,,wings ,,and ,,the ,,child ,,works ,,by ,e4 ,,nesbit ,,children',s ,,books ,,the ,,magic ,,city ,,the ,,wonderful ,,garden ,,the ,,magic ,,world ,,the ,,railway ,,children ,,oswald ,,bastable ,,harding',s ,,luck ,,the ,,treasure ,,seekers ,,the ,,wouldbegoods ,,five ,,children ,,and ,,it ,,the ,,phoenix ,,and ,,the ,,carpet ,,the ,,amulet ,,the ,,enchanted ,,castle ,,nine ,,unlikely ,,tales ,,the ,,house ,,of ,,arden ,,the ,,book ,,of ,,dragons ,,wet ,,magic ,,fiction ,,the ,,incomplete ,,amorist ,,daphne ,,in ,,fitzroy ,,street ,,these ,,little ,,ones ,,man ,,and ,,maid ,,salome ,,and ,,the ,,head ,,the ,,red ,,house ,,dormant ,,the ,,literary ,,sense ,,in ,,homespun ,,fear ,,poetry ,,lays ,,and ,,legends4 #ast ,series ,,lays ,,and ,,legends4 #bnd ,series ,,leaves ,,of ,,life ,,the ,,rainbow ,,and ,,the ,,rose ,a ,,pomander ,,of ,,verse ,,ballads ,,and ,,lyrics ,,jesus ,,in ,,london ,,ballads ,,and ,,lyrics ,,of ,,the ,,spiritual ,,life ,,new ,,poems ,illustration3 ,photo ,david ,norris ,e4 ,nesbit ,frontispiece4 ,,wings ,,and ,,the ,,child ,,or ,,the ,,building ,,of ,,magic ,,cities ,,by ,e4 ,,nesbit ,,author ,,of ,,the ,,magic ,,city1 ,,the ,,wouldbegoods1 ,,etc41 ,,etc4 ,,with ,,pictures ,,by ,,george ,,barraud ,,and ,,from ,,photographs ,,hodder ,,and ,,stoughton ,,new ,,york ,,and ,,london ,printed in #aiac ,,to ,,the ,,reader ,,when this book first came to my mind it came as a history and theory of the building of ,magic ,cities on tables1 with bricks and toys and little things such as a child may find and use4 ,but as ,i kept the thought by me it grew and changed1 as thoughts will do1 until at last it took shape as an attempt to contribute something1 however small and unworthy1 to the science of building a magic city in the soul of a child1 a city built of all things pure and fine and beautiful4 ,as you read1 it will1 ,i hope1 seem to you that something of what ,i say is true--in much1 no doubt1 it will seem to you that ,i am mistaken2 but however you may disagree with me1 you will1 ,i trust1 at least have faith in the honesty of my purpose4 ,if ,i seem to you to be too dogmatic1 to lay down the law too much as though ,i were the teacher and you the learner1 ,i beg you to believe that it is in no such spirit that ,i have written4 ,rather it is as though you and ,i1 spending a quiet evening by your fire1 talked together of the things that matter1 and as though ,i laid before you all the things that were in my heart--not stopping at every turn to say ,do you not think so too8 and ,i hope you agree with me8 but telling you1 straight from the heart1 what ,i have felt and thought and1 ,i humbly say1 known about children and the needs of children4 ,i have talked to you as to a friend1 without the reservations and apologies which we use with strangers4 ,and if1 in anything1 ,i shall have offended you1 ,i entreat you to extend to me the forgiveness and the forbearance which you would exercise towards a friend who had offended you1 not meaning to offend1 and to believe that ,i have spoken to you as frankly and plainly as ,i would wish you to speak to me1 were you the writer and ,i the reader4 ,e4 ,,nesbit4 ,,contents ,,part ,i ,,page ,,chapter ,i ,,of ,,understanding #c ,,chapter ,,ii ,,new ,,ways #i ,,chapter ,,iii ,,playthings #ag ,,chapter ,,iv ,,imagination #bd ,,chapter ,v ,,of ,,taking ,,root #cc ,,chapter ,,vi ,,beauty ,,and ,,knowledge #db ,,chapter ,,vii ,,of ,,building ,,and ,,other ,,matters #ed ,,chapter ,,viii ,,the ,,moral ,,code #fg ,,chapter ,,ix ,,praise ,,and ,,punishment #hb ,,chapter ,x ,,the ,,one ,,thing ,,needful #id ,,part ,,ii ,,chapter ,i ,,romance ,,in ,,games #ajg ,,chapter ,,ii ,,building ,,cities #aah ,,chapter ,,iii ,,bricks--,,and ,,other ,,things #acj ,,chapter ,,iv ,,the ,,magic ,,city #adc ,,chapter ,v ,,materials #aef ,,chapter ,,vi ,,collections #afe ,,chapter ,,vii ,,the ,,poor ,,child',s ,,city #agg ,,chapter ,,viii ,,the ,,end #aij ,,illustrations ,,portrait ,,of ,,the ,,author ,frontispiece ,,page ,,the ,,king',s ,,summer-,,house #h ,,not ,,much ,,higher ,,than ,,the ,,table #ac ,,he ,,has ,,created ,,the ,,engine #ah ,,the ,,tomb ,,in ,,the ,,desert #ah ,,stonehenge #bb ,,the ,,tree ,,like ,a ,,man #bg ,,poppy ,,doll #bi ,,doves ,,and ,,dragon #cj ,,the ,,astrologer',s ,,tower #cb ,,the ,,silver ,,towers #cd ,,furniture ,,to ,,live ,,with #ce ,,the ,,turquoise ,,temple #dj ,,the ,,hall ,,of ,,pearl ,,and ,,red #dg ,a ,,chinese ,,temple #eb ,,the ,,square ,,tower #ef ,,shell ,,arches #eg ,,handkerchief ,,tents #fe ,,one ,,half ,,of ,,the ,,city #gb ,,the ,,tail ,,of ,,puss #gh ,,the ,,other ,,half ,,of ,,the ,,city #hb ,,the ,,hideous ,,disfigurement #if ,,of ,,lovely ,,hills ,,and ,,dales #ig ,,the ,,palace ,,of ,,cats #abj ,,guarded ,,arch #abc ,,boxes #ace ,,arches ,,and ,,pillars #adj ,,pillared ,,court #ada ,,materials ,,for ,,the ,,guard-,,room #adh ,,the ,,guard-,,room #adi ,,the ,,domino ,,door #aej ,,larch ,,palm #aeb ,,the ,,magic ,,city #aeb ,,honesty ,,pillars #aei ,,trees #aff ,,thick ,,arches #afh ,,fan ,,window #afi ,,the ,,elephant ,,temple #aga ,,honesty ,,roof #agd ,,clothes ,,pegs #aha ,,towers ,,and ,,cocoanut ,,cottage #ahe ,,cotton ,,reels #ahf ,,lattice ,,windows #ahg ,,part ,i ,,chapter ,i ,of ,understanding ,,it is not with any pretension to special knowledge of my subject that ,i set out to write down what ,i know about children4 ,i have no special means of knowing anything3 ,i do1 in fact1 know nothing that cannot be known by any one who will go to the only fount of knowledge1 experience4 ,and by experience ,i do not mean scientific experience1 that is the recorded results of experiments1 the tabulated knowledge wrung from observation2 ,i mean personal experience1 that is to say1 memory4 ,you may observe the actions of children and chronicle their sayings1 and produce from these1 perhaps1 a lifelike sketch of a child1 as it appears to the grown-up observer2 but observation is no key to the inner mysteries of a child's soul4 ,the only key to those mysteries is in knowledge1 the knowledge of what you yourself felt when you were good and little and a child4 ,you can remember how things looked to you1 and how things looked to the other children who were your intimates4 ,our own childhood1 besides furnishing us with an exhaustless store of enlightening memories1 furnishes us with the one opportunity of our lives for the observation of children--other children4 ,there is a freemasonry between children1 a spontaneous confidence and give-and-take which is and must be for ever impossible between children and grown-ups1 no matter how sympathetic the grown-up1 how confiding the child4 ,between the child and the grown-up there is a great gulf fixed--and this gulf1 the gulf between one generation and another1 can never be really bridged4 ,you may learn to see across it1 a little1 or sometimes in rare cases to lean very far across it so that you can just touch the tips of the little fingers held out from the other side4 ,but if your dealings with those on the other side of the gulf are to be just1 generous1 noble1 and helpful1 they must be motived and coloured by your memories of the time when you yourself were on the other side--when you were a child full of your own hopes1 dreams1 aims1 interests1 instincts1 and imaginings1 and over against you1 kindly perhaps1 tenderly loving1 often tenderly loved1 but still in some mysterious way antagonistic and counting as ,them1 were the grown-ups4 ,i might say elders1 parents1 teachers1 spiritual pastors and masters1 but the word which the child himself uses seems to me1 for all reasons1 to be the best word for my use1 because it expresses fully and finally the nature of the gulf between4 ,the grown-ups are the people who once were children and who have forgotten what it felt like to be a child4 ,and ,time marks with the same outward brand those who have forgotten and those who do not forget4 ,so that even the few who have managed to slip past the ,customs-house with their bundle of memories intact can never fully display them4 ,these are a sort of contraband1 and neither the children nor the grown-ups will ever believe that that which we have brought with us from the land of childhood is genuine4 ,the grown-ups accuse us of invention1 sometimes praise us for it1 when all we have is memory2 and the children imagine that we must have been watching them1 and thus surprised a few of their secrets1 when all that we have is the secrets which were our own when we were children--secrets which were so bound up with the fibre of our nature that we could never lose them1 and so go through life with them1 our dearest treasures4 ,such people feel to the end that they are children in a grown-up world4 ,for a middle-aged gentleman with a beard or a stout elderly lady with spectacles to move among other elderly and spectacled persons feeling that they are still children1 and that the other elderly and spectacled ones are really grown-ups1 seems thoroughly unreasonable1 and therefore those who have never forgotten do not1 as a rule1 say anything about it4 ,they just mingle with the other people1 looking as grown-up as any one--but in their hearts they are only pretending to be grown-up3 it is like acting in a charade4 ,time with his make-up box of lines and wrinkles1 his skilful brush that paints out the tints and the contours of youth1 his supply of grey wigs and rounded shoulders and pillows for the waist1 disguises the actors well enough1 and they go through life altogether unsuspected4 ,the tired eyes close on a world which to them has always been the child's world1 the tired hands loose the earthly possessions which have1 to them1 been ever the toys of the child4 ,and deep in their hearts is the faith and the hope that in the life to come it may not be necessary to pretend to be grown-up4 ,such people as these are never pessimists1 though they may be sinners2 and they will be trusting1 to the verge of what a real grown-up would call imbecility4 ,to them the world will be1 from first to last1 a beautiful place1 and every unbeautiful thing will be a surprise1 hurting them like a sudden blow4 ,they will never learn prudence1 or parsimony1 nor know1 with the unerring instinct of the really grown-up1 the things that are or are not done by the best people4 ,all their lives they will love1 and expect love--and be sad1 wondering helplessly when they do not get it4 ,they will expect beautiful quixotic impulsive generosities and splendours from a grown-up world which has forgotten what impulse was3 and to the very end they will not leave off expecting4 ,they will be easily pleased and easily hurt1 and the grown-ups in grain will contemplate their pains and their pleasures with an uncomprehending irritation4 ,if these children1 disguised by grown-up bodies1 are ever recognised for what they are1 it is when they happen to have the use of their pens--when they write for and about children4 ,then grown-up people will call them intelligent and observant1 and children will write to them and ask the heart-warm1 heart-warming question1 ,how did you know8 ,for if they can become articulate they will speak the language that children understand1 and children will love1 not them1 for their identity is cloaked with grey grown-up-ness1 but what they say4 ,there are some of these in whom the fire of genius burns up and licks away the trappings under which ,time seeks to disguise them--,andersen1 ,stevenson1 ,juliana ,ewing were such as these--and the world knows them for what they were1 and adores in them what in the uninspired it would decry and despise4 ,to these others who have the memories of childhood untainted and yet have not the gift and relief of words1 to these ,i address myself in the first instance1 because they will understand without any involved explanation on my part what it is that ,i am driving at1 and it is these who1 alone1 can teach the real grown-ups the things which they have forgotten4 ,for these things can be taught1 these things can be re-learned4 ,i would have every man and woman in whom the heart of childhood still lives1 protest1 however feebly and haltingly1 yet with all the power of the heart1 against machine-made education--against the instruction which crams a child with facts and starves it of dreams1 which forces the free foot into heavy boots and bids it walk on narrow pavement1 which crushes with heavy hand the wings of the soul1 and presses the flower of imagination flat between the pages of a lexicon4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,king',s ,,summer-,,house4 #h ,,chapter ,,ii ,new ,ways ,,what1 we ask with anxious gravity1 what is the best sort of teaching for children8 ,one might as sanely ask what is the best sort of spectacles for men1 or the best size in gloves for women4 ,and the blind coarse generalisation which underlies that question is the very heart and core of the muddled1 musty maze we call education4 ,we talk of the best sort of education for children1 as we might talk of the best sort of polish for stoves1 the best sort of nourishment for mice4 ,stoves are all alike1 they vary in ugliness perhaps1 but the iron soul of one is as the iron soul of the other4 ,the polish that is good for one is good for all4 ,mice may1 and do1 vary in size and colour2 their mousehood does not vary1 nor their taste for cheese4 ,in the inner nature1 in the soul and self of it1 each child is different from any other child1 and the education that treats children as a class and not as individual human beings is the education whose failure is bringing our civilisation about our ears even as we speak4 ,each child is an explorer in a new country--an explorer with its own special needs and curiosities4 ,we put up iron railings to keep the explorers to our own sordidly asphalted paths4 ,the little free wild creatures would seek their meat from ,god3 we round them into herds1 pen them in folds1 and feed them with artificial foods--drab flat oil cakes all alike1 not considering that for some brown nuts and red berries1 and for some the new clean green grass1 may be the bread of life4 ,or1 if you take the mind of a child to be a garden wherein flowers grow that might be trained to beauty1 you bring along your steam-roller1 and crush everything to a flat field where you may grow cabbages4 ,it is so good for the field1 you say--because you like cabbages4 ,liberty is one of the rights we claim for ourselves1 though ,god knows we get little enough of it and use still less2 and ,liberty is one of the rights that a child above all needs--every possible liberty1 of thought1 of word1 of deed4 ,the old systems of education seem to have found it good to coerce a child for the simple sake of coercion--to make it do what the master chose1 to make it leave undone those things which it wished to do and to do those things which it did not wish to do--nay1 more1 wished violently and conclusively not to do4 ,to force the choice of the teacher on the child1 to override the timid natural impulses of the child with the hard hoofs of the teacher's individuality1 to crush out all initiative1 to force the young supple mind into a mould1 to lop the budding branches1 nip off the sensitive seeking tendrils1 to batter down the child's will by the brute force of the grown-up will1 to break the child's spirit1 as the cursed phrase used to run--this was1 in effect1 what education meant4 ,there was a picture in ,punch1 ,i remember--at least ,i have forgotten the picture1 but ,i remember the legend3 ,cissy1 go and see what ,bobbie's doing1 and tell him not to4 ,it did not much matter what you made a child do1 so long as it was something against the grain4 ,he was to learn1 not what he with his wonderful new curiosities and aptitudes longed to learn1 but what you wished to teach2 you with your dulled senses--dulled in the same bitter school as that in which he was now a sad learner4 ,illustration3 ,,not ,,much ,,higher ,,than ,,the ,,table4 ,generation after generation has gone on1 pounding away at the old silly game1 each generation anxious and eager to hurt the new one as it1 in its time1 was hurt4 ,each generation must1 one would have thought1 have remembered what things hurt children and how much these things hurt1 and yet this intolerable cycle of bullying and punishment and repression went on and on and on4 ,children were bullied and broken--and grew up to bully and break in their turn4 ,it must be that this was because the grown-ups did not remember4 ,those who have the care of children1 who work for them1 who teach them1 should be those who do remember3 those who have not forgotten what it feels like to be a child--any sort of child4 ,for1 though children are all different1 there is a common measure among them as there is among men4 ,a law for men cannot be good if it be made--as indeed but too often happens--by those who have forgotten what it used to feel like to be a man2 and what sort of poetry do you get from one who has forgotten beauty and sorrow1 and the ,spring1 and how it feels to be young and a lover8 ,and if the people who have the care of children have forgotten what it feels like to be a child1 those who do remember should remind them4 ,they should be reminded how it feels to be not so very much higher than the table1 how it feels not to be so clever as you are now1 and so much more interested in so much more--how it feels to believe in things and in people as you did when you were new to the journey of life--to explore every road you came to1 to trust every person you met4 ,it is a long time ago1 but can you not remember the days when right and wrong were as different as milk and mud1 when you knew that it was really wrong to be naughty and really good to be good1 when you felt that your mother could do no wrong and that your father was the noblest and bravest of men8 ,do you remember the world of small and new and joyous and delightful things8 ,try to remember it if you would know how to help a child instead of hindering it--try to look at the world with the clear1 clean eyes that once were yours in the days when you had never read a newspaper or deceived a friend4 ,you will then be able to see again certain ideals1 unclouded and radiant1 which the dust of the crowded highway and the smears of getting-on have dimmed and distorted--quite simple ideals of love1 faith1 unselfishness1 honour1 truth4 ,i know these words are often enough on the lips of all of us1 but a child's ear will be able to tell whether the words spring from the lips or the heart4 ,look back1 and you will see that you yourself were also able to distinguish these things--once4 ,education as it should be1 the unfolding of a flower1 not the distorting of it1 is only possible to those who are willing and able themselves to become as little children4 ,it is because certain great spirits have done this and have tried to teach others to do it1 that reforms in education have begun to be at least possible4 ,froebel1 ,pestalozzi1 ,signora ,montessori and many a lesser star has shone upon a new path4 ,and public interest has centred more and more on the welfare of the child4 ,books are written1 societies formed1 newspapers founded in the interests of the child1 and true education becomes a possibility4 ,and well indeed it is for us that this is so4 ,for the education of the last three hundred years has led1 in all things vital and spiritual1 downhill all the way4 ,we have gone on frustrating natural human intelligences and emotions1 inculcating false doctrines1 and choking with incoherent facts the souls which asked to be fed with dreams-come-true--till now our civilisation is a thing we cannot look at without a mental and moral nausea4 ,we have1 in our countrysides1 peasants too broken for rebellion1 in our cities4 ,the mortal sickness of a mind ,too unhappy to be kind4 ,if ever we are to be able to look ourselves and each other in the face again it will be because a new generation has arisen in whose ears the voice of ,god and ,his angels has not ceased to sound4 ,if only we would see the things that belong to our peace1 and lead the children instead of driving them1 who knows what splendid thoughts and actions they in their natural development might bring to the salvation of the world8 ,in the ,palace of ,education which the great minds have designed and are designing1 many stones will be needed--and so ,i bring the little stone ,i have hewn out and tried to shape1 in the hope that it may fit into a corner of that great edifice4 ,for if anything is to be done1 it is necessary that all who have anything to give1 shall give it4 ,as ,francis ,bacon said3 ,nothing can so much conduce to the drawing down1 as it were1 from heaven a whole shower of new and profitable ,inventions1 as this1 that the experiments of many 4 4 4 may come to the knowledge of one man1 or some few1 who by mutual conference may whet and sharpen one another1 so that by this 4 4 4 ,arts may flourish1 and as it were by a commixture and communication of ,rays1 inflame one another4 4 4 4 ,this sagacity by literate experience may in the mean project and scatter for the benefit of man many rudiments to knowledge which may be had at hand4 ,and that is why ,i have left for a little while the telling of stories and set myself to write down something of what ,i know about children--know by the grace of memory and by the dreams of childhood1 to me1 thank ,god1 persistent and imperishable4 ,,chapter ,,iii ,playthings ,,the prime instinct of a child at play--,i do not mean a child at games--is to create4 ,i use the word confidently4 ,he will make as well as create1 if you let him1 but always he will create3 he will use the whole force of dream and fancy to create something out of nothing--over and beyond what he will make out of such materials as he has to hand4 ,the five-year-old will lay a dozen wooden bricks and four cotton reels together1 set a broken cup on the top of them1 and tell you it is a steam-engine4 ,and it is4 ,he has created the engine which he sees1 and you don't see1 and the pile of bricks and cotton reels is the symbol of his creation4 ,he will silently borrow your best scissors and cut a serrated band of newspaper1 which he will fasten round his head 7with your best brooch1 if he cannot find a pin71 hang another newspaper from his shoulders1 and sit in state holding the hearth-brush4 ,he will tell you that he is a king--and he is4 ,he has created crown1 robes1 sceptre1 and kingship4 ,the paper and the rest of it are but symbols4 ,illustration3 ,,he ,,has ,,created ,,the ,,engine4 ,and you shall observe that the toys which the child loves best are always those toys which lend themselves to such symbolic use4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,tomb ,,in ,,the ,,desert4 #ah ,christmas is at hand4 ,you go to buy gifts for the child1 in memory of that ,other ,child whose birthday gifts were gold1 frankincense1 and myrrh4 ,you go into the toyshops1 elbowing your way as best you can1 looking for such toys as may aid the child in his work of creative imagination4 ,you find a vast mass and litter and jumble of incredible futilities--things made to sell1 things made by people who have forgotten what it is like to be a child4 ,mechanical toys of all sorts1 stupid toys1 toys that will only do one thing1 and that thing vulgar and foolish4 ,and1 worst outrage of all1 ugly toys1 monstrosities1 deformities1 lead devils1 grinning humpbacked clowns1 comic dogs and cats1 hideous mis-shapen pigs1 incredible negroes1 intolerable golliwogs4 ,all such things the natural child1 with a child's decent detestation of deformity1 will thrust from it with screams of fear and hatred1 till the materialistic mother or nurse explains that the horror is not really1 as the child knows it to be1 horrible and unnatural1 but funny4 ,thus do we outrage the child's inborn sense of beauty1 which is also the sense of health and fitness1 and teach it that deformity is not shocking1 not pitiable even1 but just funny4 ,all these ugly toys are impossible as aids to clean imagination4 ,so1 almost in as great1 though not in so harmful a degree1 is the character doll4 ,the old doll was a doll1 and not a character4 ,therefore she could assume any character at your choice4 ,the character doll is ,baby ,willy1 and can never be anything else1 unless imagination1 exasperated and baffled1 christens him ,silly ,billy in the moment of furious projection across the nursery floor4 ,but the old doll1 with her good1 expressionless face and clear blue eyes1 could be a duchess or a dairymaid1 a captive princess or a greengrocer's wife keeping shop1 a cruel stepmother or ,joan of ,arc4 ,i beg you to try ,baby ,willy in the character of ,joan of ,arc4 ,you cannot hope to understand children by common-sense1 by reason1 by logic1 nor by any science whatsoever4 ,you cannot understand them by imagination--not even by love itself4 ,there is only one way3 to remember what you thought and felt and liked and hated when you yourself were a child4 ,not what you know now--or think you know--you ought to have thought and liked1 but what you did then1 in stark fact1 like and think4 ,there is no other way4 ,do you remember the toys you liked1 the toys you played with8 ,do you remember the toys you hated--after the fading of the first day's flush of novelty1 of possession8 ,the houses with doors that wouldn't open8 ,the stables with horses that wouldn't stand up8 ,the shops whose goods were part of their painted shelves1 whose shopmen were as fast glued behind the counter as any live shop-assistant before the passing of the ,shops ,act8 ,and the mechanical toys--the clockwork toys4 ,the engine was all right1 even after the clockwork ran down for the last time with that inexorable whizz which told you all was over2 you could build tunnels with the big brown books in the library and push the engine through with your hand--it would run quite a long way out on the other side4 ,but the other clockwork things6 ,how can one love and pet a mouse1 no matter how furry its superficial exterior1 when underneath1 where its soft waistcoat and its little feet should be1 there is only a hard surface from which incompetent wheels protrude8 ,and the ostrich who draws a hansom cab1 and the man who beats the boy with a stick8 ,when they have whizzed their last1 who cares for the tin relics outliving their detestable activities8 ,think of the toys you liked3 the ,noah's ,ark--full of characters4 ,what stirring dramas of the chase1 what sporting incidents1 what domestic and agricultural operations could be carried out with that most royal of toys4 ,mr4 ,noah1 ,i remember1 was equally competent and convincing as ploughman or carter4 ,but his chief role was ,sitting ,bull4 ,his sons were inimitable as ,chingachgook and scalp hunters generally4 ,you cannot play scalp hunters with the mechanical ostrich indissolubly welded to a hansom cab4 ,illustration3 ,,stonehenge4 ,you loved your bricks1 ,i think1 especially if you lived in the days when bricks were of well-seasoned oak1 heavy1 firm1 exactly proportioned1 before the boxes of inexact light deal bricks1 with the one painted glass window1 began to be made in ,germany4 ,how finely those great bricks stood for ,stonehenge1 and how submissively ,anna1 the ,dutch doll1 whose arms and legs were gone1 played the part of the ,sacrifice4 ,if you remember those bricks you will remember the polished1 white wooden dairy sets in oval white boxes--churns and tubs and kettles and pots all neatly and beautifully turned4 ,you will remember the doll's house furniture1 rosewood1 duly mitred and dovetailed1 fine cabinet-makers' work1 little beautiful models of beautiful things4 ,now the dolls' house furniture is glued together4 ,you can't trust a light-weight china doll to sit on the kitchen chairs4 4 4 4 ,but you can get your mechanical ostrich and your golliwog4 4 4 4 ,children in towns are cut off1 at least for most of the year1 from the splendid and ever-varying possibilities of clay and mud and sand1 oak-apples and snow-berries1 acorn-cups and seaweed1 shells and sticks and stones which serve and foster the creative instinct1 the thousand adjuncts to that play which is dream and reality in one4 ,for them1 even more than for the happier country children1 it is good to choose toys which shall possess1 above and before all1 the one supreme quality of a good toy4 ,let it be a toy that is not merely itself1 like the ostrich of whom ,i hope you are now as weary as ,i1 but a toy that can be1 at need1 other things4 ,a toy1 in fine1 that your child can1 in the fullest and most satisfying sense1 play with4 ,,chapter ,,iv ,imagination ,,to the child1 from the beginning1 life is the unfolding of one vast mystery2 to him our stalest commonplaces are great news1 our dullest facts prismatic wonders4 ,to the baby who has never seen a red ball1 a red ball is a marvel1 new and magnificent as ever the golden apples were to ,hercules4 ,you show the child many things1 all strange1 all entrancing2 it sees1 it hears1 it touches2 it learns to co-ordinate sight and touch and hearing4 ,you tell it tales of the things it cannot see and hear and touch1 of men that it may never meet1 of lands that it shall never see2 strange black and brown and yellow people whose dress is not the dress of mother or nurse--strange glowing yellow lands where the sun burns like fire1 and flowers grow that are not like the flowers in the fields at home4 ,you tell it that the stars1 which look like pin-holes in the floor of heaven1 are really great lonely worlds1 millions of miles away2 that the earth1 which the child can see for itself to be flat1 is really round2 that nuts fall from the trees because of the force of gravitation1 and not1 as reason would suggest1 merely because there is nothing to hold them up4 ,and the child believes2 it believes all the seeming miracles4 ,then you tell it of other things no more miraculous and no less2 of fairies1 and dragons1 and enchantments1 of spells and magic1 of flying carpets and invisible swords4 ,the child believes in these wonders likewise4 ,why not8 ,if very big men live in ,patagonia1 why should not very little men live in flower-bells8 ,if electricity can move unseen through the air1 why not carpets8 ,the child's memory becomes a store-house of beautiful and wonderful things which are or have been in the visible universe1 or in that greater universe1 the mind of man4 ,life will teach the child1 soon enough1 to distinguish between the two4 ,but there are those who are not as you and ,i4 ,these say that all the enchanting fairy romances are lies1 that nothing is real that cannot be measured or weighed1 seen or heard or handled4 ,such make their idols of stocks and stones1 and are blind and deaf to the things of the spirit4 ,these hard-fingered materialists crush the beautiful butterfly wings of imagination1 insisting that pork and pews and public-houses are more real than poetry2 that a looking-glass is more real than love1 a viper than valour4 ,these ,gradgrinds give to the children the stones which they call facts1 and deny to the little ones the daily bread of dreams4 ,of the immeasurable value of imagination as a means to the development of the loveliest virtues1 to the uprooting of the ugliest and meanest sins1 there is here no space to speak4 ,but the gain in sheer happiness is more quickly set forth4 ,imagination1 duly fostered and trained1 is to the world of visible wonder and beauty what the inner light is to the ,japanese lantern4 ,it transfigures everything into a glory that is only not magic to us because we know ,who kindled the inner light1 ,who set up for us the splendid lantern of this world4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,tree ,,like ,a ,,man4 ,but ,mr4 ,gradgrind prefers the lantern unlighted4 ,material facts are good enough for him4 ,until it comes to religion4 ,and then1 suddenly1 the child who has been forbidden to believe in ,jack the ,giant ,killer must believe in ,goliath and ,david4 ,there are no fairies1 but you must believe that there are angels4 ,the magic sword and the magic buckler are nonsense1 but the child must not have any doubts about the breastplate of righteousness and the sword of the ,spirit4 ,what spiritual reaction do you expect when1 after denying all the symbolic stories and legends1 you suddenly confront your poor little ,materialist with the ,most ,wonderful ,story in the world8 ,if ,i had my way1 children should be taught no facts unless they asked for them4 ,heaven knows they ask questions enough4 ,they should just be taught the old wonder-stories1 and learn their facts through these4 ,who wants to know about pumpkins until he has heard ,cinderella8 ,why not tell the miracle of ,jonah first1 and let the child ask about the natural history of the whale afterwards1 if he cares to hear it8 ,and one of the greatest helps to a small1 inexperienced traveller in this sometimes dusty way is the likeness of things to each other4 ,your piece of thick bread and butter is a little stale1 perhaps1 and bores you2 but1 when you see that your first three bites have shaped it to the likeness of a bear or a beaver1 dull teatime becomes interesting at once4 ,a cloud that is like a face1 a tree that is like an old man1 a hill that is like an elephant's back1 if you have things like these to look at1 and look out for1 how short the long walk becomes4 ,illustration3 ,,poppy ,,doll4 ,and in the garden1 when the columbine is a circle of doves1 with spread wings and beaks that touch1 when the foxglove flower is a little ,puck's hat which will fit on your finger1 when the snapdragon is not just a snapdragon1 but a dragon that will snap1 and the poppies can be made into dolls with black woolly hair and grass sashes--how the enchantment of the garden grows4 ,the child will be all the more ready to hear about the seed vessels of the columbine when he has seen the doves1 and the pollen of the poppy will have a double interest for her who has played with the woolly-haired dolls4 ,imagination gives to the child a world transfigured2 let us leave it that radiant mystery for the little time that is granted4 ,illustration3 ,,doves ,,and ,,dragon4 ,i know a child whose parents are sad because she does not love arithmetic and history1 but rather the beautiful dreams which the ,gradgrinds call nonsense4 ,here are the verses ,i wrote for that child3 ,,for ,,dolly ,,who ,,does ,,not ,,learn ,,her ,,lessons ,you see the fairies dancing in the fountain1 ,laughing1 leaping1 sparkling with the spray4 ,you see the gnomes1 at work beneath the mountain1 ,make gold and silver and diamonds every day4 ,you see the angels1 sliding down the moonbeams1 ,bring white dreams1 like sheaves of lilies fair4 ,you see the imps scarce seen against the noonbeams1 ,rise from the bonfire's blue and liquid air4 ,all the enchantment1 all the magic there is ,hid in trees and blossoms1 to you is plain and true4 ,dewdrops in lupin leaves are jewels for the fairies2 ,every flower that blows is a miracle for you4 ,air1 earth1 water1 fire1 spread their splendid wares for you4 ,millions of magics beseech your little looks2 ,every soul your winged soul meets1 loves you and cares for you4 ,ah6 why must we clip those wings and dim those eyes with books8 ,soon1 soon enough1 the magic lights grow dimmer1 ,marsh mists arise to veil the radiant sky4 ,dust of hard highways will veil the starry glimmer2 ,tired hands will lay the folded magic by4 ,storm winds will blow through those enchanted closes1 ,fairies be crushed where weed and briar grow strong4 4 4 4 ,leave her her crown of magic stars and roses1 ,leave her her kingdom--she will not keep it long6 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,astrologer',s ,,tower4 ,,chapter ,v ,of ,taking ,root ,,when the history of our time comes to be written1 it may be that the historian1 remarking our many faults and weaknesses1 and seeking to find a reason for them1 speculating on our civilisation as we now speculate on the civilisations of ,rome and ,egypt1 will come to see that the poor blossoms of civic virtue which we put forth owe their meagreness and deformity to the fact that our lives are no longer permitted to take root in material possessions4 ,material possessions indeed we have--too much of them and too many of them--but they are rather a dust that overlays the leaves of life than a soil in which the roots of life can grow4 ,a certain solidness of character1 a certain quiet force and confidence grow up naturally in the man who lives all his life in one house1 grows all the flowers of his life in one garden4 ,to plant a tree and know that if you live and tend it1 you will gather fruit from it2 that if you set out a thorn-hedge1 it will be a fine thing when your little son has grown to be a man--these are pleasures which none but the very rich can now know4 7,and the rich who might enjoy these pleasures prefer to run about the country in motor cars47 ,that is why1 for ordinary people1 the word neighbour is ceasing to have any meaning4 ,the man who occupies the villa partially detached from your own is not your neighbour4 ,he only moved in a month or so ago1 and you yourself will probably not be there next year4 ,a house now is a thing to live in1 not to love2 and a neighbour a person to criticise1 but not to befriend4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,silver ,,towers4 ,when people's lives were rooted in their houses and their gardens they were also rooted in their other possessions4 ,and these possessions were thoughtfully chosen and carefully tended4 ,you bought furniture to live with1 and for your children to live with after you4 ,you became familiar with it--it was adorned with memories1 brightened with hopes2 it1 like your house and your garden1 assumed then a warm friendliness of intimate individuality4 ,in those days if you wanted to be smart1 you bought a new carpet and curtains3 now you refurnish the drawing-room4 ,if you have to move house1 as you often do1 it seems cheaper to sell most of your furniture and buy other1 than it is to remove it1 especially if the moving is caused by a rise of fortune4 ,illustration3 ,,furniture ,,to ,,live ,,with4 ,i do not attempt to explain it1 but there is a certain quality in men who have taken root1 who have lived with the same furniture1 the same house1 the same friends for many years1 which you shall look for in vain in men who have travelled the world over and met hundreds of acquaintances4 ,for you do not know a man by meeting him at an hotel1 any more than you know a house by calling at it1 or know a garden by walking along its paths4 ,the knowledge of human nature of the man who has taken root may be narrow1 but it will be deep4 ,the unrooted man who lives in hotels and changes his familiars with his houses1 will have a shallow familiarity with the veneer of acquaintances2 he will not have learned to weigh and balance the inner worth of a friend4 ,in the same way ,i take it that a constant succession of new clothes is irritating and unsettling1 especially to women4 ,it fritters away the attention and exacerbates their natural frivolity4 ,in other days when clothes were expensive1 women bought few clothes1 but those clothes were meant to last1 and they did last4 ,a silk dress often outlived the natural life of its first wearer4 ,the knowledge that the question of dress will not be one to be almost weekly settled tends to calm the nerves and consolidate the character4 ,clothes are very cheap now--therefore women buy many new dresses1 and throw the shoddy things away when1 as they soon do1 they grow shabby4 ,men are far more sensible4 ,every man knows the appeal of an old coat4 ,so long as women are insensible to the appeal of an old gown1 they need never hope to be considered1 in stability of character1 the equals of men4 ,the passion for ornaments--not ornament--is another of the unsettling factors in an unsettling age4 ,the very existence of the fancy shop is not only a menace to1 but an attack on the quiet dignity in the home4 ,the hundreds of ugly1 twisted1 bizarre fancy articles which replace the old few serious ornaments are all so many tokens of the spirit of unrest which is born of1 and in turn bears1 our modern civilisation4 ,it is not1 alas6 presently possible for us as a nation to return to that calmer1 more dignified state when the lives of men were rooted in their individual possessions1 possessions adorned with memories of the past and cherished as legacies to the future4 ,but ,i wish ,i could persuade women to buy good gowns and grow fond of them1 to buy good chairs and tables1 and to refrain from the orgy of the fancy shop4 ,so much of life1 of thought1 of energy1 of temper is taken up with the continual change of dress1 house1 furniture1 ornaments1 such a constant twittering of nerves goes on about all these things which do not matter4 ,and the children1 seeing their mother's gnat-like restlessness1 themselves1 in turn1 seek change1 not of ideas or of adjustments1 but of possessions4 ,consider the acres of rubbish specially designed for children and spread out over the counters of countless toy-shops4 ,trivial1 unsatisfying things1 the fruit of a perverse and intense commercial ingenuity3 things made to sell1 and not to use4 ,when the child's birthday comes1 relations send him presents--give him presents1 and his nursery is littered with a fresh array of undesirable imbecilities--to make way for which the last harvest of the same empty husks is thrust aside in the bottom of the toy cupboard4 ,and in a couple of days most of the flimsy stuff is broken1 and the child is weary to death of it all4 ,if he has any real toys1 he will leave the glittering trash for nurse to put away and go back to those real toys4 ,when ,i was a child in the nursery we had--there were three of us--a large rocking horse1 a large doll's house 7with a wooden box as annexe71 a ,noah's ,ark1 dinner and tea things1 a great chest of oak bricks1 and a pestle and mortar4 ,i cannot remember any other toys that pleased us4 ,dolls came and went1 but they were not toys1 they were characters1 and now and then something of a clockwork nature strayed our way--to be broken up and disembowelled to meet the mechanical needs of the moment4 ,i remember a desperate hour when ,i found that the walking doll from ,paris had clockwork under her crinoline1 and could not be comfortably taken to bed4 ,i had a black-and-white china rabbit who was hard enough1 in all conscience1 but then he never pretended to be anything but a china rabbit1 and ,i bought him with my own penny at ,sandhurst ,fair4 ,he slept with me for seven or eight years1 and when he was lost1 with my play-box and the rest of its loved contents1 on the journey from ,france to ,england1 all the dignity of my thirteen years could not uphold me in that tragedy4 ,it is a mistake to suppose that children are naturally fond of change4 ,they love what they know4 ,in strange places they suffer violently from home-sickness1 even when their loved nurse or mother is with them4 ,they want to get back to the house they know1 the toys they know1 the books they know4 ,and the loves of children for their toys1 especially the ones they take to bed with them1 should be scrupulously respected4 ,children nowadays have insanitary1 dusty ,teddy ,bears4 ,i had a rag doll1 but she was stuffed with hair1 and was washed once a fortnight1 after which nurse put in her features again with a quill pen1 and consoled me for any change in her expression by explaining that she was growing up4 ,my little son had a soap-stone mouse1 and has it still4 ,the fewer toys a child has the more he will value them2 and it is important that a child should value his toys if he is to begin to get out of them their full value4 ,if his choice of objects be limited1 he will use his imagination and ingenuity in making the objects available serve the purposes of such plays as he has in hand4 ,also it is well to remember that the supplementing of a child's own toys by other things1 lent for a time1 has considerable educational value4 ,the child will learn quite easily that the difference between his and yours is not a difference between the attainable and the unattainable1 but between the constant possession and the occasional possession4 ,he will also learn to take care of the things which are lent to him1 and1 if he sees that you respect his possessions1 will respect yours all the more in that some of them are1 now and then1 for a time and in a sense1 his4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,turquoise ,,temple4 #dj ,the generosity of aunts1 uncles1 and relations generally should be kindly but firmly turned into useful channels4 ,the purchase of fancy things should be sternly discouraged4 ,with the rocking horse1 the bricks1 the doll's house1 the cart or wheel-barrow1 the tea and dinner set1 the ,noah's ,ark and the puzzle maps1 the nursery will be rudimentarily equipped4 ,the supplementary equipment can be added as it is needed1 not by the sporadic outbursts of unclish extravagance1 but by well-considered and slow degrees1 and by means in which the child participates4 ,for we must never forget that the child loves1 both in imagination and in fact1 to create4 ,all his dreams1 his innocent pretendings and make-believes1 will help his nature to unfold1 and his hands in their clumsy efforts will help the dreams1 which in turn will help the little hands4 ,,chapter ,,vi ,beauty and ,knowledge ,,clever young people find it amusing to sneer at the old-fashioned ideal of combining instruction with amusement--a stupid ,victorian ideal1 we are told1 which a progressive generation has cast aside4 ,too hastily1 perhaps--too inconsiderately4 ,work while you work and play while you play is a motto dealing with a big question1 and one to which there are at least two sides4 ,entirely to divorce amusement and instruction--may not this tend to make the one dull and the other silly8 ,in this1 as in some other matters1 our generation might well learn a little from its ancestors4 ,in many ways no doubt we have far surpassed the simple ideals of our forefathers1 but in the matter of amusements1 in the matter of beauty1 in the matter of teaching children things without boring them1 or giving powders really and truly concealed in jam--have we advanced so much8 ,to begin with1 the world is much uglier than it was4 ,at least ,england is1 and ,france1 and ,belgium1 and ,italy1 and ,i do not suppose that ,germany1 so far ahead of us with airships1 is far behind in the ugliness which seems to be1 with the airship1 the hall-mark of a really advanced nation4 ,we are proud1 and justly1 of the enormous advances made in the last sixty years in education1 sanitation1 and all the complicated and heavy machinery of the other 'ations1 the 'ologies1 and the 'isms2 but in these other matters how is it with us8 ,we have grown uglier1 and the things which amuse no longer teach4 ,for a good many years now--more than three hundred--old men have said ,such things and such were better in our time4 ,and always the young have disbelieved the saying1 which in due course came from their own lips4 ,has it ever occurred to any one that the reason why old people say this is quite the simplest of all reasons8 ,they say it because it is true1 and true in our land in quite a special manner4 ,the chariot wheels of advancing civilisation must always furrow some green fields1 grind some fair flowers in the dust4 ,but the chariot wheels in which civilisation to-day advances grows less and less like a chariot and more and more like a steam-roller1 and unless we steer better there will very soon be few flowers left to us4 ,those of us who have reached middle age already see that the old men spoke truly4 ,things are not what they were4 ,without dealing with frauds and adulterations and shoddy of all sorts we can see that things are not so good as they were1 nor yet so beautiful4 ,and ,i do not think that this means just that we are growing old1 and that the fingers of ,time have rubbed the bloom from the fruit of ,life4 ,because those things which must be now as they used to be1 trees1 leaves1 rivers1 and the laughter of little children1 flowers1 the sea at those points where piers are impracticable1 and mountains--the ones stony and steep enough to resist the jerry-builder and the funicular railway--still hold all1 and more than all1 their old magic and delight4 ,it seems that it is not only that the ugly and unmeaning things have grown1 like a filthy fungus1 over the sheer beauty of the world1 but that the things that people mean to be beautiful are not beautiful1 and the things they mean to be interesting lack interest4 ,and the disease is universal3 it attacks new things as well as old4 ,the cinematographs even1 newest of the new1 as things went in the old world2 already the canker has eaten them up4 ,in the first year of ,picture ,palaces we all crowded to see beautiful pictures of beautiful places3 ,niagara1 the ,zambesi ,falls1 the ,grand ,canyon4 ,the comic pieces were perhaps ,french1 but they were certainly funny4 ,also we saw the way the world lived1 when it was the other side of the world3 ,elephants a-piling teak1 naked savages1 or as near naked as don't matter1 moving in ceremonial dance before the idols that were the gods of their deep dangerous faith4 ,dramas of love and death and pity and poverty4 ,quite often in the early days the cinematograph tale was of some workman driven by want to the theft of a loaf4 ,it is true that the story generally ended in his conviction and the adoption of his charming baby girl by the wife of the ,juge d',instruction1 but all the same people saw some one poor and sad and tempted1 and were sorry and sad for his sake4 ,also we had tales of ,indians with men that rode amain1 and horses that one longed to bestride1 such beauties they were1 all fire and delicate strong temperament4 ,war dramas too there were1 where the hero left his sweetheart1 and turned coward perhaps1 redeeming himself with magnificent completeness in the splendid debacle of a forlorn hope4 ,that is all over4 ,already the sordid1 heavy hand that smears commercial commonplace on all the bright facets of romance has obscured the vivid possibilities of the cinematograph4 ,we have now for fun the elaborate hurting of one ,american person by another ,american person2 for scenery1 ,american flat-iron buildings2 for romance the incredibly unimportant emotions of fleshy ,american actresses and actors4 ,there are two girls1 good and bad2 two men1 bad and good4 ,in the end the good man gets the good girl1 which is1 of course1 as it should be1 or would be if we could believe in any moral quality in these fat-faced impersonators4 ,you don't care a bit who wins1 but none the less1 the four of them mouth and mop and mow and make faces at you through five interminable acts1 and when the good young man marries the good young woman in a parlour grossly furnished according to ,american ideals1 you feel that both of them are well punished for their unpardonable existence4 ,all real and delicate romance has1 we observe1 been wiped out by the cinematograph4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,hall ,,of ,,pearl ,,and ,,red ,it has long been the fashion to sneer at the ,crystal ,palace1 and indeed the poor dear has gone from bad to worse4 ,there are exhibitions there all exactly like all other exhibitions3 ,switch-backs1 ,montagnes ,russes1 ,silhouettes1 ,tumble-scumbles1 ,weary waves1 ,threepenny thrills 7where you hustle against strangers and shriek at the impact74 ,but once the ,crystal ,palace was otherwise4 ,in the ,victorian days we sneer at1 when our fathers could not see that there was any quarrel between knowledge and beauty1 both of whom they loved1 they built the ,crystal ,palace as a ,temple vowed to these twin ,deities of their worship4 ,think what the ,crystal ,palace was then4 ,think what its authors intended it to be4 ,think what1 for a little time1 it was4 ,a place of beauty1 a place where beauty and knowledge went hand in hand4 ,it is quite true that a ,brobdingnagian ,conservatory does not seem so beautiful to us as it did to the ,prince ,consort and ,sir ,joseph ,paxton4 ,it is true that even in the palmiest days of the ,crystal ,palace you barked your shins over iron girders--painted a light blue1 my memory assures me--and that the boards of the flooring were so far apart that you could lose1 down the cracks of them1 not only your weekly sixpence or your birthday shilling1 but even the sudden unexpected cartwheel 7do they still call a crown that87 contributed by an uncle almost more than human4 ,it is true that the gravel of the paths in the grounds tired your feet and tried your temper1 and that the adventure ended in a clinging to bony fingers and admonitions from nurse not to drag so4 ,but on the other hand4 4 4 4 ,think of the imagination1 the feeling for romance that went to the furnishing of the old ,crystal ,palace4 ,there was a lake in the grounds of ,penge ,park4 ,how would our twentieth century entrepreneurs deal with a lake8 ,we need not pause to invent an answer4 ,we know it would be something new and nasty4 ,how did these despised mid-,victorians deal with it8 ,they set up1 amid the rocks and reeds and trees of the island in that lake1 life-sized images of the wonders of a dead world4 ,on a great stone crouched a ,pterodactyl1 his vast wings spread for flight4 ,a mammoth sloth embraced a tree1 and ,i give you my word that when you came on him from behind1 you1 in your six years1 could hardly believe that he was not real1 that he would not presently leave the tree and turn his attention to your bloused and belted self4 7,little boys wore caps with peaks then1 and blouses with embroidered collars47 ,convinced1 at last1 by the cold feel of his flank to your fat little hand1 that he was but stone1 you kept1 none the less1 a memory of him that would last your life1 and make his name1 when you met it in a book1 as thrilling as the name of a friend in the list of birthday honours4 ,there was an ,ichthyosaurus too1 and another chap whose name ,i forget1 but he had a scalloped crest all down his back to the end of his tail4 ,and the ,dinosaurus 4 4 4 he had a round hole in his antediluvian stomach3 and1 with a brother--his own turn to come next1 as in honour bound--to give you a leg-up1 you could explore the roomy interior of the ,dinosaur with feelings hardly to be surpassed by those of bandits in a cave4 ,it is almost impossible to over-estimate the ,dinosaurus as an educational influence4 ,on your way back to the ,palace itself you passed ,water ,temples surrounded by pools where water-lilies grew4 ,afterwards1 when you read of tanks and lotuses and ,india1 you knew what to think4 ,there were ,sphinxes--the correct plural was told you by aunts1 and you rejected it on the terrace--and1 within1 more smooth water with marble at the edge and more lilies1 and goldfish1 palms1 and ferns1 and humming pervasive music from the organ4 ,there were groves or shrubberies2 you entered them a-tremble with a fearful joy4 ,you knew that round the next corner or the next would be black and brown and yellow men2 savages1 with their huts and their wives and their weapons1 their looking-glass-pools and their reed tunics1 so near you that it was only a step across a little barrier and you could pretend that you also were a black1 a brown1 or a yellow person1 and not a little ,english child in a tunic1 belt1 and peaked cap4 ,you never took the step1 but none the less those savages were your foes and your friends1 and when you met them in your geography you thrilled to the encounter4 ,further1 there were ,courts2 ,i first met ,venus1 the armless wonder of ,milo1 and ,hermes1 embodied vision of ,praxiteles1 and the ,discobolus1 whom we all love1 and who is exactly like ,mr4 ,graham ,wallas in youth1 in the ,grecian ,court4 ,in the ,egyptian ,court there were pictured pillars1 and the very word ,egypt is to me for their sake a ,word of ,power to this day4 ,and the ,spanish ,court1 the court of the ,alhambra1 the lovely mosaic1 the gold and the blue and the red1 the fountain1 the marble1 the strange unnatural beauty of the horseshoe arches4 4 4 4 ,i shall never see the ,alhambra now1 but it is because of the ,spanish ,court at the ,crystal ,palace that there will always be an empty ache in my thought1 an ache of the heart1 a longing that is not all pain1 at its name1 a feeling like a beautiful dwarf despair1 in that ,i never shall see that blue and red and golden glory1 and the mystery of its strange mis-shapen arches that open to the whole world of dreams4 ,say of the ,mid-,victorians what you will2 they did at least know1 when they set them1 the seeds of ,romance4 ,think of ,euston ,station3 those glorious pillars1 the magnificent dream of an ,egyptian building to loom through the ,egyptian darkness of ,london's fogs4 ,and the architecture of ,egypt was too expensive1 and ,euston remains1 a magnificent memorial--the child of genius stunted by finance4 ,there was ,madame ,tussaud's too1 a close link with the ,french ,revolution3 the waxen heads of kings and democrats1 the very guillotine itself4 ,and ,madame ,tussaud's daughter1 with the breathing breast that seemed alive1 and the little old woman in the black bonnet1 ,madame herself1 who had seen the rise of ,republics and the deaths of kings4 ,these things1 last time ,i trod those halls1 were put in the shade1 their place usurped by vulgar tableaux1 explaining to the bored spectators what happens to a vulgar young man with a wife whose skirt is much too short in front and her hair very badly done1 if he leaves his home for the society of sirens and cardsharpers4 ,the tableaux were cheap and nasty1 and taught one nothing that one could not learn from the ,police ,news4 ,once there were nightingales that sang in the gardens on ,loampit ,hill4 ,now it is all villas4 ,once the ,hilly ,fields were hilly fields where the children played1 and there were primroses4 ,once the road from ,eltham to ,woolwich was a grassy lane with hedges and big trees in the hedges1 and wild pinks and ,bethlehem stars1 and ragged robin and campion4 ,now the trees are cut down and there are no more flowers4 ,it is asphalt all the way1 and here and there seats divided by iron rods so that tired tramps should not sleep on them4 ,and the green fields by ,mottingham where the kingcups used to grow1 and the willows by the little stream1 they are eaten up by yellow caterpillars of streets all alike1 all horrible2 while in ,london old handsome houses are tenements1 and children play on the dirty doorsteps of them with dead mice and mutton bones for toys4 ,in the country women wear men's tweed caps instead of sunbonnets1 and ,hinde's curlers by day instead of curl papers 7which if you were pretty1 looked like wreaths of white roses7 by night4 ,and everything is getting uglier and uglier4 ,and no one seems to care4 ,and only the old people remember that things were not always ugly1 remember how different things were--once4 ,illustration3 ,a ,,chinese ,,temple4 ,therefore ,i would plead with all those who have to do with children to resist and to denounce uglification wherever they may meet with it1 and to remember that there is knowledge which goes hand in hand with beauty4 ,to show a child beautiful things1 and to answer as well all the questions he will ask about them1 to charm and thrill his imagination with pictures and statues and models of the wonders of the world1 to familiarise the child with beauty1 so that he knows ugliness when he meets it1 and hates it for the outrage it is to the beauty he has known and loved ever since he was very little--this is worth doing4 ,if we would make beauty the dear rule of a man's life1 and ugliness the hated exception1 we should make beauty as familiar to the child as the air he breathes1 and if we associate knowledge with beauty the child will love them both4 ,,chapter ,,vii ,of ,building and ,other ,matters ,a ,,moment of rapturous anticipation lights life when the kind aunt or uncle has given the bricks1 when the flat1 sliding lid has been slipped back1 and the smooth wooden cubes and oblongs have tumbled resoundingly on table or floor4 ,i am going to build a palace1 says the child4 ,or a tower or a church4 ,and1 the highest hopes inspiring him1 he sets out on the new adventure4 ,but he does not build a palace or a church1 or even a railway station4 ,what he builds is a factory1 or a wall1 or1 in the case of the terra-cotta bricks1 a portion of a ,french gentleman's country villa--the kind you see dozens of along the railway between ,paris and ,versailles4 ,and however strong the child's desire that what he shall build shall be a palace or a church1 that is1 something beautiful and romantic1 what he does build will always be the last thing he does1 or ought to1 admire4 ,the fault is in the materials4 ,they are lacking both in quality and quantity4 ,no box of bricks that can at present be bought for money will build anything that can satisfy an imaginative child4 ,an ordinary box of bricks--a really handsome one--measures1 say1 #ab by #h by #b in4 ,if anything admirable is to be built from this amount of material the material ought to be presented in very small cubes1 oblongs and arches--say #a in4 by #a_/b in4 for the largest bricks1 and going down to #a_/d by #a_/d by #a_/d in4 ,given these proportions a really pretty though undistinguished building might result4 ,but in the box of bricks #ab by #h by #b in4 the smallest cube measures #c_/d in4 and the largest brick #i by #c_/d by #c_/d in4 ,these long slabs of surface cannot be broken and disguised in such small buildings as the only ones which the materials are enough to build4 ,hence1 the deadly monotony of facade1 broken only by the three or1 in the case of the really handsome box1 five arches1 and suggesting nothing so much as a works or a workhouse4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,square ,,tower4 ,in the bricks themselves there is not enough variety4 ,the stone bricks1 it is true1 have broken out into a variety of ugly shapes and a blue colour with which you can1 if you like1 build a ,mansard roof4 ,but a ,mansard roof in a coarse ugly blue tint1 is no thing of beauty4 ,besides1 it needs a solid substructure to support it1 and if you make your building solid1 every brick in your box will be used up1 and all you will have to show for it will be a partially built wing of a peculiarly undesirable villa residence1 replete with every modern inconvenience4 ,nor must it be supposed that the difficulty can be met by adding more and more boxes of bricks4 ,add them1 by all means2 and the result will be a larger and probably an uglier factory1 or a completed1 and therefore more completely hideous1 villa4 ,unless you are a millionaire1 and have a toy cupboard as big as a pantechnicon1 you will never have enough bricks to build up the solid masses which rest the eye1 and give solidity and dignity to architecture4 ,among such solid masses steps are not the least important4 ,every child knows that a really good flight of steps will take half the bricks in his box and leave insufficient material for the edifice to which the steps were intended to lead up4 ,the tall broad smooth wall1 its quiet surface disturbed only by one or two windows1 a flight of steps and a doorway1 is for ever out of reach of the child who has only bricks wherewith to build4 ,illustration3 ,,shell ,,arches ,the arches supplied with boxes of bricks are usually few and badly proportioned4 ,there is seldom any provision for setting them up in a colonnade4 ,the pillars which will support the ends of two arches are too wide for the end arch1 which is single4 ,this difficulty is dealt with in stone bricks1 but not in wooden ones2 at any rate so far as my experience goes4 ,there never was a time1 one supposes1 when so much money was spent on children and their toys4 ,it is impossible to believe that1 should some toy maker design and put on the market really desirable bricks for children1 there would not be a ready sale for them4 ,i suggest1 then1 that bricks are too large1 and too small--and that what is needed is much smaller bricks1 and much larger ones4 ,the bricks in the old chest in our nursery started with #b-;in4 cubes1 and went on in gradations of #b-;in4 to the largest brick--#ab by #b by #b in4 ,the chest itself must have been at least #d by #b by #a-a_/b ft4 ,another detestable quality in our modern bricks is their inexactness--a sixteenth or even a quarter of an inch1 more or less1 is no more to the maker of bricks nowadays than it is to a bad dressmaker4 ,our bricks were well and truly cut3 they were of seasoned oak1 smooth and pleasant to touch--none of the rough-sawn edges which vex the hand and render the building unstable2 they were heavy--a very important quality in bricks4 ,they stayed put4 ,i suggest that such bricks as these1 supplemented by arches of varied curves1 but unvarying thicknesses1 and slabs of board varying in breadth but not in length1 would not be a toy beyond the purse of kind uncles and aunts1 and certainly not beyond the means of our ,council schools4 ,the slabs of boards are to build steps with and to make roofs with4 ,every child who has ever built with bricks feels the reckless wastefulness of using for steps the bricks so much needed for walls and towers4 ,and who has not experienced the aggravation of finding when his tower is built that he has used up all the long bricks near its foundation and has now none left which are long enough to lay across its summit and form its roof8 ,the slabs of board should be1 like the bricks1 of seasoned oak1 and should be an inch thick4 ,there should be plenty of arches--so as to render possible some sort of resemblance to ,norman and classical architecture4 ,but bricks alone1 however beautiful and varied1 cannot as building material have the value which material freely chosen would have4 ,children love to make mud pies1 and to build sand castles1 because the material is plastic and responds with more or less of docility to their demands upon it4 ,also there is always enough of it1 which there never is of bricks1 or for the matter of that1 of plasticine4 ,i can imagine a splendid happiness for a child in a bushel of plasticine--but the sticks of plasticine are too small to be made into anything architecturally satisfying2 and much too expensive for ordinary children to have in any but such quantities as encourage niggling4 ,you will notice that children never tire of building sand castles on the sea-shore--but they would soon tire of building with a quart of damp sand on a table4 ,it is true that the sea washes away your sand castle1 usually before it is finished1 but its end is finely catastrophic and full of damp delightful incident4 ,also the climax has the great essential of drama--it is inevitable4 ,how different the demolition of the brick-built house by mamma1 who wants space for cutting out1 or by ,mary1 who desires to lay the table4 ,the most promising of palaces1 the most beautiful of bridges1 are1 at the urgence of these grown-up needs1 swept away1 and so1 never being able to finish anything1 the builder becomes discouraged4 ,perhaps he takes to the floor as an eligible building site1 only to find his buildings exposed to the tempestuous petticoat of ,mary1 or the carelessly stepping high-heeled shoes of mamma4 ,the same thing happens with a dolls' school1 or a dolls' dinner-party1 or any game requiring pageantry of any sort--so that little girls who would like their dolls to be actors in some scene of magnificence find no safe place for the actors save in their arms--and nurse with enforced premature maternal fussings the doll who1 in happier circumstances1 might be a ,druid or a martyr1 or ,francis the ,first at the ,field of the ,cloth of ,gold4 ,it is better to the child's mind that the cherished doll should safely be baby for ever1 than that it should be ,francis the ,first and get walked on4 ,in any house where space makes such a thing possible1 a table might be set aside for children1 to be their very own--a table on which neither food nor millinery should ever trespass4 ,of course it is needful that toys and pseudo-toys should be put away daily1 but it is not necessary that they should all be put away4 ,those which are being used in some splendid half-developed scheme might surely be allowed to stay where they are1 so that it may be possible to go on with the game next day4 ,a truce might be called of that ruthless tidying up which1 every day1 destroys the new idea1 and compels the child each day to produce a new scheme instead of allowing it to work on yesterday's and bring it to something a little nearer the perfection which it touched when the child's mind first conceived it4 ,but1 it may be urged1 children leave everything half-finished1 and go off to something else4 ,of course they do--but clear away the half-finished thing1 and you will find when they come back from the butterfly flight after some other interest1 that they will not be pleased with you4 ,i've put all your bricks nicely away1 you say proudly2 and ,tommy will say ,bother6 in his heart1 even if his lips are sufficiently trained to avoid that expletive and to substitute3 ,i do wish you hadn't3 ,i wanted to finish building my tower4 ,you see one thing leads to another4 ,it isn't that children are any more bird-witted than we are3 it is that they have not yet learned to restrain the thousand curiosities1 desires1 and creative impulses proper to their age4 ,you1 of course1 if you desired to set up a tableau of the ,field of the ,cloth of ,gold1 would sit down with a bit of pencil and the back of an envelope and jot down all the properties required for staging the scene4 ,but the child who has had the ,field in ,history1 and whose imagination has been stirred by the name of it--a thing that will happen under the stupidest of teachers--sets up ,henry and ,francis in paper crowns and only then begins to see that tents and banners and cloth of gold are lacking4 ,perhaps he goes off to the village shop to get flags1 perhaps to your handkerchief case for tent-cloth1 perhaps to the meadow beyond the orchard to gather buttercups4 ,while on any of these quests some supremely important event may strike across his plans1 and overshadow them--a new kitten1 a gift from the gardener of plants for his little garden1 or the fact that some one is going fishing4 ,then ,francis and ,henry are forgotten1 the buttercups left dying on the doorstep1 and the tent-cloth crammed into the pockets among string1 stamps1 acid drops1 and pieces of the watch he took to pieces last holidays and never put together again1 and he will follow the new trail4 ,but he will come back to the ,field of the ,cloth of ,gold1 and if you have tidied up the kings and put their crowns in the wastepaper basket the child will be disappointed and worried1 his imagination checked and his scheme baffled4 ,illustration3 ,,handkerchief ,,tents4 ,his annexation of your handkerchiefs will not occur if you have accustomed him to come to you or to his nurse for the means to his small ends2 but if there is no one to whom he can apply for help1 you will find that he will not stick at the sacred threshold of your handkerchief case4 ,the tents of the ,field of the ,cloth of ,gold will be far more important to him than the inviolability of that scented treasure-house--unless1 of course1 you happen to have explained to him exactly how much you dislike that your handkerchiefs should keep the sort of company they meet with in his pockets4 ,then1 if he loves you1 and has found you reasonable1 he will refrain1 while wondering at your prejudices4 ,but he will--or ought to--find some other material for tents--letter paper perhaps4 ,letter paper makes quite good tents1 though not nearly so good1 of course1 as handkerchiefs folded diagonally--supported by a central pole1 say a penholder1 and fastened down at the tucked-in corners with pins or rose thorns4 ,you can explain to him that rose-thorns hurt handkerchiefs1 but you will not punish him if this has not occurred to him4 ,and this brings one to the question of crime and punishment1 of which perhaps ,i had better say what ,i have to say before ,i go on talking about bricks and how to supplement them4 ,as ,i was saying1 one thing leads to another4 ,,chapter ,,viii ,the ,moral ,code ,,in attempting to explain and enforce a moral code1 the first and most essential need is to formulate definitely to oneself the code which one proposes to enforce and to explain4 ,there is nothing from which children1 and subject human beings generally1 suffer so much as the incoherence of the thought of those in authority over them4 ,before you can begin to lay down the law you must know what that law is1 and your heart1 soul1 and spirit must not only know it1 but approve it1 before you can gain a willing obedience to it from those on whom you wish to impose it4 ,by this ,i do not mean only that we ought to make up our minds whether this1 that1 or the other isolated act is right or wrong1 as it occurs1 but that we ought to have a clear perception and knowledge of the things that are right and the things that are wrong1 and have a standard which we can apply to any new action brought under our notice1 so that1 measuring the new act by our old standard1 we shall be able to say1 with some sort of rough accuracy1 ,this is wrong1 or ,this is right4 ,and the standard of expediency is not a good one for this purpose1 nor is the standard of custom1 nor yet the standard of gentility or the standard of success in life4 ,children are not good judges of expediency4 ,the law of mere custom will not be strong enough to bind them when desire calls with enchanting voice to forbidden things4 ,gentility and the gospel of getting on will leave them cold4 ,you may at first deal merely with a succession of unrelated particulars1 saying1 ,this is right1 ,this is wrong1 beating down the children's questionings by your mere ,ipse dixit2 but a time will come when it will not be enough1 in answer to their ,why is it wrong8 ,why is it right8 to answer ,because ,i say so4 ,the child will want some other standard which he himself can apply4 ,the standard of what you say may be a shifting one1 and anyhow1 he cannot be at all sure what you will say unless he knows what is your standard1 the standard by which you will decide whether to say1 in any given case1 that a thing is wrong or right4 ,and in order that you may clearly set before the child your own moral standard you must first have set it very clearly before yourself4 ,it is not enough to say1 ,stealing is wrong1 ,lying is wrong1 ,greediness is wrong4 ,if you feel that these things are wrong because they are contrary to the will of ,god1 you will not find that that explanation is sufficient for a child unless he knows very much more about ,god than ,his name and certain miraculous and incomprehensible attributes of ,his4 ,he will want to know what is the will of ,god1 to which these wrong things are contrary4 ,and he will want very much to know the definite right as well as the definite wrong4 ,you will have to give the child a standard that can be applied to positives as well as negatives4 ,there is a very simple standard by which to measure the actions of children--and1 much more severely1 our own actions4 ,it is set up in the words of ,christ3 ,do unto others as you would they should do unto you--a standard so simple that quite little children can understand and apply it1 a standard so severe that were it understood and applied by us who are no longer children1 the warped1 tangled1 rotten web we call civilisation could not endure for a day4 ,there is no other standard by which a child can judge its own actions1 and yours1 and judge them justly4 ,having fixed your standard it will be necessary to try your own actions by it as well as the child's4 ,and this standard will give you the only vital code of morality1 because it compels the continual exercise of imagination1 the continual preening and flight of the wings of the soul4 ,you cannot order your life by that ,divine precept without a hundred times a day asking yourself1 ,how should ,i like that1 if ,i were not myself8 without continually putting yourself1 imaginatively1 in some one else's place4 ,and when the child asks1 ,why is it wrong to steal8 you can lead him to see how little he would like to have his own possessions stolen4 ,when he asks1 ,why is it wrong to lie8 you may teach him to imagine his own bitterness if others should deceive him4 ,it is1 of course1 much easier to say1 ,it is wrong because ,i say so1 or even because ,god says so2 but if you want to mark it right or wrong1 to grave it deeply and ineffaceably on the tables of the heart and the soul1 teach the child to see for himself how things are right and wrong--and to judge of them by that one ,divine and unfailing rule4 ,of course even when the child knows what is right he will not always do it1 any more than you do3 and one of the questions to be considered is how you shall deal with those lapses from moral rectitude of which he1 no less than you1 will often be guilty4 ,punishments1 the old savage punishments1 were revenge1 and nothing but revenge1 a desire to pay out the offender1 to take an eye for an eye1 a tooth for a tooth4 ,more humane and reasonable legislators have sought to prove that punishment is curative--that the fear of punishment will deter people from doing wrong4 ,a distinguished official of the ,home ,office gave it as his opinion only the other day that punishment1 no matter how severe1 will not act as a deterrent1 if there is ever so slight a chance of the criminal's escaping it4 ,what would deter would be the certainty of punishment1 however slight4 ,now since you are not omniscient you cannot pretend to your child that if he does wrong you are certain to know and to punish him3 if you are silly enough to pretend it1 he will find you out immediately1 and estimate your lie at its true blackness4 ,you can1 however1 without any pretence1 assure him that if he does wrong he himself will know it1 that it will make him feel unclean and nasty1 and miserable till he is able to wash himself in the waters of repentance and forgiveness4 ,that if he acts meanly and dirtily he will feel dirty and mean1 and if he acts bravely and cleanly he will feel clean and brave4 ,and he will find that what you say is true4 ,but not unless you shall have succeeded in convincing him that your standard is a true standard1 and that the things which that standard shows to be wrong are wrong indeed4 ,here is the highest work of the imagination3 to teach the child so to put himself in the place of the one he has wronged that the knowledge of that wrong shall be its own punishment4 ,no one desires1 of course1 that a child should be always feeling his own moral pulse3 if he has learned that there is a right and a wrong way he will not be always bothering about which way he may be living--it will be only when something goes amiss that he will stop and consider4 ,just as one does not stop to think whether one is breathing properly1 only when one chokes one knows that one isn't4 ,illustration3 ,,one ,,half ,,of ,,the ,,city4 #gb ,punishment1 however1 should not be confused with the consequences of action1 and while children are yet too small to understand all that ,god may be to them1 it is possible to show them the consequences of their misdeeds1 magnifying these beyond the consequences of the act to be reprobated and thus pointing the general moral4 ,i mean that one may honourably apply1 to the small wrong-doings of childhood1 the sort of consequences--proportioned1 of course1 to the wrong-doing--which would result from such wrong-doing on a larger scale by a grown-up person4 ,it will be exceedingly troublesome and painful for you1 but perhaps its painfulness to you may be the measure of its value to the child4 ,for instance1 ,tommy steals a penny1 knowing that to steal pennies is wrong4 ,he is very little1 and a penny is very little1 and your impulse1 if not to slap him1 might be to tell him that he is a very naughty boy and have done with it4 ,it will go to your heart to bring home to him the consequences of theft1 especially as you cannot do it at once2 but if1 next time you are about to send him to the shop for something1 you say1 ,no3 ,i can't send you because you might steal my pennies as you did the other day--this will be hateful for you to do--but it will show him more plainly than anything else what happens to people who steal4 ,they are not trusted4 ,and the same with lies4 ,show him that those who tell lies are not believed4 ,but1 remembering how it felt to be a child1 have pity1 and do not teach him these lessons when any one else is there4 ,let the humiliation of them be a secret between you two alone4 ,only when a wrong has been done which demands a restitution or an amend should the soul of the child1 shamed with wrong-doing1 be exposed to alien eyes4 ,when we sit in judgment on the aggressions and on the shortcomings of others the first need is neither justice nor mercy1 but imagination with self-knowledge4 ,the judge should be able to put himself in the place of the accused1 to perceive1 by sympathetic vision1 the point of view of the one who stands before the judgment-seat4 ,the judge is an adult human being1 and therefore has some knowledge of the mental and moral processes of human beings4 ,he should use this knowledge2 and when it comes to a grown-up judging a child1 it is no less necessary for the judge to place himself imaginatively in the place of the small offender4 ,and this cannot be done by imagination and self-consideration alone4 ,memory is needed4 ,let me say it again3 there is only one way of understanding children2 they cannot be understood by imagination1 by observation1 nor even by love4 ,they can only be understood by memory4 ,only by remembering how you felt and thought when you yourself were a child can you arrive at any understanding of the thoughts and feelings of children4 ,when you were a child you suffered intensely from injustice1 from want of understanding1 in your grown-up censors4 ,you were punished when you had not meant to do wrong3 you escaped punishment when you had not meant to do right4 ,the whole scheme of grown-up law seemed to you1 and very likely was1 arbitrary and incomprehensible4 ,and you suffered from it desperately4 ,so much that1 even if you have now forgotten all that you suffered1 the mark of that suffering none the less remains on your soul to this day4 ,it would seem that the humiliations1 the mortifications endured in childhood leave an ineffaceable brand on the spirit4 ,how then can we not remember1 and1 remembering1 refrain from hurting other children as we were hurt8 ,the spirit of the child is sensitive to the slightest change in the atmosphere about him4 ,you can convey disapproval quite easily--and approval also4 ,but while most parents and guardians are constantly alive to the necessity for expressing disapproval and inflicting punishment1 the other side of the medal seems to be hidden from them4 ,the most prevalent idea of training children is the idea of prohibition and punishment4 ,you are not to do it6 ,you will8 ,then take that6 the blow or punishment following1 expresses simply and exactly the whole theory of moral education held by the mass of modern mothers4 ,the vast mistake1 both in the education of children and government of nations1 is the heavy stress laid on the negative virtues4 ,also the fact that punishment follows on the failure not to do certain things--whereas no commensurate reward is offered even for success in not doing1 let alone for success in active and honourable well-doing4 ,the reward of negative virtue is negative also1 and consists simply in non-punishment4 ,the rewards of active virtue are1 in the world of men1 money and praise4 ,but there are deeds for which money cannot pay1 and sometimes these are rewarded by medals and paragraphs in the newspapers--not at all the same thing as being rewarded by the praise of your fellow-men4 ,now children1 like all sane human beings1 love praise4 ,they love it more keenly perhaps than other human beings because their natural craving for it has not been overlaid with false modesties and shames4 ,they have not learned that ,praise to the face ,is open disgrace4 ,on the contrary1 praise to the face seems to them natural1 right1 and altogether desirable4 ,see that they get it4 ,do you remember when you were little how you struggled to exercise some tiresome negative virtue1 such as not biting your nails1 not teasing the cat1 not executing1 with your school-boots1 that heavy shuffling movement1 so simply relieving to you1 so mysteriously annoying to the grown-ups8 ,can you have forgotten how for ages and ages--three or four days1 even--you refrained from drinking water with your mouth full of food1 from leaving your handkerchief about in obvious spots natural and convenient1 how you sternly denied yourself the pleasure of drawing your hoop stick along the front railings--because1 though you enjoyed this musical exercise1 others did not8 ,and how1 all through the interminable period of self-denial1 you heartened yourself to these dismal refrainings by the warm comfortable thought1 ,won't they be pleased8--and how they never were4 ,they took it all as a matter of course4 ,to them1 because they had forgotten how it felt to be a child1 all your heroic sacrifices and renunciations counted as nothing4 ,to them it was natural that a child should keep his fingers out of his mouth1 and off the tail of ,puss1 should keep his feet still and his handkerchief in his pocket1 should do the suitable things with meat1 drink1 and hoop-sticks4 ,they never noticed1 and so they never praised4 ,but when1 worn out by long abstinence from natural joys1 natural relaxations1 you broke one of those rules which seemed to you so useless and so arbitrary1 then they noticed fast enough4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,tail ,,of ,,puss4 ,can you never remember1 they said1 just a simple thing like not biting your nails8 ,bitter aloes following1 no doubt4 ,or1 ,i really should have thought1 they would say1 that considering the number of times ,i've spoken about it you would remember not to make that frightful noise1 with boots or hoop sticks or a blade of wet grass or what not4 ,they did not pause to think1 in their earnest grown-up business of bringing the boy up1 how many1 how very many1 and how seemingly silly1 were the don'ts which you had to remember4 ,but you will not be like that3 you will notice and approve1 and most needful of all1 reward with praise the earnest1 difficult refrainings of the child who is trying to please you3 who is trying to learn the long table of your commandments all beginning with ,thou shalt not1 and to practise them1 not because these commandments appeal to him as reasonable or just or useful1 but just because he loves you1 wants to please you1 and1 deepest need of love1 wants you to be pleased with him4 ,a hasty yet determined effort at putting yourself in his place is the thing needed every time you have to sit in judgment on the actions of another human being--most of all when that human being is a little child4 ,if we cultivated this habit we should not hurt other people as we do4 ,i have seen cruel things4 ,a little girl1 suffering from a slight affection of the eye1 was given by a sympathetic aunt the run of a box of that aunt's old ball-dresses4 ,she spent a whole hour in arranging a costume which seemed to her to be of royal beauty4 ,a crushed pink tulle dress1 a many-coloured striped ,roman sash1 white satin slippers1 put on over the black strapped shoes1 and turning up very much at the toes4 ,white gloves1 very dirty and wrinkled like a tortoise's legs over the plump dimpled arms4 ,hair dressed high on the head over a pad of folded stockings1 secured by hairpins borrowed from the housemaid4 ,a wreath1 of crushed red calico roses from somebody's last summer's hat1 some pearl beads1 the property of cook1 and a blue heart out of a cracker--saved since ,christmas4 ,i am a beautiful ,princess1 said the child1 and the housemaid responded heartily3 ,that you are1 ducky1 and no mistake4 ,go and show mother4 ,but mother1 when she was told that this stumbling1 long-tailed bundle of crushed finery was a beautiful ,princess1 laughed and said1 ,princess ,rag-,bag1 ,i should say4 ,it's only pretending1 you know1 the child explained1 wondering why explanations should be needed by mother and not by ,eliza4 ,the mother laughed again4 ,i shouldn't pretend to be a ,princess with that great stye in my eye1 she said1 and thought no more about it4 ,but the child remembers to this day how she slunk away and tore off the beautiful ,princess-clothes1 and cried and cried and cried1 and wished that she was dead4 ,children really do wish that1 sometimes4 ,another form of cruelty is mere carelessness4 ,a child spends hours in preparing some surprise for you--decorates your room with flowers1 not in the best taste perhaps1 and fading maybe before your impatiently awaited arrival--or ties scarves and handkerchiefs to the banisters to represent flags at your home-coming4 ,very pretty1 dear1 you say carelessly1 hardly looking--and the child sees that you hardly look1 and now clear it all away1 there's a dear6 ,the child clears it all away1 and with the dying flowers something else is cleared away1 something that will no more live again than will the faded flowers4 ,be generous of praise--it is the dew that waters the budding flowers of kindness and love and unselfishness3 it is to all that is best in the child the true ,elixir of ,life4 ,,chapter ,,ix ,praise and ,punishment ,illustration3 ,,the ,,other ,,half ,,of ,,the ,,city4 #hb ,,while admitting that no pains can be too great1 no labours too arduous to spend upon the education of the child1 we must not shut our eyes to the fact that the sacrifice of the grown-up may often be better for him--or much more often her--than it is for the child for whom that sacrifice is made4 ,there is a certain danger that the enthusiastic educator1 passionately desiring to sacrifice her whole life1 may incidentally1 and quite without meaning it1 sacrifice something very vital in the child4 ,for the child whose every want is anticipated1 whose every thought is considered1 who is surrounded by the softness of love and the sweetness of sympathy1 is not unlikely to disappoint and dismay the fond parent or guardian1 pastor or master1 by growing up selfish1 cowardly1 heartless and ungrateful2 with no capacity for obedience1 no power of endurance1 no hardihood1 no resource--whining in adversity and intolerable in success4 ,the object of education is to fit the child for the life of the man4 ,once it was held that a rigorous discipline1 enforced by violence1 was the best preparation for the life which is never too easy or too soft4 ,now we have changed all that1 and there is some danger that the pendulum may swing too far1 and that the aim of education may come to mean only the ensuring of a happy childhood1 without arming the child for the battle of life4 ,it is right that to the educator the child should be the prime object1 the centre of the universe1 the prime consideration to which every other consideration must give way4 ,but there is the danger that the child may become his own prime object1 not only the centre of his own universe1 but its circumference1 and cherish1 deeply rooted in his inmost soul1 the conviction that all other considerations should and will give way to his desires4 ,life1 we know1 will teach him1 in her rough1 hard school1 that he is only the centre of his own universe in that sense in which the same is true of us all--that far from being the prime object of the world which surrounds him1 he himself counts for little or nothing1 except to those who love him--and that the consideration he receives will not be1 as was the consideration lavished on him in his childhood1 free1 ungrudging1 and invariable1 but will be conditioned by the services he renders to others and the extent to which he can be to them pleasant or useful4 ,life1 it is true1 will teach him all this1 but if her teaching be a course of lessons in a wholly new subject1 they will be very difficult to learn1 and the learning will hurt4 ,whereas if1 from the very beginning1 the child is taught to understand the interdependence of human beings1 the fact that rights involve duties and that duties confer rights1 he will be able to apply and to use for his own help the lessons which later life will teach him4 ,more1 he will have at the outset of life the advantage which one with a clear conception of rights and duties has over one who only sees life as a muddle and maze of things that are jolly hard lines4 ,they suffer as without hope who see that the world needs mending1 and have never made up their minds what sort of world they would like4 ,whereas the child to whom1 quite early1 the lesson of human solidarity has been taught will1 when he shall be a man1 know very well what he wants1 and will be able1 however humbly1 to help1 in his day and generation1 to re-mould the world to the fashion of his desire4 ,it is not difficult to teach children the duties of kindness and helpfulness to others1 and the duty of public spirit and loyalty to their fellow-men4 ,a healthy child is active1 energetic1 and deeply desirous of using his senses and his faculties4 ,it is possible to assign to quite a small child certain duties1 but the wise educator will manage to make such duties privileges and not tasks4 ,the system of sentencing children to the performance of useful offices by way of punishment is abominable4 ,it gives them for ever a distaste for that particular form of social service4 ,if we must punish1 let us not permit the punishments to trench on the province of useful and1 in good conditions1 pleasant tasks4 ,give the boy an imposition rather than an order to weed the shrubbery walk2 set the girl to learn a ,french verb rather than to hem dusters4 ,the consciousness of being useful is very dear to children--it is worth while to feel and to show gratitude to them for all services rendered1 and though it may be1 as they say1 more trouble than it is worth to teach the children to help effectually1 that only means that it is more trouble than the help they give is worth4 ,what is really valuable is the cultivation of the sense that it is a good and pleasant thing to help mother to wash up1 to help father to water the geraniums1 and1 further1 a thing which will make father and mother pleased and grateful4 ,children1 like the rest of us1 love to feel themselves important4 ,is it not well that they should feel themselves important as givers1 and not as claimants only8 ,the tale of their public obligations may well begin with the lesson that it is part of the duty of a citizen to help to keep his city1 his country1 clean and beautiful4 ,therefore1 we must not leave nasty traces of our presence in street or meadow--such traces as orange-peel1 banana-skins1 and the greasy bag that once held the bun or the bull's-eye4 ,and it is quite as important to learn what we should as what we should not do4 ,the idea and organisation of the ,boy ,scouts is a fine object-lesson in the way of training children to be good citizens4 ,the duties of a citizen should be taught in all schools3 they are more important than the latitude of ,cathay and the industries of ,kamskatka4 ,even the smallest children could learn something of this branch of education4 ,i should like to write a little book of ,moral ,songs for ,young ,citizens1 only ,i wouldn't call it that4 ,the songs in it might take the place of ,mary had a little lamb or whatever it is that they make the infants learn by heart4 ,one of them might go something like this3 ,i must not steal1 and ,i must learn ,nothing is mine that ,i do not earn4 ,i must try in work and play ,to make things beautiful every day4 ,i must be kind to every one ,and never let cruel things be done4 ,i must be brave1 and ,i must try ,when ,i am hurt never to cry1 ,and always laugh as much as ,i can ,and be glad that ,i'm going to be a man1 ,to work for my living and help the rest1 ,and never do less than my very best4 ,another might begin3 ,i must not litter the park or the street ,with bits of paper or things to eat3 ,i must not pick the public flowers ,they are not mine1 but they are ours4 4 4 4 ,and so on4 ,simple rhymes learned when you are very young stay with you all your life4 ,the duties and refrainings just touched on here might be elaborated in different poems4 ,there might be one on being brave1 and another on prompt obedience to the word of command4 ,there is no position in life where the habit of obedience to your superior officer is not of value4 ,to teach obedience without bullying would be quite easy3 with very little children it could take the form of a game1 in which a series of orders were given--for the performance of such actions as occur in the mulberry bush2 and the competition among the children to be the first to obey the new order would quicken the child's mind and body1 while the habit of obedience to the word of command would be firmly planted1 so that it would grow with the child's growth and adapt itself to the needs of life4 ,i would write more than one poem1 ,i think1 about the green country and the shame it is that those who should love and protect it desecrate it as they do4 ,let it be the pride of the child that he is not of the sort of people who leave greasy papers lying about in woods1 broken bottles in meadows1 and old sardine tins among the rushes at the margin of cool streams4 ,such people touch no foot of land that they do not desecrate and defile4 ,wherever they are suffered to be1 there they leave behind them the vilest leavings4 ,filthy papers1 the rinds and skins of fruit1 crusts and parings1 jagged tins1 smashed bottles1 straw and shavings and empty stained cardboard boxes4 ,they leave it all1 openly and shamelessly1 making the magic meadows sordid as a suburb1 and carrying into the very heart of the country the vulgarities of the street corner4 ,it is time1 indeed1 that certain of the finer duties of citizenship were taught in all schools1 ,harrow as well as ,houndsditch1 ,eton as well as ,borstal4 ,and one of the first of these is the keeping of the beauty of beautiful places unsmirched1 the duty of preserving for others the beauty which we ourselves admire1 the duty of burning bits of paper and burying pieces of orange-peel4 ,if there is not time to teach geography as well as the duties and decencies of a citizen1 the geography should go1 and the duties and decencies be taught4 ,for what is the use of knowing the names of places if you do not know that places should be beautiful1 and what is the use of knowing how many counties there are in ,england unless you know also that every field and every tree and every stream in every one of those counties is a precious gift of ,god not to be desecrated by shameless refuse and garbage1 but to be cared for as one cares for one's garden1 and loved1 as one should love every inch of our ,england1 this garden-land more beautiful than any garden in the world8 ,a child should be taught to read almost as soon as it has learned to speak4 ,i can remember my fourth birthday1 but ,i cannot remember a time when ,i could not read4 ,without going into details as to the merits of different methods of teaching1 ,i may say that a good many words may be taught before it is necessary to teach the letters--that reading should precede spelling--that ,,cat should be presented whole1 as the symbol of ,cat--and that the dissection of it into ,c4,a4,t4 should come later4 ,i believe that children taught in this way1 and taught young1 will not in after life be tortured by the difficulties of spelling4 ,they will spell naturally1 as they speak or walk4 ,of the value of the accomplishment of reading1 as a let-off to parents and guardians1 it would be impossible to speak too highly4 ,it keeps the child busy1 amused1 still and quiet4 ,the value to the child himself is not less4 ,nor is it only that the matter of his reading stores his mind with new material4 ,to him also it is a good thing that he should sometimes be still and quiet1 and at the same time interested and occupied4 ,of books for little children there are plenty--not fine literature1 it is true--but harmless4 ,as the child grows older he will want more books1 and different books--and if you insist on personally conducting him on his grand tour through literature he will probably miss a good many places that he would like to go to4 ,for a child from ten onwards it is no bad thing to give the run of a good general library4 ,when he has exhausted the story books he will read the ballads1 the histories and the travels1 and may even nibble at science1 poetry1 or philosophy4 ,i myself1 at the age of thirteen1 browsed contentedly in such a library--where ,percy's anecdotes in thirty-nine volumes or so divided my attention with ,hume1 ,locke and ,berkeley4 ,i even read ,burton's ,anatomy of ,melancholy1 and was none the worse for it4 ,it is astonishing how little harm comes to children through books4 ,unless they have been taught by servants' chatter how to look for the harm1 they do not find it4 ,i do not mean that absolutely every book is fit for a child's reading1 but if you allow the reading of the ,old ,testament it is mere imbecility to insist that all the rest of your child's reading shall ignore the facts of life4 ,you can always have a locked book-case if you choose3 only see to it that the doors are not of glass1 for the forbidden is always the desired4 ,as regards the facts of life1 by which ,i mean the physiological facts about which there is so much needless and vain concealment1 there is1 it seems to me1 only one rule4 ,if your child has learned to love and trust you it will come to you with its questions1 instead of going to the housemaid or the groom4 ,answer all its questions truthfully1 even at the cost of a little trouble in formulating your answers4 ,do not leave the child to learn the truth about its body and its birth from vulgar and tainted sources4 ,there is absolutely nothing that you cannot decently tell a child when it has reached the age when it understands that certain things are not fit subjects for public conversation--and until it has reached that age it will not ask that sort of questions4 ,there is no difficulty in making children understand that their digestive processes are not to be discussed in general society1 and it is quite easy to explain to them that other physiological processes are also to be avoided as subjects for general conversation4 ,the ,cat and her family will help you to explain all that the child wants to know4 ,the child should be taught that its body is the ,temple of the ,holy ,ghost1 and that it is our duty to keep our bodies healthy1 clean1 and well-exercised1 just as we should try to keep our minds strong and active1 and our hearts tender and pure4 ,and one need not always talk down to children3 they understand far better than you think4 ,they are always flattered by talk that rises now and then above the level of their understanding4 ,and if they do not understand they will tell you so1 and you can simplify4 ,in talking of the subjects which interest them1 you need not be afraid of being too clever4 ,for even if they do not ask1 your instinct and the child's eyes will1 if there be love and trust between you1 tell you when you are getting out of its depth4 ,but there must be love and trust3 without that all education outside book-learning is for ever impossible4 ,,chapter ,x ,the ,one ,thing ,needful ,,the most ardent advocate of our present civilisation1 the blindest worshipper of what we call progress1 can hardly fail to be aware of the steadily increasing and brutal ugliness of life4 ,civilisation1 whatever else it is1 is a state in which a few people have the chance of living beautifully--those who take that chance are fewer still--and the enormous majority live1 by no choice or will of their own1 lives which at the best are uncomfortable1 anxious1 and lacking in beauty1 and at the worst are so ugly1 diseased1 desperate1 and wretched that those who feel their condition most can hardly bear to think of them1 and those who have not imagination enough to feel it fully yet cannot bear it unless they succeed in persuading themselves that the poor of this world are the heirs of the next1 while hoping1 at the same time1 that a portion of ,lazarus's heavenly legacy may1 after all1 be reserved for ,dives4 ,the hideous disfigurement of lovely hills and dales with factories and mines and pot banks--coal1 cinder1 and slag2 the defilement of bright rivers with the refuse of oil and dye works2 the eating up of the green country by greedy1 long1 creeping yellow caterpillars of streets2 the smoke and fog that veil the sun in heaven2 the sordid enamelled iron advertisements that scar the fields of earth--all the torn paper and straw and dirt and disorder spring from one root4 ,and from the same root spring pride1 anger1 cruelty1 and sycophancy1 the mean subservience of the poor and the mean arrogance of the rich4 ,as the fair face of the green country is disfigured by all this machinery which ministers to the hope of getting rich1 so is the face of man marred by the fear of getting poor4 ,look at the faces you see in the street--old and young1 gay and sad--on all there is the brand of anxiety1 a terrible anxiety that never rests1 a fear that never sleeps1 the anxiety for the future3 the fear of poverty for the rich1 the fear of starvation for the poor4 ,think of the miles and miles of sordid squalor and suffering in the ,east of ,london--not in comfortable ,whitechapel1 but out ,canning ,town way2 think of ,barking and ,plaistow and ,plashet and ,bow--then think of ,park ,lane and ,bond ,street4 ,and if your eyes are not blinded1 the ,west is no less terrible than the ,east4 ,if you want to be sure of this1 bring a hungry1 ragged child from that ,eastern land and set it outside a ,west ,end restaurant2 let it press its dirty little face against the plate glass and gaze at the well-to-do people gorging and guzzling round the bright tables inside4 ,the diners may be smart1 the ragged child may be picturesque--but bring the two together1 and consider the conjunction4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,hideous ,,disfigurement4 ,and all this ugliness springs from the same cause4 ,as ,ruskin says3 ,we have forgotten ,god4 ,we have therefore forgotten ,his attributes1 mercy1 loving-kindness1 justice1 truth1 and beauty4 ,their names are still on our lips1 but the great1 stupid1 crashing1 blundering machine which we call civilisation knows them not4 ,the ,devil's gospel of laissez-faire still inspires the calloused heart of man4 ,each for himself1 and ,mammon for the foremost4 ,we no longer care that life should be beautiful for all ,god's children--we wish it to be beautiful for us and forget who1 as we wish that wish1 becomes our foster-father4 ,there can be no healing of the great wound in the body of mankind till each one of us would die rather than see the ugliness of a wound on the body of the least of these our brethren4 ,but so dulled and stupefied is our sense of beauty1 our sense of brotherhood1 that our brother's wounds do not hurt us4 ,we have not imagination enough to know how it feels to be wounded4 ,just as we have not imagination enough to see the green fields that lie crushed where ,manchester sprawls in the smoke--the fair hills and streams on which has grown the loathsome fungus of ,stockport4 ,illustration3 ,,of ,,lovely ,,hills ,,and ,,dales4 ,now ,i do believe that this insensitiveness to ugliness and misery1 this blindness to wanton befouling of human life and the green world1 comes less from the corruption of man's heart than from the emptiness of the teaching which man receives when he is good and little and a child4 ,the teaching in our schools is almost wholly materialistic4 ,the child is taught the botanical name of the orange--dissects it and its flower and perhaps learns the ,latin names of the flower and fruit2 but it is not taught that oranges are things you will be pleased with yourself for giving up to some one who is thirstier than you are--or that to throw orange-peel on the pavement where some one may slip on it1 fall and hurt himself1 is as mean a trick as stealing a penny from a blind man4 ,we teach the children about the wonders of gases and ethers1 but we do not explain to them that furnaces ought to consume their own smoke1 or why4 ,the children learn of acids and starches1 but not that it is a disgraceful thing to adulterate beer and bread4 ,the rules of multiplication and subtraction are taught in schools1 but not the old rule1 ,if any will not work1 neither shall he eat4 ,there is no dogmatical teaching4 ,that means a diet of dry bones4 ,it means that the child is never shown how to look for happiness in the performance of acts which do not1 on the face of them1 look as though they would make him happy4 ,it is not explained to him that man's life and the will of ,god are like a poem--,god writes a line and man must make the next line rhyme to it4 ,when it does rhyme1 then you get that happiness which can only come from harmony4 ,and when you do your best to make your line rhyme and cannot--well1 the ,author of the first line knows that it was your best that you did4 ,god is shown1 when ,he is shown at all1 to our modern children1 as a sort of glorified head master1 who will be tremendously down on you if you break the rules3 alternatively as a sort of rich uncle who will give you things if you ask properly4 ,he is not shown as the ,father to whom you can tell everything4 ,if you are successful in your work you win a prize and go home to your people1 and tell them that you are first in history1 receiving their applause without shame4 ,if you are good at games or athletics you can tell your mates that you made two goals or eighty-three runs or whatever it is1 and delight in their admiration4 ,if you are an athlete the applause of the bystanders is your right and your reward4 ,but whom can you tell of the little intimate triumphs1 the secret successes1 the temptations resisted1 the kind things done1 the gentle refrainings1 the noble darings of that struggling1 bewildered1 storm-tossed little thing you call your soul8 ,god1 your ,father1 is the only person to whom you can talk of these4 ,to him you can say3 ,father1 ,i wanted to pay ,smith ,minor out to-day for something he did last week1 and ,i didn't because ,i thought ,you wouldn't like it4 ,are ,you pleased with ,your boy8 ,do they teach you this in schools or give you any hint or hope of what you will feel when your ,father answers3 ,yes1 ,my son1 ,i am pleased4 ,or do they teach you to say3 ,father1 ,i am sorry ,i was a beast to-day1 and ,i'll try not to do it again--and tell you that a ,voice will answer1 ,i am sorry too1 ,my son--but ,i am glad you told ,me4 ,try again1 dear lad4 ,and let ,me help you8 ,as you show your ,latin exes4 to your master1 so you should be taught to show the leaves of your life to the only ,one who can read and understand that blotted record4 ,and if you learn to show that book every day there will be less and less in it that you mind showing1 and more and more that will give you the glow and glory of the heart that comes to him who hears ,faithful and good1 well done4 ,you cannot suppose that your life is rhyming with the will of ,god when you destroy the beauty of the country and of the lives of men so that you may get rich and you and your children may live without working4 ,can you imagine a company promoter who should say3 ,father1 ,i have made a lot of money out of a company which has gone to pieces1 and a lot of other people are ruined1 but ,i know that there must always be rich and poor1 and if ,i didn't do it some one else would8 ,or--,father1 ,i spoiled the green fields where children used to play and ,i have built a lot of streets of hideous and uncomfortable houses1 but they are quite good enough for the working people4 ,as long as they have such low wages they can't live like human beings4 ,and ,thou knowest1 ,o ,father1 that wages are and must be regulated by the divine law of supply and demand4 ,or--,father1 ,i have put sand in the sugar and poison in the beer1 alum in the bread and water in the milk1 all these being1 as ,thou knowest1 ,father1 long-established trade customs4 ,men can say these things to themselves and to each other1 but there is ,one to whom they cannot say them4 ,it is of ,him and not only of the wonders of ,his ,universe that ,i would have the children taught4 ,but they are only taught of the wonders1 not of the ,wonder-worker4 ,it is not that there are none who could teach1 no initiates of the great and simple mysteries1 no keepers of the faith4 ,there are such1 but they are muzzled1 and the detestable horrors of civilisation go on in a community which calls itself after the name of ,christ4 ,and so long as we have in our schools this materialistic teaching1 so long shall we raise up generation after generation to support that civilisation and to keep it the damnable thing we know4 ,talk goes on and goes on and goes on4 ,there is talk now of a ,great ,measure for the ,reform of ,national ,education1 much talk--there will be more4 ,there will be much ink spilt1 much breath wasted2 we shall hear of ,montessori and ,froebel and ,pestalozzi1 of ,science and the ,classics1 of opportunities of ladders of scholarships and prizes and endowments4 ,we shall hear how hard it is that the sons of the plumber should not be able to go to ,oxford and how desirable it is that daughters of the dustman should sometimes take the ,prix de ,rome4 ,we shall be told how important are the telescope and the microscope1 and how right it is that children should know all about their little insides4 ,the one thing we shall not hear about will be the one thing needful4 ,a tottering ,government may keep itself in power by such a measure1 a defeated party may1 by it1 bring itself back to office1 but such a measure will not keep the nation from perdition1 nor bring back the soul of a man into the true way4 ,we may build up as we will schemes of ,education and ,instruction1 add science to science1 learning to learning1 and facts to facts2 but what we shall build will be only a dead body unless it be informed by the breath of the ,spirit which maketh alive4 ,for ,education which teaches a man everything but how to live to the glory of ,god and the service of man is not ,education1 but only instruction2 and it is the fruit of the tree1 not of ,life1 but of ,death4 ,,part ,,ii ,,chapter ,i ,romance in ,games ,a ,,sharp distinction can be drawn between games with toys and games without them4 ,in the latter the child's imagination has to supply everything1 in the former it supplements or corrects the suggestion of the toy4 ,but in both1 as in every movement and desire of the natural child1 it is imagination which tints the picture and makes the whole enterprise worth while4 ,in hide-and-seek1 that oldest of games1 and still more in its sister ,i spy1 a little live streak of fear brought down from who knows what wild ancestry lends to the game an excitement not to be found in games with bats and balls and nets and bails and straightforward trappings bought at shops4 ,when you lurk in the shrubbery ready to spring out on the one who is hunting you1 and to become in your turn the hunter1 you are no longer a child1 you are a red ,indian or a ,canadian settler1 or a tiger or a black-fellow1 according to the measure of your dreams and the nature of the latest book of your reading4 ,at this point it occurs to me that perhaps you who read may have forgotten the difference between ,hide-and-seek and ,i spy4 ,hide-and-seek is just what it says it is2 half the players hide1 and the others seek them and there's an end of it4 ,it is an interesting game1 but flat compared with ,i spy4 ,it has1 however1 this merit1 that it can be played without those screams to which grown-ups are1 usually1 so averse4 ,whereas ,i defy any one to play ,i spy without screaming4 ,hide-and-seek is a calm game2 the thing sought for might almost as well be an inanimate object3 it is the game of stoats looking for pheasants' eggs1 of bears looking for honey4 ,but ,i spy is the game of enemy looking for enemy3 it calls for the virtues of fortitude1 endurance1 courage--for the splendours of physical fitness1 for aptness1 for speed4 ,in ,i spy half the players hide and the others seek2 but they seek not an unresisting stationary object1 but a keen1 watchful retaliatory terror4 ,they seek1 in shrubbery and garden1 behind summer-house and conservatory1 in the shelter of tree1 hedge1 and arbour1 for the enemy1 and when that enemy is found the seeker does not just say1 ,oh1 here you are--that ending the game4 ,far otherwise2 the seeker in ,i spy goes warily1 his heart in his mouth--for1 the moment he sees a hider1 he must shout ,i spy1 adding the hider's name4 ,i spy ,jimmy6 he cries1 and turning1 flees at his best speed4 ,the hidden one follows after--the hunted becoming in one swift terrible transition the hunter1 and he who was the seeker flies with all the speed he may1 across country1 to the appointed home4 ,the quarry unearthed has become the pursuer and follows with yells4 ,grown-ups would always rather that you played hide-and-seek--and can you wonder8 ,but sometimes they will concede to you ,i spy rights1 and even join in the sport4 ,it is always well1 in playing any game where anything may be trampled1 such as asparagus beds1 or broken1 such as windows1 to have a grown-up or two on your side4 ,and by your1 here1 of course ,i mean children4 ,the habit of years is not easily broken1 and ,i am so much more used to writing for children than of them4 ,chevy ,chase is a good old-fashioned game of courage and adventure4 ,does any one play it now8 ,no child can play it con amore who does not know who it was who ,when his legs were smitten off ,he fought upon his stumps1 and to what bold heart the bitterest drop in the cup of defeat was ,earl ,percy sees my face---- ,all wreathed with romance are the song-games1 ,nuts in ,may1 ,there came ,three ,knights1 and the rest1 where the up-and-down dancing movement and the song of marriage-by-capture ends in a hard jolly tug-of-war1 and woe to the vanquished6 ,this is a very old game--and there are many words to it4 ,one set ,i know1 but ,i never have known the end4 ,little boys in light trousers and short jackets and little girls in narrow frilled gowns used to play it on the village green a hundred years ago4 ,this is how it began3 ,up and down the green grass ,this and that and thus1 ,come along1 my pretty maid1 ,and take a walk with us2 ,you shall have a duck1 my dear1 ,and you shall have a drake1 ,and you shall have a handsome man1 ,for your father's sake4 ,my mother told me all of that song-game1 and that is all of it that ,i can remember4 ,she always said she would write it down1 and ,i always thought there was plenty of time1 and somehow there was not1 and so ,i do not know the end4 ,perhaps ,mr4 ,charles ,marson1 who first found out the ,somerset folk-songs of which ,mr4 ,somebody ,else now so mysteriously gets all the credit1 may know the end of these verses4 ,if he does1 and if he sees this1 perhaps he will write and tell me4 ,this game of come and go and give and take is alive in ,france2 witness the old song3 ,qu'est-ce qui passe ici si tard1 ,compagnons de la ,marjolaine8 ,qu'est-ce qui passe ici si tard ,toujours si gai8 ,ce sont les cavaliers du ,roi1 ,compagnons de la ,marjolaine4 ,ce sont les cavaliers du ,roi ,toujours si gais4 ,et que veulent ces cavaliers1 ,compagnons de la ,marjolaine8 ,et que veulent ces cavaliers ,toujours si gais8 ,des jeunes filles a marier1 ,compagnons de la ,marjolaine2 ,des jeunes filles a marier1 ,toujours si gais4 ,and ,i have no doubt that stout ,dutch children and ,german children with flaxen plaits1 and small contadine1 and ,spanish and ,swedish and ,russian and ,lithuanian babes all move rhythmically back and forth on their native greensward and rehearse the old story of the fair maid and the ,knight out to marry4 ,the ,mulberry ,bush is another of the old song-games1 where play-acting is the soul of the adventure1 and this too is everywhere4 ,a la claire fontaine1 ,i remember as the ,french version1 danced on wet days in the cloisters of the convent of my youth4 ,le ,pont d',avignon1 a glorious game1 with its impersonations of animals1 has1 as far as ,i know1 no counterpart in this country4 ,all these games are active games3 they can1 of course1 be played by sheer imitation1 a sort of parrot-and-monkey aptitude will do it2 but if they are to be enjoyed to the full1 the imagination must have full play4 ,to be a knight a-riding to fetch a fair lady is quite simple1 and quite thrilling--just as to be a bear demands nothing but growls and a plantigrade activity in the performer to be a fearful joy to the non-bear4 ,cricket and football1 fives and racquets1 the games that are played with things out of shops1 do not need imagination to help them out4 ,the games without bought accessories should perhaps rather be termed plays than games4 ,and the more highly cultivated the imagination the more intensely joyous are the games4 ,all sorts of acting1 dressing-up1 and pretending games depend entirely on the imagination1 and it is well to encourage children to act scenes which they have observed1 or heard about or read about4 ,the smallest child will experience a real joy in putting its pinafore on wrong way round1 call it a coat1 and announce with pride that it is ,daddy going a tata4 ,in the dolls' tea-parties you will observe a careful copy or travesty of your own company manners1 and as the small minds are filled with tales of wonder and adventure1 you will find them re-enacted1 the nursery rocking chair serving as charger for the gallant knight1 and nurse's hassock taking quite adequately the part of the dragon4 ,a small sister can generally be relied on to be the captive princess1 especially if handsome trappings go with the part--and a cobweb brush is an admirable spear4 ,the princess will be released from her bonds in time to act as chief mourner at the funeral of the slain hassock1 which can be carried down the river in a barge made of the nursery table wrong way up--with the nursery tablecloth for a sail--an admirable tableau certain to occur if any one has told the children the story of ,elaine4 ,that the dragon should have as sumptuous a funeral as ,enoch ,arden himself1 need not surprise you3 a funeral is a funeral1 be the corpse canary1 guinea pig1 or hassock1 and to a dead dragon are due all the honours we pay to a gallant if unfortunate antagonist4 ,not only fairy tales1 but history will be acted4 ,you will have ,jane as ,queen ,eleanor sucking the poison from ,jack's grubby paws1 and ,alice as an ,arab physician curing the plague1 represented by blobs of paint-water on the rigid arms of ,robert4 ,how beloved will be the grown-up who1 passing by the scene1 shall refrain from commenting on the deafening groans of the patient1 and shall1 instead1 offer the physician a ribbon for his girdle or a plume from the dusting brush for his turban4 ,exploring plays and all the plays which include wigwams and war paint are such as an intelligent grown-up will be able to intensify and add backbone to--for a child's fancy will naturally outrun his performance1 and though he may imagine a feather head-dress or moccasins1 he will be only too pleased that a grown-up should make the things for him with that strong1 unerring touch to which his small experimenting hands cannot yet attain4 ,all such games require numbers2 your only lonely child cannot play ,indians to the full4 ,two is better than one and more than two is better than two1 up to the number of six or eight4 ,people don't seem to see how important numbers are for play4 ,they see it fast enough when it comes to schools1 but a regular association of children for the purposes of play is not encouraged4 ,in a large family of boys and girls it just happens happily1 but an association of children from various homes generally means a predatory horde of boys3 girls don't associate with unrelated girls in joyous play-adventures1 and boys are apt to think that little girls who are not their sisters are either angels or muffs1 and neither a muff nor an angel is what you want to play games with4 ,parents and guardians might do a great deal to render play-association possible3 ,i suggest that house parties of children1 where the utmost possible liberty should be given1 would stimulate enormously the plays which encourage daring and initiative1 and would teach boys that girls are not necessarily muffs or angels1 and teach girls that boys are not all brutes4 ,fathers and mothers sacrifice themselves every year in ,august2 you see them doing it1 heavily1 definitely1 with clenched teeth and a grim determination not to be selfish1 and to spend a month with the children at the seaside1 however much it may cost in time1 temper1 and money4 ,the ,browns go to ,scarborough1 their friends the ,robinsons go to ,wales1 the ,smiths are in ,devonshire and the ,joneses at ,littlehampton4 ,they all go to the same sort of lodgings1 do the same sort of things1 and lucky is the mother whose nerves are not worn very thin indeed before the holiday ends4 ,now suppose all these worthy and self-sacrificing parents agreed to pool their families and let ,mr4 and ,mrs4 ,brown take charge of them all--in some jolly big house suited to the needs of so swollen a household4 ,sixteen children are really1 in many ways1 four times easier to manage than four--and at least forty times as easy to amuse4 ,in fact1 you don't need to amuse them--they will amuse themselves and each other3 ,mr4 and ,mrs4 ,brown will only have to adjust ebullitions4 ,meanwhile the ,smiths1 ,robinsons1 and ,joneses are having their holiday where they will4 ,their turn of having the children will come another year1 when the ,browns will be free to range the world in ,august1 knowing that their children are safe and happy and are1 thank you1 having a much better time than they could have in small seaside lodgings1 even with the undivided attention of their fathers and mothers4 ,besides1 if ,i may for once take the part of the mothers instead of that of the children1 what sort of holiday do you think the mother has1 when to the ordinary routine of housekeeping at home are added the difficulties of housekeeping in unfamiliar surroundings1 in a house of whose capabilities she has no experience1 and with a landlady whose temper1 as often as not1 is as short as her tale of extras is long8 ,the woman who works all the year round at the incredibly arduous task of making a home1 answering week in and week out the constant1 varying demands on all her complex mental and physical activities1 does really deserve a real holiday4 ,what is more1 she needs it4 ,she will be a better mother the rest of the year if she be allowed for that one month to be just a wife1 and a wife on a holiday4 ,the wife whose turn it is to take charge of the amalgamated families will find so great a change from the exclusive care of her own chickens that the change in itself will be a sort of holiday4 ,and the children themselves1 perhaps1 will learn a little from the enforced separation from the fount of unselfish devotion1 and appreciate their mother all the more if they have1 be it only half-consciously1 missed her a little even through the varied and joyous experiences of their month's house-party4 ,,chapter ,,ii ,building ,cities ,,the devotion of aunts has often stirred my admiration4 ,the heroism of aunts deserves an epic4 ,but this is1 as you say1 not the place to write that epic4 ,give me leave1 however1 to say that of all the heroic acts of the devoted aunt1 none seems to me more magnificent than the self-sacrifice which nerves those delightful ladies to settle themselves down to play1 in cold blood1 with their nephews and nieces games bought at a shop1 games in boxes4 ,i am not talking of croquet1 or even badminton1 though these may be1 and are1 bought in boxes at shops4 ,nor do ,i wish to depreciate chess and draughts1 nor even halma1 the poor relation of draughts and chess1 nor dominoes1 which we all love4 ,these games1 so precious on wet days1 or when other people have headaches1 cannot be too highly prized1 too assiduously cultivated4 ,the rigours of the seaside holiday1 too often in wet weather a time of trial and temper1 would be considerably mitigated if chess and chess-board1 draughts1 dominoes1 and halma were packed in the trunks along with the serge suits1 the sandshoes1 and the sun-bonnets4 ,the games which ,i do so 'wonder and admire' to see aunts playing are the meaningless games with counters and dice3 ill-balanced dice and roughly turned counters and boards that look like folding chequer-boards till you open them1 and then you find all the ugliest colours divided into squares and circles or slabs1 with snakes or motors or some other unpleasing devices on them4 ,these games are all exactly the same in their primary qualities3 the first of them that was invented had all the faults of all its successors4 ,yet dozens of new ones are invented every year1 just to sell1 and helpless children try to play them1 knowing no better1 and angel aunts abet them1 knowing all4 ,grown-ups suffer a great deal in playing with children3 it is not the least charm of a magic city that a grown-up can play it and suffer nothing worse than the fatigue incidental to the bricklayer's calling4 ,of course1 most grown-ups will say that they would rather be burnt at a slow fire1 or play halma1 than be bothered with magic cities4 ,but that is only because they do not understand4 ,try the experiment the next time you are spending a wet week-end in a country house where there are children4 ,get the children to yourself and ask your hostess whether you may borrow what you want for a game4 ,the library is the best place for building3 there is almost certainly a large and steady table3 also there are the books4 ,i need not urge you to spare the elegantly bound volumes1 and the prized first editions1 and the priceless folios and duodecimos in their original calf and vellum4 ,you will find plenty of books that nobody will mind your using--the old ,whitakers1 bound volumes of the ,cornhill and ,temple ,bar--good solid blocks for the foundations of your city4 ,if there be a pair of candlesticks or an inkstand which match1 you may make a magnificent archway by setting up the candlesticks as pillars and laying the inkstand on the top4 ,you can see how this is done in the picture of the ,elephant ,temple4 ,get the children to bring down the bricks and enlist a friendly parlour-maid to let you have the run of the china cupboard1 or a footman1 if you are in that sort of house1 to bring you the things you want on a tray4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,palace ,,of ,,cats4 #abj ,but it is much better if you can go alone over the house and choose what you really want4 ,you invite the children to help you build1 and to build themselves4 ,if they have never built a magic city you will find that they will presently desert their plain brick edifices to watch the development of your palace or temple4 ,they will offer suggestions1 and quite soon they will offer objects4 ,they will begin to look about the room with their sharp eyes--and about the house with their keen memory and imagination1 and produce the sort of things that look like the sort of things they think you might like for your building4 ,they will wander off1 returning with needle-cases1 little boxes1 shells--and ,would this do for something8 is the word on every lip4 ,they are soon as much absorbed in the building as you are--and ,i take it you are an enthusiast--and your magic city grows apace4 ,then after a little while a grown-up1 bored and out of employment1 will stray into the library with ,hullo6 what are you kids up to with all this rubbish8 and stand with his hands in his pockets contemplating the building industry4 ,if you answer him simply and kindly1 and don't resent his choice of epithet1 it is almost certain he will quite soon withdraw a hand from his pocket and reach out to touch your magic walls with ,wouldn't it be better like that8 ,admit it1 and in hardly any time at all you have him building on his own account4 ,another grown-up will stray in presently with the same question on his lips4 ,he too will come to be bored and will remain to build1 and by tea-time you will have collected every grown-up of the house-party--every grown-up1 that is to say1 with the right feeling for cities4 ,it will surprise you to find how keen you will yourself become as the work goes on1 and how it will call into play all your invention and your latent craftsmanship4 ,you will be amazed at the results you can achieve with quite dull-looking materials1 and still more will you be surprised at the increasing interest and skill of the grown-ups4 ,when it is time to dress for dinner you will feel a pang of positive despair at the thought that your beautiful city1 the child of your dreams and skill1 must be taken down4 ,it is like the end of the magic of ,cinderella when her coach became a pumpkin1 her horses mice and her coachman a fat rat4 ,now your domes are once more mere basins1 your fountain basins are ash-trays1 your fountains are but silver pen-cases and their gleaming waters only strips of the tin-foil that comes off chocolate or cigarettes4 ,the walls of your palaces go back into the book-cases1 and their facades return to the dull obscurity of the brick-boxes4 ,the doors and the animals who stood on guard at the door-ways and terraces1 on plinths or pillars1 share in the dark rattling seclusion where many a wooden tail has been broken1 many a painted ear lost for ever1 but the tidying up has to be done3 unless your hostess is one of those rare and delightful people who see what their guests like and lets them do it4 ,in that case she may say ,oh6 what a pity to disturb the pretty thing6 ,why not let your city stay for a day or two1 so that the children can build some more to it to-morrow4 ,no1 of course it won't be in the way--and wouldn't it be pretty if we lighted it up with fairy lights after dark8 ,then your city really has a chance4 ,the children will think of it till bed-time and fall asleep in the happy throes of their first town-planning4 ,you may think that ,i exaggerate the charms of magic cities1 because ,i happened to invent them1 and you may be afraid that my swan1 if you ever make up your mind to adopt it1 may turn out to be an ugly and dispiriting duckling4 ,i assure you this is not so4 ,i have never met a child who did not like building magic cities1 and not many grown-ups4 ,of course the love of them grows1 like other loves1 and the longer you can keep the city standing1 the fonder you and your playmates will get of it4 ,it will grow more and more finished in detail1 and the ugly make-shifts will be reorganised and made neat with an irreproachable neatness4 ,if the magic city game were played in schools1 as ,i think it ought to be1 a long table--or series of tables--could easily be kept for it1 and the city kept standing and be added to from day to day4 ,but it will not be the same sort of city as the one you build in the house where the parlour-maid lives and still less the sort that happens in the house where there is a butler and many silver boxes and cups and candlesticks4 ,now ,i come to write all this down it seems very trivial1 and it will perhaps seem even more so when ,i come to tell you about the different things we made and used for magic cities4 ,but it is not really trivial4 ,i do not think ,i claim for the magic city game more than it justifies1 and ,i will tell you1 presently1 why ,i think this4 ,of course1 when you have finished your city1 if you ever do finish it1 you make up stories about it1 and always1 even when you are building it1 you imagine how splendid it would be if you were small enough to walk through the arches of your city gates1 to run along the little corridors of your city palaces4 ,of course1 it would do quite as well if your city became big enough for you to run about in while still keeping your natural size--but it is somehow not really so cosy to think of4 ,when ,i had built my first three or four magic cities this idea of getting into the city--being1 of course1 correct citizen-size--lived with me so much that ,i wrote a story-book about it called ,the ,magic ,city1,a in which a boy and girl do really become the right size and enter into the city they have built4 ,they have there all the adventures whose wraiths danced before me when ,i was building courts and making palm trees and finding out the many fine and fair uses of cowries and fir-cones4 ,this book1 ,the ,magic ,city1 produced a curious effect4 ,i hope ,i shall not look conceited 7because really ,i am only proud7 when ,i say that about my books ,i have had the dearest letters from children1 saying pretty things about the stories in the prettiest way4 ,it is one of the most heart-warming things in the world to get these letters and to answer them4 ,and if ,i had letters like these ,i should have been only pleased and not disturbed4 ,but the letters about the ,magic ,city1 though they were full of the pretty1 awkward1 delicious things that children write to the author of the books they like1 held something else--a demand1 severe and almost unanimous1 to know how magic cities were built1 and whether children like us could build one1 and1 if so1 how8 ,i got so many of these letters that ,i decided to build a magic city where any child1 in ,london at any rate1 could come and see it4 ,and ,i built it at the ,children's ,welfare ,exhibition which the ,daily ,news arranged last year at ,olympia4 ,the history of that building would make a largish and intimate volume4 ,the difficulties that beset a home-dweller when she goes out into the world1 the anguish of misunderstandings which arise between the builder of magic cities and the people who lay linoleum and put up electric lights1 the confusion which results from having packed in boxes and all mixed up the building materials which you are accustomed to look for as you need them in your own home1 the extraordinary mass of people1 the extraordinary kindness of people2 for after all1 it is the kindness which stands out4 ,it is true that the gentleman who1 very much isolated1 fixed the electric lights1 behaved exactly like an earthquake1 upsetting two temples1 a palace1 and a tank with an educated seal in it4 ,but then how more than a brother was the man who did the whitewash6 ,it is true that the dictator with the linoleum--but ,i will not remember these things4 ,let me remember how many good friends ,i found among the keepers of the stalls1 how a great personage of the ,daily ,news came with his wife at the last despairing moment1 and lent me the golden and ruby lamps from their dining-table1 how the ,boy ,scouts put themselves in four to get me some cocoa-nuts for roofs of cottages1 how their ,scout ,master gave me fourteen beautiful little ivory fishes with black eyes1 to put in my silver paper ponds1 how the basket-makers on the one side and the home hobbies on the other were to me as brothers1 how the ,cherry ,blossom ,boot ,polish lady gave me hairpins and the wardens of ,messrs4 ,w4 ,h4 ,smith's bookstall gave me friendship1 how the gifted boy-sculptor for the ,plasticine stall1 moved by sheer loving-kindness1 rushed over one day and dumped a gorgeous prehistoric beast1 modelled by his own hands1 in the sands about my ,siberian tomb1 how the ,queen of ,portugal came and talked to me for half an hour in the most flattering ,french1 while the ,deity from the ,daily ,news looked on benign4 ,these are things ,i can never forget4 ,when the show opened ,i was feeling like a snail who has inadvertently come out without his shell4 ,think how all this kindness comforted and protected me4 ,and then came the long stream of visitors--crowds of them--,i don't know how many thousands1 who came and looked at my magic city and asked questions1 and looked and looked at it1 looked and said things4 ,it is because of what they said that ,i am writing about that show at all4 ,they all liked the city except two1 and ,i cannot think that those two were1 in other respects1 really nice people4 ,and more than half of them asked whether ,i would not write a book about the magic city which ,i had built there1 and which lay looking so real and romantic under the soft glow of the tinted lamps3 not a story-book1 but a book to tell other people how to make such cities4 ,and ,i said ,i would tell all ,i knew in a book4 ,and when ,i came to write ,i found that there were many other things that ,i wanted to write about children1 and other things than magic cities1 and ,i wrote them1 and this is the book4 ,and the reason ,i am telling you all this is that my big magic city at ,olympia showed me1 more than anything else could have done1 that the building of magic cities interests practically every one1 young or old4 ,it is very difficult to say all this and yet not to feel that you will think that ,i am boasting about my magic city4 ,but ,i want you to believe that it was very beautiful1 and that you can build one just as beautiful or much more beautiful if you care to try it4 ,it is such an easy game4 ,every one can play it4 ,and every one likes it--even quite old people4 ,by the way1 ,i have been asked to build another city at ,olympia in ,april1 and ,i hope that it will be a prettier one even than the other which ,i loved so4 ,,footnote3 ,a ,macmillans4 ,,chapter ,,iii ,bricks--and ,other ,things ,,it is a mistake when you are going to build a city to make too large a collection of building materials before you begin to build4 ,if it is natural to you to express yourself by pencil lines on paper you might perhaps draw an outline of the masses of your city as you see them in the architect's vision or illumination which should precede all building1 either of magic cities or municipal cab-shelters4 ,having roughly indicated on paper the general shape of your city as you look at it from the front--the shape it would have against the western sky at dusk 7,i think architects call this the elevation1 don't they87--you proceed to collect such material as will roughly indicate that shape on the table or other building-place4 ,and here let me once more warn the builder new to his business not to be trapped by the splendid obvious bait of floor's wide space4 ,to build palaces while prone on the stomach may be natural and easy to extreme youth4 ,to grown-up people it is agonising and impossible4 ,the floor has only two qualifications as a building site4 ,it is large--larger at least than any of the pieces of furniture which stand on it--and it is flat4 ,and when you have said that you have said all4 ,whereas the inconveniences of the floor as a place for building are innumerable4 ,the floor is draughty1 it is inaccessible1 except from the attitude of the serpent1 and the serpent's attitude1 even if rich in a certain lax comfort1 is most unfavourable for the steady use of both hands4 ,if you want to see how unfavourable assume that attitude and try to build a card-house on the floor4 ,you cannot do it4 ,if you kneel--well1 you know how hard the floor gets if you kneel on it for quite a little time2 if you sit or squat your dress or your coat-tails insist on playing at earthquakes with your building4 ,also the city on the floor is liable to hostile invasion by cats or dogs or servants3 to the crushing and scattering by short-sighted outsiders or people who rush into the room to look for something in a hurry4 ,think of a playful elephant in some ,eastern court of carved pearl and ivory lattice2 an elephant co-inciding with one of the more fanciful volcanic eruptions1 and your conception will pale into placidity in the face of the spectacle of a normal puppy in a floor-built city4 ,and on the floor things not only get broken1 they get lost4 ,cotton reels roll under sofas1 draughts bowl away into obscurity and are only found next day by the housemaid when she moves the fender1 and not then1 as often as not2 chess kings are walked on and get their crowns chipped2 card counters disappear for ever1 and it is quite impossible for you to keep an eye on your materials when you are grovelling among them4 ,therefore build on a table--or tables4 ,tables of different shapes1 heights1 and sizes make beautiful sites for cities4 ,and bureaux are good1 if you may take the drawers out and empty the pigeon-holes4 ,i remember a wonderful city we made once3 it was called the ,city of the ,thousand ,lights1 and it was built on a bureau1 two large tables and three other smaller ones1 all connected by bridges in the handsomest way4 7,the lids of the brick boxes make excellent bridges and you can adorn them to your fancy1 and make impressive gate-houses at each end47 ,the bureau was the ,temple of ,mung1 and we sacrificed a pale pink animal from the ,noah's ,ark at the shrine of this1 the most mysterious of the ,gods of ,pegana4 ,the thousand lights--there were not a thousand1 really1 but there were many luminous towers1 with windows of a still brighter glow4 ,you make them by putting a night-light in a tumbler--a little water first by way of fire insurance--and surrounding the tumbler by a sheet of paper with windows and battlements and fixed to a cylindrical shape by pins4 ,the paper cylinders are1 of course1 fitted on outside the tumblers so that there is no danger of fire4 ,all the same it is better to let a grown-up do the luminous towers4 ,illustration3 ,,guarded ,,arch4 ,having chosen your site and blocked out the mass of your buildings1 you begin to collect the building material4 ,for my own part ,i see the city ,i am going to build in the eye of the mind--or of the heart--so vividly and consistently that ,i never need to make notes of it on paper4 ,i know when what ,i am building is not in accord with the vision1 and then ,i pull it down4 ,truly in accord it never really is1 but it approximates4 ,now when you have seen the silhouette of your city and begin to look for stuff to build with1 you will instantly find that everything you can lay your hands on is too small4 ,the bricks1 even the boxes which contained them1 are suited for the detailed building which is to come later1 but now you want something at once bigger and less conventionally proportioned4 ,now is the time to look for boxes--not the carved sandal-wood boxes in which aunts keep their pins1 nor the smooth cedarwood boxes in which uncles buy their cigars1 though both these are excellent when you come to the details of your work1 but for the mass you want real big boxes2 if you have a large table1 or tables1 ,tate's sugar boxes are not too large4 ,also there are the boxes in which starch is packed1 and cocoa1 and the flatter boxes which the lady at the sweet-shop will give you if she likes you1 and sell to you for a penny anyhow4 ,the boxes in which your father gets his collars1 and the boxes in which your mother gets her chocolates1 though not really large1 should be collected at the same time1 because they need the same treatment4 ,i am assuming now that you are not building a city for an afternoon's amusement1 but one for which you have found a safe resting place--a city that may take days to build and will not be disturbed for days4 ,if you can once found your city in a safe place1 and you are working at it day after day1 you will go on thinking of more and more things to be added to it1 and it will grow in beauty under your hands as naturally as a flower under the hand of summer4 ,illustration3 ,,boxes4 ,you have now your collection of boxes--but they are of plain1 rough wood1 and probably disfigured by coarse coloured printed papers telling what the boxes once held4 ,these papers you wash off1 and when the boxes are clean and dry1 you paint or colour-wash them to suit your requirements4 ,now your requirements are large blocks of colours to match your bricks1 and bricks are of three colours--white1 terra-cotta1 and stone colour4 ,the stone bricks are stone colour and terra-cotta--oak bricks are very nearly stone colour--and there are white-wood bricks4 ,to these three ,i would add a dark brown2 and as this dark brown is not sold in boxes at the shops1 you had better colour some of your bricks with it for yourself4 ,dark wood in a city gives a wonderful richness and helps the lighter colours more than you would think possible4 ,a city in which some buildings are of dark wood will have an air of reality never achieved by a city where all is red or white or stone colour4 ,by the way1 among the stone bricks there are some blue ones1 but you will always have enough of them1 for they are the last things you will ever want to use4 ,your boxes then must be coloured either white1 red1 stone colour1 or dark brown4 ,in the white use either white paint--flat1 not shining1 or if that cost too much trouble and money1 whitewash made of whitening1 size1 hot water and a pinch of yellow ochre or chrome powder to give it a pleasant ivory creaminess4 ,there should be a good deal of size so that the whitewash does not come off on every thing4 ,the red boxes can be painted to match the red bricks1 or colour-washed 7whitewash as before1 but red ochre for colour74 ,stone colour is not a very satisfactory tint and too much of it makes for gloom4 ,the lids and bottoms of the brick boxes will generally give you as much of it as you want4 ,but if you desire stone colour you can make it by putting a pinch of raw umber in the whitewash4 ,or you can paint your boxes with this uninteresting tint--resembling the doors of back kitchens4 ,with these paints or colour-washes you can make your odd many-shaped boxes into smooth-surfaced blocks to match your bricks3 and not only wooden1 but cardboard boxes can be treated in this way4 ,all these colours can be bought in gigantic penn'orths at the oil-shops4 ,but when ,i come to the dark brown1 which ,i confess is my favourite colour1 no cardboard box will serve your turn4 ,you must choose clean1 smooth wood1 because the brown colouring is transparent1 and the grain will show through4 ,your bricks will be smooth enough1 and if the boxes are not smooth a little sand-paper will soon subdue their rough exterior4 ,i suppose you know how to use sand-paper8 ,if you just rub with your fingers you hurt your fingers and don't make much progress2 the best way is to wrap the sand-paper round a flat piece of wood--a wooden brick will do--and rub with that4 ,when your wood is all smooth you mix your stain4 ,and here ,i make a present to all housewives of the best floor stain in the world4 ,get a tin of ,brunswick black--the kind you put on stoves--and some turpentine4 ,mix a little of the black and a little of the turpentine in a pot and try it on the wood with a smooth brush--a flat brush is the best--till you have the colour you want1 always remembering that it will be a little lighter when it is dry4 ,when you have decided on the colour1 paint your bricks and boxes on five out of their six sides lightly and smoothly1 keeping to the grain of the wood1 and not going over the same surface twice if you can help it4 ,this is why a flat brush is the best3 it will go right down the side of a brick and colour it at one sweep4 ,then stand each brick up on end to dry4 ,when it is dry you can paint the under bit on which it has been standing4 ,while you have stains and colours going it is well to colour some of your arches1 and also such things as cotton-reels1 and the little wooden pill-boxes that you get at the chemist's4 ,before colouring these boxes fill them with sand or stones and stick the lids on with glue4 ,otherwise they will not be heavy enough to build with happily4 ,this painting or colouring should be done out of doors1 or in an out-house1 if possible4 ,if you have to do it in the house spread several thicknesses of newspaper before you begin1 and make a calm resting place for your painted things where they can dry at leisure and not be scarred with the finger-marks of her who clears away4 ,the earnest builder will keep a watchful eye on any carpentering that may go on in the house1 and annex the smaller blocks of wood cut off the end of things1 which1 to an alien eye1 are so much rubbish1 but which are to the builder stores of price4 ,if there are a few shillings to spare1 the carpenter will1 for those few shillings1 cut you certain shapes which you cannot buy in shops--arches of a comfortable thickness and of satisfying curves1 and slabs of board for building steps4 ,these should be of varying lengths and thicknesses and made in sets of twelve steps1 with two boards to each step1 twenty-four slabs to a set4 ,the biggest might be #a in4 thick and the bottom and largest slabs #ab by #f in41 lessening to #f by #a in4 ,the next set might be #c_/d in41 and of corresponding proportions1 then #a_/b in41 then #a_/d in4 ,the two basic slabs of the #c_/d in4 would be #i by #d-a_/b in41 and those of the #a_/b in4 would be #f by #c in4 ,a set with #a_/d in4 steps 7the basic slabs #c by #a-a_/b in47 would complete the set4 ,flights of steps of many varying heights and sizes could be built with these slabs4 ,ask the carpenter--if the shillings are forthcoming--to save for you the curved pieces of wood which come out of the arches4 ,they are very useful for the bases of pillars1 for towers and for the pedestals of statues or vases4 ,some of the arches1 steps1 and blocks should be coloured to match the red1 white1 and brown bricks4 ,illustration3 ,,arches ,,and ,,pillars4 ,some of the boxes1 particularly the larger ones1 should have doorways sawn in them on opposite sides--it is pleasant to look through a building and see the light beyond2 and if you are a thorough builder you can make a pillared interior which will delight the eyes of those who stoop down and peer through the doorway4 ,a few narrow1 oblong windows1 high up1 will also be useful4 ,you need not show them unless you wish3 you can always conceal them by a facade of bricks4 ,illustration3 ,,pillared ,,court4 ,another pleasant use of a big box is to cut out the top and sides and make a columned court of it1 which1 when cream-washed1 dignifies your city with almost all the glory that was ,greece and the grandeur that was ,rome4 ,the columns are cut from broom-handles--twopence each at the oil-shop1 or1 in the case of smaller boxes1 from those nice round smooth wooden sticks which cost a penny and are used in ordinary life to thread window-blinds on4 ,if you are going to make a city which is to stand for some time1 a little thin glue is a good help to stability4 ,if it is only a here-to-day-and-gone-to-morrow city1 ,plasticine is good--the least touch of it seeming to make things safe which otherwise might totter to their ruin4 ,but except as mortar ,plasticine should be shunned4 ,it is not good as a building material4 ,having now your bricks1 boxes1 arches1 steps1 and rounds1 you may begin to block out your building4 ,quite soon you will begin to find that everything is too rectilinear4 ,even the arches and the rounds and the pillars and the pill-boxes cannot satisfy your desire for curves4 ,this is the moment when you will begin to look about you for domes4 ,and the domes1 on the instant of their imposition in your building1 will call out for minarets4 ,it is then that you will wander about the house seeking eagerly for things that are like other things4 ,your search will be magnificently successful1 if only the lady of the house has given you a free hand1 and you have been so fortunate as to secure the sympathies of the kitchen queen4 ,,chapter ,,iv ,the ,magic ,city ,,the only magic in the city is the magic of imagination1 which is1 after all1 the best magic in the world4 ,the idea of it came to me when ,i was dissatisfied with the materials provided for children to build with1 and ,i think it must be a really true idea1 because wherever ,i have applied it1 it has worked1 and that1 ,i am told1 is in accordance with the philosophy of pragmatism and a characteristic of all great discoveries4 ,you may build magic cities in homes of modest comfort1 using all the pretty things you can lay your hands on4 ,you may build them in the mansions of the rich1 if the rich are nice people and love cities1 and if the butler will let you have the silver candlesticks for pillars1 and the silver-gilt rose-bowls for domes2 and you could build one in the houses of the very poor1 if the very poor had any space for building--build them there and not use a single thing that could not be begged or borrowed by an intelligent child1 no matter how poor4 ,children love to build4 ,i still think with fond affection1 and ,i am afraid speak with tiresome repetition1 of those big oak bricks which we had when we were children4 ,they disappeared when we left the old ,london house where ,i was born4 ,it was in ,kennington1 that house--and it had a big garden and a meadow and a cottage and a laundry1 stables and cow-house and pig-styes1 elm-trees and vines1 tiger lilies and flags in the garden1 and chrysanthemums that smelt like earth and hyacinths that smelt like heaven4 ,our nursery was at the top of the house1 a big room with a pillar in the middle to support the roof4 ,the post1 we called it3 it was excellent for playing mulberry bush1 or for being martyrs at4 ,the skipping rope did to bind the martyrs to the stake4 ,when we left that house we went to ,brighton1 where there was a small and gritty garden1 where nothing grew but geraniums and calceolarias4 ,and we did not have our bricks any more4 ,perhaps they were too heavy to move4 ,perhaps the ,brighton house was too small for the chest4 ,i think ,i must have clamoured for the old bricks1 for ,i remember very well the advent of a small box of deal bricks made in ,germany1 which had indeed two arches and four pillars1 and a square of glass framed in wood daubed with heavy1 ugly body colour1 and called a window4 ,but you could not build with those bricks4 ,so there was no building at ,brighton except on the beach4 ,sand is as good as anything in the world to build with--but there is no sand on the beach at ,brighton1 only sandiness4 ,there are stones--pebbles you call them1 but they are too round to be piled up into buildings4 ,the only thing you can play with them is dolls' dinner parties4 ,there are plenty of oyster shells and flat bits of slate and tile for dishes and plates--and it is quite easy to find stones the proper shape and colour for boiled fowls and hams and roast legs of mutton1 ,german sausages1 ribs of beef1 mince pies1 pork pies1 roast hare or calf's head4 ,but building is impossible4 ,in the courtyard of our house in ,france there was an out-house with a sloping roof and a flat parapet about four feet high4 ,we used to build little clay huts along this1 and roof them with slates1 leaving a hole for a chimney4 ,the huts had holes for windows and doors1 and we used to collect bits of candle and put them in our huts after dark and enjoy the lovely spectacle of our illuminated buildings till some one remembered us and caught us1 and sent us to bed4 ,that was the curse of our hut-building--the very splendour of the result attracted the attention one most wished to avoid4 ,but clay was our only building material1 and after the big bricks were lost ,i never had any more bricks till ,i had children of my own who had bricks of their own4 ,and then ,i played with them and theirs4 ,and even then ,i never thought of building magic cities till the ,indian soldiers came4 ,they were very fine soldiers with turbans and swords and eyes that gleamed in quite a lifelike way1 riding on horses of a violently active appearance3 they came to my little son when he was getting well after measles or some such sorrow1 and he wanted a fort built for them4 ,so we rattled all the bricks out of their boxes on to the long cutting-out table in the work-room and began to build4 ,but do what we would our fort would not look like a fort--at any rate not like an ,eastern fort4 ,we pulled it down and tried again1 and then again1 but no3 regardless of our patient energy our fort quietly but persistently refused to look like anything but a factory--a building wholly unworthy of those military heroes with the prancing steeds and the coloured turbans1 and the eyes with so much white in them4 ,so then ,i wondered what was needed to give a hint of the gorgeous ,east to the fort1 and ,i perceived that what was wanted was a dome--domes4 ,so ,i fetched some brass finger-bowls and lustre basins off the dresser in the dining-room and inverted one on the chief tower of our fort1 and behold6 the ,east began to sparkle and beckon4 ,domes called for minarets1 and chessmen on pillars supplied the need4 ,one thing led to another1 and before the day was over the ,indian horsemen were in full charge across a sanded plain where palm trees grew--a sanded plain bounded only by the edges of the table1 along three sides of which were buildings that never rose beside the banks of ,thames1 but seemed quite suitable piles to reflect their fair proportions in the ,ganges or the ,sutlej1 especially when viewed by eyes which had not had the privilege of gazing on those fair and distant streams4 ,i learned a great deal in that my first day of what ,i may term romantic building1 but what ,i learned was the merest shadow-sketch of the possibilities of my discovery4 ,my little son1 for his part1 learned that a bowl one way up is a bowl1 a thing for a little boy to eat bread and milk out of2 the other way up it is a dome for a king's palace4 ,that books are not only things to read1 but that they will make marble slabs for the building of temples4 ,that chessmen are not only useful for playing that difficult and tedious game on which grown-ups are so slowly and silently intent1 or even for playing all those other games1 of soldiers1 which will naturally occur to any one with command of the pleasant turned pieces4 ,chessmen1 he learned1 had other and less simple uses4 ,as minarets of delicate carved work they lightened the mass of buildings and conferred elegance and distinction1 converting what had been a block of bricks into a pavilion for a sultan or a tomb for a sultan's bride4 ,illustration3 ,,materials ,,for ,,the ,,guard-,,room4 ,there was a little guard-room1 ,i remember1 at the corner of our first city1 and there has been a little guard-room at the corner of every city we have built since4 ,in simple beauty1 that little guard-room seemed to us then to touch perfection4 ,and really1 you know1 ,i have not yet been able to improve on it4 ,the material was simplicity itself3 six books1 five chessmen1 and a basin2 and you see here how the guard-room looked when it was done4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,guard-,,room4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,domino ,,door4 ,there was a black box1 ,i remember1 standing on another box1 with domino steps4 ,it needed a door1 and we made it a door of ivory with the double blank of the dominoes1 and a portico of three cigarettes--two for pillars and one to lie on the top of the pillars and complete the portico4 ,you have no idea how fine the whole thing looked--like a strong little house of ebony and ivory--a little sombre in appearance perhaps1 and like a house that has a secret to keep1 but quite fine4 ,the palm trees we made out of pieces of larch and yew fastened by ,plasticine to the tops of elder twigs--and elder twigs have a graceful carriage1 not too upright and yet not drooping4 ,they look very like the trunks of tropical trees4 ,but if you have not elders and larches and yew trees to command1 you can make trees for your city in other ways4 ,for little trees in tubs we had southernwood stuck in cotton reels--these make enchanting tubs1 and there are a good many different shapes1 so that your flower tubs are pleasantly varied4 ,fir cones we found useful1 too2 they made magnificent chevaux de frise4 ,illustration3 ,,larch ,,palm4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,magic ,,city4 #aeb ,on the first day of building what we soon came to call magic cities we trusted to inspiration2 there was no time for thought4 ,and this day was perhaps the most interesting day of all--for we had everything to learn4 ,one of the things which ,i learned was that this magic city game was an excellent training for eye and hand1 as well as for the imagination and the more soothing of the domestic virtues4 ,the eye is trained to perceive likenesses and differences in the shapes and colours of things--to notice1 as ,i said1 that a bowl is a dome wrong way up1 and that cigarettes are like white pillars4 ,a beautiful yet sinister temple might be built with cigars for pillars and cigar-boxes for pediments1 if cigars were the sort of things you were ever allowed to play with4 ,you see that yew and larch and elder can be made to look like palm trees1 and that shrubs in tubs are really like sprigs of southernwood in cotton reels4 ,you go about with eyes newly opened to form and colour3 you look at every object in a new light1 trying to see whether it is or is not like something else--something that can be used in your magic city4 ,you notice that a door is much the same shape as auntie's mother-of-pearl card-case1 and your architectural instinct1 already beginning to develop1 assures you that a pearly door would be a beautiful thing for a temple1 if only auntie sees things in the same light as you do4 ,you perceive that a cribbage board is straight and narrow1 as a path leading to such a door might be1 and that if you stick tiny tufts of southernwood or veronica into the holes along the ivory sides of your path1 your path will run between two little green hedges4 ,you will notice that books make colonnades darkly mysterious if the lids of the brick boxes are laid along the back and along the top1 and that based on these solidly built colonnades your bricks and arches will rise in galleries of unexpected dignity and charm4 ,the building itself1 the placing of bricks and dominoes1 and books and chessmen and bowls1 with exactness and neatness1 is in itself a lesson in firm and delicate handling1 such a lesson as is impossible if you are building with bricks alone4 ,the call on the imagination is strong and clear4 ,a house--the meanest hut--cannot be built without a plan or without an architect1 though the architect may be only a little child and the plan may be only a little child's dream4 ,to build without a plan is to heap bricks one on another1 to make a cairn1 not a house4 ,the plan for the magic city1 then1 gets itself dreamed--the child's imagination learns to know what the bowl will look like when it is upside down1 and1 presently1 what sort of bowls and books and bricks are needed to give to the cloud-capped palace of its desire some shadow in solid fact perceptible to the senses4 ,to create in the image of his dream is the hope and the despair of every artist4 ,and even though the image be distorted--as in all works of art1 even the greatest1 it always must be--yet it is joy even to have created the poorest image of a dream4 ,and in the labour of creation will blossom those domestic virtues which best adorn the home2 patience--for it is not often that for the young architect dream and image even vaguely coincide at the first effort1 or the second or the third2 good temper1 for no one can build anything in a rage4 ,the spirit of anger is the enemy of the spirit of architecture4 ,and besides1 being angry may make your hand shake1 and then nothing is any good4 ,perseverance too1 without which patience is a mere passive endurance4 ,all these grow strong while you build your cities and try to make visible your dream4 ,i do not mean that a child building a city sees all of it at once--in every detail2 ,i don't suppose even the heaviest of architects does that4 ,but ,i mean that he sees the masses of it with the eye of the mind and arrives by experiment at the details that best suit those masses4 ,if the glass ash-tray will not do1 the tea-cup without a handle will--or perhaps the flower-pot saucer1 or the lid of a cocoa-tin4 4 4 4 ,one must look about1 and find something that will do1 something which when it is put in its place will seem the only possible thing4 ,i don't know how real architects work1 but this is how you work with magic cities4 ,,chapter ,v ,materials ,,you wander round the house seeking beautiful things which look like other beautiful things4 ,let us suppose that you have the run of a house where beautiful things are4 ,i will tell you afterwards what to do in the house where beautiful--or at any rate costly--things are not4 ,it is best when the owner of the house is an enthusiastic member of the building party2 then she will grudge nothing4 ,in the drawing-room you will find silver candlesticks and a silver inkstand4 ,the candlesticks are like pillars4 ,put the inkstand across the pillars and you have a gateway of unexampled splendour4 ,if there be a silver-backed blotting-book1 take it4 ,it will make the great door of your greatest temple4 ,silver bowls should not be passed by1 nor bronzes4 ,a vase of ,japanese bronze set up between two ebony elephants crowns a flat pillared building with splendour4 ,there may be ,chinese dragons or ,egyptian gods that have lain a thousand years safe in their bronze amid the sands of the desert1 cast aside by the foot of the camel1 unseen in the shadow of the tent1 and now decking the mantelpiece of the room you are looting4 ,little silver figures of knights in armour and what not--take them if you get the chance4 ,chessmen1 too1 as many as you can get1 the carved ivory ones1 of red and white1 and the black and brown kind where the heads of the kings and queens are so like marbles and those of the pawns like boot-buttons2 draughts too1 and spillikins1 and those little metal animals1 heavy and coloured life-like1 which you see on glass shelves in the fancy shop3 take them too4 ,they will serve other uses than those to which you will dedicate your ,noah's ,ark animals4 ,card counters1 especially the golden and mother-of-pearl kinds1 and dominoes1 and the willow-pattern pots and a blue cup or so from the glass-fronted cupboard4 ,take all these1 always giving preference to the things that you will not be asked to put back the same day4 ,little ,japanese cabinets1 tea-caddies of tortoiseshell or wood or silver1 silver boxes--and boxes of all beautiful kinds4 ,do not take the playing cards that people play bridge with3 these are never quite the same after they have been used in magic cities1 and the ,queen of ,hearts always gets lost4 ,you can usually acquire odd packs of cards that nobody wants4 ,those with black and gold backs are the best4 ,they make gorgeous pagodas1 and a touch of ,plasticine keeps each card where it should be4 ,in the dining-room you may acquire perhaps1 at least you can in mine1 brass finger-bowls1 and the lids of urns and kettles from the dresser--egg-cups and mugs and basins of lustre and of blue4 ,also those very little pewter liqueur-cups from ,liberty's1 and the tumblers for your towers of light1 if you are going to have any4 ,the library will yield you books and atlases--very useful for roofs these last1 if they do not slope too much from back to edge2 if they do1 you can get even with them by wedges of paper laid in on the thin side4 ,but the kitchen will be your happiest hunting-ground1 and here you will make a good bag even in those houses where you are not allowed any of the treasures from the drawing-room or the dining-room4 ,tins--tins of all kinds and shapes1 from the tin that once held ,bath ,olivers and its lesser brother where coffee once lived to the square smaller tins designed for cocoa1 mustard1 pepper1 and so forth4 ,illustration3 ,,honesty ,,pillars4 ,a flour-dredger and a pepper-pot1 a potato-cutter1 patty pans1 and those little tall tins that you bake castle puddings in1 the round wooden moulds with which dairy-maids imprint cows and swans upon pats of butter1 the kitchen mortar1 especially the big marble one1 so heavy that cook does not care to use it1 brown earthenware bowls and stewing-pots1 the lids of tea-pots1 clothes-pegs1 jars that have held ginger1 and jars that have held jam--especially the brownish corrugated kind of jar--all these things and many more you may glean in a kitchen whose ,queen is kind4 ,one of the most beautiful buildings ,i have ever made was built of kitchen things1 and bricks and the boxes of bricks1 a few shells1 and a few chessmen4 ,the three tall towers are two cocoa tins and a ,bath ,oliver tin1 very brightly polished2 the windows and doors and crenellations are of black passe-partout1 that nice gummed paper which you buy in reels for binding pictures and glass together when you don't want to have picture-frames4 ,on the tops of the tins are the lids of a silver urn1 a silver butter dish1 and a silver jam-jar4 ,a salt-cellar 7wrong way up1 with a white chess knight on it7 and a pepper-pot with passe-partout doors and windows stand at the base of the tower1 and turrets are made of round bricks and draughts1 with the chess castles on the top4 ,the porch is a big potato-cutter1 with a white chess king on it1 and on each side two books with a binding of white and pale gold4 ,along the top of the porch run the lids of two domino-boxes2 on these are two rounds that happened when the arches were being cut out4 ,on these little pearl shells are glued1 and little roofs of blue tiles complete the porch4 ,behind these more books1 white and pale gold with marbled sides1 lead up to the platform on which the great tin towers rise up against the snowy background 7linen sheets over the backs of chairs74 ,the lower building is of the boxes of bricks faced with bricks and bearing a large blue jar crowned with a silver egg-cup1 a flour-dredger1 and a pepper-pot1 and some blue and white tiles4 ,an ,egyptian god stands at the corner of the upper and the lower building1 and two green trees with white roses grow out of a tomb at the left4 ,the pathway is of tiles edged with fir cones1 and two rose-trees within tubs 7cotton reels7 stand at its beginning2 the whole thing was blue and silver and black1 and ,i wish ,i could show you a coloured picture of it1 or1 better still1 build the thing up for you to see4 ,the lower platform on the right is a box faced with silver seed-vessels of honesty1 and the arches and court are red4 ,the steps are made of blocks of sugar4 ,the tank is edged with red bricks and the water where the seal swims is silver paper4 ,in front is a pavement made of mother-of-pearl card counters1 and the inside of the court is made of one large red tile with a pattern of white on it4 7,you can do this with a square board painted red1 and counters laid on it47 ,the fountain in the middle is a brass match-box and the waters that rise from it are silver paper2 but in the picture the water of the fountain seems to have been blown aside by the wind1 which no doubt is severe in those desolate regions of snow4 ,you can build just such another tower and castle with the things you have1 but when once you start building you will most likely think of some other way1 quite different from mine1 and just as good4 ,tiles1 by the way1 are most useful1 and if you have an uncle who is an architect he will have any number sent to him as samples1 and he will be rather glad to get rid of them4 ,if your uncles are all eminent in other walks of life it is a pity1 but you are probably friends with the man who papers and paints your house1 or the man who comes when the pipes burst at ,christmas1 or the man who comes about the gas1 or the man who knows all the sullen secrets of the kitchen range4 ,it will be strange if none of these can get you a few coloured tiles when once they know you want them4 ,it is well1 if you are a child with a taste for building1 to take pains to become acquainted with all the men who come to your house to do interesting things with tools and wood and iron and lead4 ,quite apart from the joy of watching their slow and mysterious processes1 and thinking how easy it would be to be a plumber or a paperhanger yourself1 there are all sorts of things left over from their work which are of no use to them1 but may be of much use to you4 ,all sorts of screws and nails1 for instance1 these generous men will now and then bestow--little screws of dry colour1 little pieces of brass1 door-knobs and finger-plates1 thick red earthenware pipe1 good for towers1 lengths of pleasantly coloured wall-paper--the wrong side of which1 being plain1 can be used for all sorts of purposes4 ,lead piping is useful too1 especially if you get it cut into #b-;in4 lengths--and cut straight4 ,the sections make excellent and stable flower-pots for cities4 ,bits of brass tubing are useful too--in fact1 brass objects of all sorts deserve your careful consideration4 ,because1 if a city is to look handsome1 it must have a good deal of metal about it1 as the cities in ,atlantis did4 ,as ,i write ,i see more and more clearly that a sharp distinction must be drawn between cities built and demolished in an afternoon1 and cities that can be kept going and added to day by day for weeks4 ,you may often be fortunate enough to raid drawing-room and dining-room and to use the spoils for a building that only lasts a day1 but no one will strip her rooms of all the pretty things you want and let you keep them for weeks4 ,therefore if you are going to build a city that is to go on1 you must collect the materials of your own1 and the odds and ends that amiable workmen will readily give you will take a useful place in your collection4 ,if you let it be known that you want odds and ends of pretty and simple shapes1 your friends will save them for you1 and you will gradually amass the things you need4 ,i know well enough that there will have to be a place to keep them1 but the toy-cupboard1 if you clear out all the toys you never play with1 will hold a good deal1 and many of the things you collect will do for other purposes as well as for the building of cities4 ,,chapter ,,vi ,collections ,illustration3 ,,trees4 ,,first in your building collection will be the boxes1 arches1 and steps of which ,i have spoken4 ,dominoes and draughts and chessmen you probably have4 ,odd chessmen--quite beautiful ones can often be bought for a few pence--are very valuable for our purpose4 ,the black and red halma men are very useful too1 but the yellow and green always look cheap and nasty4 ,card counters are useful1 and so is silver paper4 ,glass drops off old chandeliers are good for fountains1 and pieces of green cloth for grass plots4 ,the back of green wall-paper does for this1 too2 and very realistic grass lawns can be made by chopping up the long green grass that people sell for fire screens4 ,it is really sedge finely split up1 and dyed4 ,you cut it up as finely as you can with scissors1 and when you have about a teacupful you take a square of stiff cardboard and cover it all over with glue2 then quickly1 before the glue has time to cool1 you sprinkle your chopped grass thickly all over it and leave it to dry4 ,next day1 not before1 spread a newspaper and turn the cardboard over so that the loose grass falls away on to the paper4 ,fasten down your grass plot in a suitable place in your city and build a little red brick wall round it with a little arched gateway1 and you will have a neat and charming enclosed garden4 ,for garden beds dark-coloured tobacco makes good mould1 and shows up your little rose-trees4 ,you can make standard rose-trees of loofah--dyed green1 and the stalks of long matches painted brown4 ,the roses1 which are stuck on with glue1 are red or white immortelles1 and the whole effect is just what you are trying for4 ,large trees can be made of sprigs of box or veronica1 with immortelles glued on1 and they will last fresh and pretty about a week4 ,palm trees can be made of elder stems and larch or of the sedge grass4 ,lay the grass evenly and1 beginning about half-way down1 wind brown wool or silk thread round and round closely and1 very like splicing a cricket bat1 work downwards towards the thick part of the grass stalk4 ,fasten the end very strongly4 ,then stick the stem in a cotton reel or a lead piping pot1 cut off1 evenly1 the loose ends of the grass1 fold them back level1 cut the stem4 ,for the city of a day sprigs of southernwood1 lavender1 thyme1 or marjoram make charming little trees4 ,shells are extremely useful for decoration and produce the effect of carving4 ,almost all shells will be useful in one way or another1 but ,i have found the most satisfaction in the gray and pearly shells which you find among the thick seaweed ridges on the beach below the grey cliffs of ,cornwall1 and the little yellow periwinkly shells that lie on the rocks below the white cliffs of ,kent4 ,if you glue these shells strongly on arches and pillars you will find them very handsome adornments4 ,illustration3 ,,thick ,,arches4 ,keep your shells in boxes4 ,there are always plenty of boxes in the world1 and if not boxes1 little bags will do to hold the different kinds of shells4 ,it is well worth while to keep the different kinds separate4 ,the work of sorting out the shells is very damping to the eager enthusiast anxious to execute a decorative design4 ,indeed1 it is well to keep all your building materials sorted each according to its kind1 the wooden things together and the metal things and1 above all1 the crockery things4 ,keep the ,noah's ,ark animals in their ,ark1 and the bricks in their boxes1 and when you are going to build don't get everything out at once and make a rubbish heap of it on the floor4 ,illustration3 ,,fan ,,window4 ,as you grow more accustomed to building1 you will find that sometimes you build a temple or palace that charms you so much that you wish to build it again2 and you will soon learn what are the materials needed1 and just take out those and a few more from your store4 ,i say a few more1 because you will never build your temple or your palace twice exactly the same3 you are sure to think of some improvement1 however small4 ,i have made beautiful windows with the sticks of an old ivory fan1 framed in dark wood bricks1 and ornamented the dark wall above with elephant tusk shells and others1 and below with carved ivory card counters4 ,illustration3 ,,the ,,elephant ,,temple4 ,there is a certain ,elephant ,temple which ,i have built many times4 ,its floor is a red and white chessboard1 and its roof is supported on a double row of white pillars4 ,white pillars surround the altar--a wooden box--on which the ebony elephant stands4 ,on each side of him are red fairy lights1 hidden by buttresses from the human eye which peeps through the brazen gates into that shadowy interior1 and falling full on the elephant on his pillared shrine4 ,the walls are of big red books--,sheridan's ,plays1 ,tom ,jones1 and ,boswell's ,life of ,johnson4 ,the roof is a flat square lid1 once the lid of a packing case1 stained a dark brown like the bricks4 ,on the side are the windows made of the ivory fan1 and the dark bricks and the elephant tusk shells4 ,there is a door1 too1 a mother-of-pearl one2 in a former life it was the card-case of a much-loved aunt1 who nobly contributed it to the ,temple4 ,above this door is a white animal from the ,noah's ,ark4 ,and all the rest of that wall is built up of dark-stained brown wooden bricks4 ,the other side shows between dark buttresses the red of the books1 and towards the back of this side are small square buildings--wooden boxes stained brown--with brass domes and mysterious doorways4 ,i think the priests and attendants of the ,temple live here4 ,the front of the ,temple shows a little of the red between dark buttresses1 which1 here1 are ornamented with delicate dark carved chessmen4 ,the gate is of pierced brass--two finger-plates for a door1 and the brazen pillars of the portico are two candlesticks1 which support a brass inkstand1 on which stand two yellowish wooden chessmen4 ,on the middle of the roof is a big lacquered wooden bowl--the kind that nice grocers put in their windows full of prunes or coffee4 ,above is a brass rose-bowl1 on that a finger-bowl of inlaid brass1 crowned with a black chess king4 ,there are two dark arches with bed-knobs on them1 and round the roof are various towers and turrets1 and tall minarets made of dark bricks with chessmen on the top4 ,in front of the pillars at the gate two black elephants stand on wooden plinths1 and the fore-court of the ,temple and the space at the side are paved with mother-of-pearl4 ,i know the main things that are needed for this ,temple1 but its details are changed a little every time ,i build it4 ,if you cannot get mother-of-pearl card counters you can make a beautiful pavement by pasting the shining pods of honesty in a pattern on a piece of dark brown cardboard1 or dark brown paper pasted on cardboard2 but if you do this you must build a little dark-wood brick wall all round to hide the brown paper edges4 ,build gatehouses in your wall1 little ones1 to show off1 by contrast1 the massive splendour of your ,temple4 ,these honesty pods are a most useful substitute for mother-of-pearl4 ,you can paste them on square pillars or on the fronts of boxes 7houses ,i mean7 or make sloping roofs of them by sticking them on folded cardboard fastened at the proper angle by tapes glued about a third of the way up4 ,but as a rule sloping roofs are not good in ,eastern cities4 ,a grass garden with paths of honesty1 or a shell-built fountain basin in the middle1 will add a charm to any city square4 ,and by the way1 don't be afraid of open spaces4 ,have as many buildings as you like1 and mass them together as you choose1 but let there be open spaces4 ,they will be to your building as mounts are to pictures or margins to books4 ,and for frame or binding1 let there be a wall all round your city4 ,it gives a neatness and a completeness which enhance a hundred-fold all the qualities your city may possess4 ,illustration3 ,,honesty ,,roof4 ,there are cardboard models of ,st4 ,paul's ,cathedral1 the ,tower ,bridge1 and the ,temple at ,jerusalem4 ,these are interesting in themselves and it is good to put them together4 ,the ,temple1 which is sold by the ,religious ,tract ,society1 is really beautiful1 and when you have set it up it looks like a model in ivory4 ,the bridge and the ,cathedral are of dull brown pasteboard--but they are interesting for all that4 ,but when you are tired of these things as models1 parts of them can be used with great effect in your building1 especially if you paint the brown ones with aluminium paint1 or even whitewash them4 ,in the foreground of the picture of the ,astrologer's tower you will see a little house which doesn't look as if it belonged where it is4 ,and no more it does4 ,it was put in just to show you what these little cardboard buildings are like--it is one of the gate-houses of the ,tower ,bridge1 and the little white house on the parapet above the steps in the picture of the silver towers is a little gate-house out of another model4 ,when you are collecting shells1 you will find smooth flat stones of pleasing colours4 ,collect them--the thinner the better--you can make mosaic floors of them1 fastening them in their place with glue or a very thin layer of ,plasticine4 ,fir-cones of all shapes and sizes are useful1 from the delicate cones of the larch to the great varnished-looking cones that fall from the big pine trees on the ,riviera2 they call them pineapples there--pommes-de-pin--and they use them for lighting fires4 ,but you can use them for the tops of towers4 ,a little1 and only a very little1 red tinsel paper is good to use1 for the backs of shrines4 ,it gives a suggestion of the glow of hidden lamps--or1 put as windows near the tops of towers1 it suggests the glow of sunset falling on jewelled casements4 ,you can get it1 and also bundles of stamped strips of gold paper1 which should be used very sparingly indeed1 from ,mr4 ,bousquet1 of the ,barbican1 in ,london ,city4 ,there are other things which could serve for part of your collection1 but ,i have told about these in the chapter on poor children's cities1 because the poorest child can get them4 ,but they are desirable in any collection1 such things as tobacco-tins1 jam-jars1 clothes-pegs1 and the different kinds of common things that you can use for decorating the fronts and backs and sides of houses1 if you have not enough bricks to build facades to them all4 ,and remember always to make the backs of your houses as beautiful as the fronts4 ,they may--and should--be plainer but not less beautiful4 ,do not be like the jerry-builders who spend all their decoration1 such as it is1 on the flat fronts of their villas1 and leave the sides and back flat and ugly1 and so that when you see the row of them from the railway they look miserable and dejected1 as though they knew how ugly they were and were sorry4 ,,chapter ,,vii ,the ,poor ,child's ,city ,,when my city was built at ,olympia a great many school-teachers who came to see it told me that they would like to help the children in their schools to build such cities1 but that it would not be possible because the children came from poor homes1 where there were none of the pretty things--candlesticks1 brass bowls1 silver ash-trays1 chessmen1 draughts1 well-bound books1 and all the rest of it--which ,i had used to build my city4 ,so then ,i said ,i would build a city out of the sort of things that poor children could collect and bring to school4 ,and ,i did4 ,my friends ,mr4 ,annis and ,mr4 ,taylor1 who were helping me to explain the city and show it to visitors1 helped me with the building4 ,we did it in a day1 and it was very pretty--so pretty that the school-teachers who came to see it asked me to write a book to say how that was done4 ,and so ,i did4 ,there are no words to express half what ,i feel about the teachers in our ,council ,schools1 their enthusiasm1 their patience1 their energy1 their devotion4 ,when we think of what the lives of poor children are1 of the little they have of the good things of this world1 the little chance they have of growing up to any better fate than that of their fathers and mothers1 who do the hardest work of all and get the least pay of all those who work for money--when we think how rich people have money to throw away1 how their dogs have velvet coats and silver collars1 and eat chicken off china1 while the little children of the poor live on bread and tea1 and wear what they can get--often enough1 too little--when we think of all these things1 if we can bear to think of them at all1 there is not one of us1 ,i suppose1 who would not willingly die if by our death we could secure for these children a fairer share of the wealth of ,england1 the richest country in the world4 ,for wealth1 by which ,i mean money1 can buy all those things which children ought to have1 and which these children do not have--good food1 warm clothes1 fresh country air1 playthings and books1 and pictures4 ,remembering that by far the greater number of children of ,england have none of these things1 you would1 ,i know1 gladly die if dying would help4 ,to die for a cause is easy--you leap into the gulf like ,curtius1 or fall on the spears like ,winkelried1 or go down with your ship for the honour of your country4 ,to lead a forlorn hope1 to try to save one child from fire or water1 and die in the attempt--that is easy and glorious4 ,the hard thing to do is to live for your country--to live for its children4 ,and it is this that the teachers in the ,council ,schools do1 year in and year out1 with the most unselfish nobility and perseverance4 ,and nobody applauds or makes as much fuss as is made over a boy who saves a drowning kitten4 ,in the face of enormous difficulties and obstacles1 exposed to the constant pin-pricks of little worries1 kept short of space1 short of materials and short of money1 yet these teachers go on bravely1 not just doing what they are paid to do1 but a thousand times more1 devoting heart1 mind1 and soul to their splendid ambition and counting themselves well paid if they can make the world a better and a brighter place for the children they serve4 ,if these children when they grow up shall prove better citizens1 kinder fathers1 and better1 wiser1 and nobler than their fathers were1 we shall owe all the change and progress to the teachers who are spending their lives to this end4 ,and this ,i had to say before ,i could begin to write about how cities may be built of such materials as poor children can collect and bring to school4 ,for ,i have to own that poor children live in such little crowded houses that there is no room for the building of cities1 and in the courts and streets where they play they cannot build1 for the passers-by would tumble over their cities1 and the policemen would call it an obstruction4 ,so if they have a city at all it must be where they have most of their pleasant plays--at school4 ,besides1 the children ,i have in mind are so very poor1 that no one child could possibly collect enough materials for a city4 ,but a number of children could each of them bring a few things1 and thus make up enough for the building4 ,and in most schools there will be some children not quite so poor who can afford a penny or so for tinsel paper and the few things--colours1 paints1 and so on--that do not occur naturally in a house1 even a well-to-do house4 ,these1 let us hope1 will be able to furnish a few old chessmen1 for there is nothing like chessmen for giving an air of elegance to domes and minarets4 ,if you cannot get chessmen1 small clothes-pegs are good4 ,you can cut them in halves and then you have two kinds of minaret4 ,they can be coloured red or dark brown1 or1 if your city seems likely to lack metal1 you can paint them with gold or aluminium paint4 ,they look well when cut shorter as the battlements of buildings1 rather like halma men1 but of handsomer and more rotund proportions4 ,your halma man as you buy him in a box is ever a bit of a starveling4 ,if you cut your peg into three1 the middle section will make short round pillars to support little galleries1 the roof being a strip of mill-board or the lid of a narrow box4 ,illustration3 ,,clothes ,,pegs4 ,cardboard and wooden boxes of all sizes and shapes are always easy to get4 ,these can be coloured as explained in another chapter1 and little doors and windows cut in them4 ,but be sparing of windows2 too many windows detract from the dignity of your tower1 and make it look like a factory4 ,in poor schools there will not be many bricks1 and something must be done to add variety to the facades of buildings when there are not enough bricks to cover or decorate your boxes4 ,a good deal can be done with haricot beans1 tapioca1 and sago4 ,fasten the beans round the doorways and the windows with glue or seccotine or ,plasticine4 ,if you use glue let the bean-work be quite cold before you do anything else with it4 ,next day is an excellent rule4 ,when the beans are quite firmly fixed1 glue the surface all over and sprinkle thickly with tapioca so that not a bit of the box shows4 ,leave the tapioca lying on the surface till next day1 then turn it up2 the loose tapioca will fall off and leave a pleasant rough-cast-looking surface4 ,round cardboard boxes1 such as muff-boxes or biscuit-boxes make splendid towers treated in this way4 ,if you cannot get the little round yellow periwinkly shells1 maize is very good if you cut each grain flat with a sharp knife1 and fix the grains with glue as pillars and arches4 ,tin boxes or round tins polished to silvery brightness1 with doors and windows and crenellations of black passe-partout1 can be built into palaces of astonishing splendour1 as you can see in the picture of the silver towers4 ,but always beware of too many windows4 ,other excellent towers are jam-pots3 you can paint them any colour you like1 but ,i advise you to stick to terra-cotta1 cream colour1 and dark brown4 ,very pretty towers can be made of white jam-pots with windows and doors and crenellation of gold paper4 ,only you should outline the gold with ink or dark stain to make it show up against the white4 ,basins that are cracked make good domes1 and you can almost always get a cracked basin1 however poor you are2 tea-cups that have lost their handles1 or had a piece bitten out of them1 are also not hard to get1 and the lids of teapots that are broken1 and of saucepans that have been burnt through1 come readily enough to the hand of the collector4 ,honey pots and the little brown jugs that cream is sold in are easy to come by1 and make ,moorish-looking domes for buildings4 ,when once you begin to build1 you will find that all sorts of things that before looked neither useful nor beautiful become both1 when they are built into your city4 ,look at the bedstead-knobs in the ,elephant ,temple1 and the pepper-pots and the tea-cups on the top of the tower of pearl and red4 ,illustration3 ,,towers ,,and ,,cocoanut ,,cottage4 ,those children who are lucky enough to go into the country for a holiday can collect fir-cones and acorns2 nicely shaped bits of wood are more easily come by in a country village than in a ,london slum4 ,acorns are most useful1 both the acorn and the cup4 ,a brown building with doors and windows outlined in acorn cups with their flat side set on with glue looks like a precious work of carved wood4 ,if you can't get acorn cups1 the shells of ,barcelona nuts are good1 but they are difficult to cut into the needed cup shape4 ,the shells of pea-nuts on a stone-coloured building look like carved stones1 but always the nutshell must fit its edges tightly and neatly to the surface and show as a little round neat boss4 ,your own observation will supply you with other little and valueless things1 which will become valuable as soon as you stick them evenly and closely on a foundation of their own colour4 ,the periwinkly shells and the maize grains look best on white wood4 ,the shells of the cocoanut have a value all their own4 ,the larger ones1 sawn neatly in halves1 make impressive domes for brown buildings1 and half a small cocoanut shell will roof a cardboard box that has held elastic bands1 and you can call it a thatched cottage or the hut of a savage chief4 ,i called mine ,cocoanut ,cottage1 and the ,curator of my ,botanical ,museum lived there4 ,the ,chief ,astrologer1 of course1 lived at the top of his tower1 which was a photographic enlarging apparatus4 ,ponds and rivers can be made with the silver paper that comes off cigarettes1 and ,i have made a very impressive tower with match boxes1 painted black and piled one on another so that the blue side shows in front1 with a touch of red at each side4 ,black windows if you like4 ,if you cannot get any chessmen the pinnacles of your buildings must be clothes-pegs1 acorns1 and fir-cones1 with a very occasional piece of lead pencil or short piece of brass tubing with an acorn or a fir-cone on the top4 ,fir-cones1 too1 look quite baronial stuck upright on the posts of gates--and they are good edging for paths and roads4 ,pill-boxes make nice little turrets1 and cotton reels1 coloured to match the bricks and the boxes1 are the finest flower tubs in the world4 ,with sprigs of evergreen stuck in them1 or a little made rose-tree1 they look quite life-like and convincing1 especially if you paste a circle of brown paper on the top of the reel1 to look like mould1 before you stick your shrub in the hole so conveniently placed in the reel1 apparently on purpose to have shrubs planted in it4 ,cotton reels with acorns or fir-cones on them are good on the top of gate-posts4 ,illustration3 ,,cotton ,,reels4 ,illustration3 ,,lattice ,,window4 ,these are just a few of the things that poor children can get and the way they can use them4 ,the moment you begin to build you will think of a hundred things that ,i have not thought of1 and a hundred ways of using them that ,i should not have thought of trying4 ,if you can so arrange the site of your city that it need not be disturbed1 it will grow in beauty day by day1 and you will presently have to name a day to satisfy the children who will want to bring their parents to see it4 ,if you give a school party no other attraction will be needed1 and you will find that neither children nor parents will tire of examining your city as a whole and in detail1 exclaiming at its beauty and marvelling at its ingenuity4 ,and the children will love it4 ,and so will you4 ,if you are disposed to take a little more trouble with your towers1 you can cover them with cement1 and mould the crenellations and windows with your fingers4 ,the cement is made of newspaper1 size1 and whitening4 ,tear up two newspapers and boil them in four quarts of water for three hours4 ,then pound the paper in a large mortar1 or squeeze it in your hands till it is all pulp4 ,it will have an unpleasing grey colour at this stage1 but in the end it will be creamy white4 ,then add equal quantities of size and whitening and a pinch of yellow ochre1 mix thoroughly and let the mixture get cold1 when it is ready for use4 ,if it is too thin warm it again1 and add more whitening1 but do not let the mixture boil after the size has been added4 ,when the mixture with which you have covered your tower is dry1--it takes some days--it will be as hard as stone4 ,a cocoa tin set on a treacle tin makes a very neat tower1 as you will see by the picture4 ,square towers can also be made in this way1 by covering square tins with the cement4 ,in fact1 with a little trouble and some tins of different sizes and shapes you could build a whole palace in this way4 ,doors can be made of black paper1 and lattices of paper cut and folded1 with black paper behind it1 as you can see for yourself by the picture4 ,,chapter ,,viii ,the ,end ,,you will have noticed that though ,i began by pointing out that children differ as much as grown-up people do1 and that the individual character and temperament of one child are not the character and temperament of another1 yet ,i have throughout spoken of the needs of the child as though the needs of all children were the same4 ,that is because1 in the body of this work1 ,i have been dealing with the needs of children as a genus1 and not with those of the individual or species4 ,there are certain needs common to all children1 needs as universal as the need for food1 raiment1 warmth1 and light4 ,such are the needs for sympathy and justice1 leisure and liberty4 ,these things are admitted by all but the driest economists to be the rights of adults1 but not1 alas6 always admitted as the rights of children4 ,and ,i have tried to show a little what it is that is essential to the true well-being of all children4 ,the hungers and thirsts of the individual spirit cannot be dealt with by any but those in close relation to the individual child4 ,i have tried to lay down broad outlines--to make suggestions1 to point out pleasant ways leading to pleasant places4 ,parents1 teachers1 pastors and masters will make the application--or the variation--in every individual case4 ,one of the things that is the matter with modern education is the absence of the conception of personal idiosyncrasies1 tastes1 character and temperament4 ,for the matter of that it is this indifference to personality which makes the whole of our civilisation vulgar and vain4 ,our education treats children as though they were all cast in one mould2 it treats men and women as though they1 in their sphere1 differed not at all one from another4 ,you will say that it is impossible1 in a great country and a great school1 to find out the personal tastes and wishes1 hopes1 dreams1 powers1 and possibilities of individuals1 and you are quite right4 ,that is why large schools and large communities fail so detestably in the very objects of their existence4 ,schools are intended to educate1 and they merely instruct4 ,communities are1 at least ,i suppose they are1 intended to enable their members to live happy and useful lives as free citizens1 and they only succeed in making slaves of the many and tyrants of the few4 ,the machinery of government and the machinery of so-called education is too big--what it has to deal with is too big--for any fine result to be possible4 ,if we are ever to get out of children1 and men and women1 anything like the best of which they are capable1 we shall have to have much smaller schools and much smaller communities4 ,some sort of beautiful and useful corporate life is possible in a place the size of ,bedford2 it is not possible in a place the size of ,london4 ,ten or twenty children in a class can be treated as individual human beings1 and the best that is in them drawn out by a sympathetic understanding of personal traits and characteristics4 ,but a class of seventy or eighty must be treated as a machine of which the little live units are but wheels and cogs4 ,it can1 as a machine1 be made to do certain things2 the component parts of it can be made to contribute their share to the general result1 even as the bright and helpless parts of a machine contribute to its activity4 ,but you can never get out of the children composing such a class anything approaching the fine result which can be achieved by an education based on the broad lines of what is good for children1 with a superstructure of delicate perception of what is good for the individual child4 ,dick1 ,tom1 and ,harry can join in certain lessons and certain games1 but there will always be some matters in which ,dick is not in the least like ,tom1 and ,harry is quite different from both the others4 ,the people who govern us talk about education--they talk greatly1 and a little they do4 ,but they will not do the one simple1 straightforward thing which is as essential to the growth of the mind as vital religion is to the growth of the soul4 ,any teacher in any elementary school knows what is needed1 but those in power do not know it4 ,they will make scholarships as plentiful as blackberries1 they will do all sorts of fine things for secondary education4 ,the one thing they will not do is to reduce the size of the classes in elementary schools4 ,and so long as this is not done the millions we spend yearly on education are1 to a pitiably great extent1 millions wasted4 ,we might almost as well take at least half the money1 put it in bags1 tie it up with red tape1 and drop it over ,london ,bridge1 or1 still better1 spend the money in monthly exhibitions of free fireworks1 which would at least give the children and the grown-ups one jolly evening in thirty4 ,a small class can be taught1 and taught well1 by a teacher of as average ability as ever tumbled head over heels from ,london to ,york1 but a large class your average teacher will never get at at all4 ,it takes a genius and an orator to speak intelligibly to more than fifteen people4 ,i sometimes wonder if teachers know how much of their teaching their scholars miss altogether--fail to see1 fail to grasp1 do not know is there4 ,between the careless or overworked teacher and the timid and rather stupid child there is a great gulf fixed4 ,to such a child the voice of the teacher is the voice of one crying in the wilderness1 crying quite aimlessly1 in a wilderness of unintelligible jargon4 ,many boys--in public as well as elementary schools by the way--go through their whole school life scraping through somehow1 and never once having a clear idea of anything that they are doing1 hardly ever a glimpse of what anything is about or that anything has any reasonable relation to anything else4 ,it is rather like a miracle1 whichever way you take it1 but there it is1 and a miracle which might be made impossible and unnecessary by a little sensible commonplace legislation4 ,we want smaller classes1 and we want those classes better taught4 ,that is to say1 we want more teachers1 and better-paid teachers2 we want our teachers to be placed in a position of certain comfort1 that they shall not be living in the ,house of ,poverty with the wolf of ,worry always nosing round the door1 distracting their attention from what should be their chief thought--for most of the months of the year4 ,we want longer holidays1 and a better provision for happiness in those holidays1 both for teachers and children4 ,we want every teacher and every child to have a real holiday1 not merely an absence from school4 ,in a word1 we want more money spent on schools and less on gaols and reformatories4 ,it cannot be put too plainly that the nation which will not pay for her schools must pay for her prisons and asylums4 ,people don't seem to mind so much paying for prisons and workhouses4 ,what they really hate seems to be paying for schools4 ,and yet how well1 in the end1 such spending would pay us6 ,there is no darkness but ignorance1 and we have now such a chance as has never been the lot of men since ,time began1 a chance to light enough lamps to dispel that darkness4 ,if only we would take that chance6 ,even from the meanest point of view we ought to take it4 ,it would be cheaper in the end4 ,schools are cheaper than prisons4 ,now that ,i have written the words ,i don't like the look of them2 and looking back through this book1 ,i see that most of what ,i have written applies to the kind of children who are in little danger of going to prison1 children in comfortable homes1 with enough of1 at any rate1 material well-being4 ,most of my book refers to the class that is not taught in ,council ,schools1 and that will not be sent to a reformatory if the eighth commandment is not learnt in one lesson4 ,this class is called the upper middle-class1 and it does not go to the ,council ,schools because it has money to go elsewhere4 ,the children of this class are1 in brain and heart1 not superior to the children of what are called the working classes4 ,place the middle-class children in the surroundings of the slum child1 and thereupon the middle-class child would grow as the slum child grows1 as the plant debarred from light grows--not straight4 ,what we want is that there should be a distribution of wealth so changed from the one that now destroys the nation's balance as to put every parent in a position to pay for his child's education1 and that the nation's schools should be so superlatively better than all other schools that no parent would dream of sending his child to any school but that provided by the nation for the nation's children4 ,and now that it comes to good-bye1 ,i am sorry to say it4 ,i feel that ,i have only been touching the fringe of the greatest problem in the world3 that there is very much which ,i have left unsaid1 or which ,i might have said differently1 and better4 ,one might go on for all one's life thinking and writing about children and their needs1 and always there would be more unsaid than said1 less thought than food for thought4 ,if the thoughts which ,i have striven to set forth give food for thought in others1 if my little candle may help to kindle a great torch1 ,i shall look back on the writing of this book as a great privilege and the memory of the hours spent on it ,i shall treasure with a glad and grateful heart4 ,printed by ,hazell1 ,watson ,viney1 ,ld41 ,london and ,aylesbury4 99 99 99 99 99 ,transcriber's ,notes3 ,varried hyphenation retained4 ,obvious punctuation errors repaired4