed jn America. The families of Boston WSIc pOSS6SSoIS Ol d SOO0 iudLy pOOhS, all of which had been brought from the other side of course until Stephen Daye came over some time in 1860, and set up Widow Glovers' printing press in Cambridge. It was not until 1874 however that John Foster had permission from the court to set up 3 press elsewhere than in Cambridge. and thus he became the first Boston printer. Perhaps there is no better proof of the merit of modern high chair literature, than to see the pleas the youngsters books at Christmas time.
 Illustrated by such artists as Wal ter Crane. Kate Greenaway. Caldecott, Boutetde Monvel etc. who can blame them?
 Time a Drastic Critic
 Kate Greenaway made her little people models of cleanliness, good temper and gentleness; the touch of primness in the little figure was not 1iscernible to chi1d's eye. Time Is ] most drastic critic and much that once passed as good taste, looks very ordinary when Dame Fashion turns away. Boutet de Monvels children nave a certain daintiness peculiar to French children and we love to turn again to the pages he has adorned hey have a grace of their own, even 70 us. gray haired cynics that we are.
 The idealisrn of childhood, believing hat all that is most beautiful must, ,n that account be most true clam ITS accordingly for truth. After all, ve are but hil6ren of a larger growth, lnd our p1aytime was so very sho-+, nto that land of make believe. with ts croaf hills of ina giuafion behind