,horace ,e4 ,scudder ,,james ,,russell ,,lowell2 ,a ,biography4 ,with portraits and other illustrations1 an ,appendix1 and a full ,bibliography4 #b vols4 crown #hvo1 #c4ej1 net4 ,,men ,,and ,,letters4 ,essays in ,characterization and ,criticism4 #abmo1 gilt top1 #a4be4 ,,childhood ,,in ,,literature ,,and ,,art3 ,with some ,observations on ,literature for ,children1 #abmo1 gilt top1 #a4be4 ,,noah ,,webster4 ,in ,american ,men of ,letters4 ,with ,portrait4 #afmo1 #a4be4 ,,george ,,washington4 ,an ,historical ,biography4 #afmo1 #ge cents4 ,in ,riverside ,school ,library1 #fj cents1 net4 ,,the ,,dwellers ,,in ,,five ,,sisters ,,court4 ,a ,novel4 #afmo1 #a4be4 ,,stories ,,and ,,romances4 #afmo1 #a4be4 ,,dream ,,children4 ,illustrated4 #afmo1 #a4jj4 ,,seven ,,little ,,people ,,and ,,their ,,friends4 ,illustrated4 #afmo1 #a4jj4 ,,stories ,,from ,,my ,,attic4 ,for ,children4 ,illustrated4 #afmo1 #a4jj4 ,,boston ,,town4 ,the ,story of ,boston told to ,children4 ,illustrated4 ,square #hvo1 #a4ej4 ,,the ,,children',s ,,book4 ,a ,collection of the ,best ,literature for ,children4 ,illustrated4 ,small #dto1 #b4ej4 ,,the ,,book ,,of ,,fables4 #afmo1 #ej cents4 ,,the ,,book ,,of ,,folk ,,stories4 #afmo1 #fj cents4 ,,the ,,book ,,of ,,legends4 #afmo1 #ej cents4 ,,the ,,bodley ,,books4 ,including ,doings of the ,bodley ,family in ,town and ,country1 ,the ,bodleys ,telling ,stories1 ,the ,bodleys on ,wheels1 ,the ,bodleys ,afoot1 ,mr4 ,bodley ,abroad1 ,the ,bodley ,grandchildren and their ,journey in ,holland1 ,the ,english ,bodleys1 and ,the ,viking ,bodleys4 ,illustrated4 ,eight vols4 square #hvo1 #a4ej per volume2 the set1 #ab4jj4 ,,houghton1 ,,mifflin ,,and ,,company ,,boston ,,and ,,new ,,york ,,childhood ,,in ,,literature ,,and ,,art ,,with ,,some ,,observations ,,on ,,literature ,,for ,,children ,a ,study ,,by ,,horace ,e4 ,,scudder ,illustration3 ,the ,riverside ,press ,,boston ,,and ,,new ,,york ,,houghton1 ,,mifflin ,,and ,,company ,the ,riverside ,press1 ,cambridge ,copyright1 #ahid1 ,,by ,,horace ,e4 ,,scudder ,all rights reserved4 ,the ,riverside ,press1 ,cambridge1 ,mass4 ,u4 ,s4 ,a4 ,electrotyped and ,printed by ,h4 ,o4 ,houghton ,co4 ,,to ,s ,c ,s ,,who ,,was ,a ,,child ,,when ,,this ,,book ,,was ,,written ,,contents ,,page ,i4 ,,introduction #c ,,ii4 ,,in ,,greek ,,and ,,roman ,,literature #f ,,iii4 ,,in ,,hebrew ,,life ,,and ,,literature #ci ,,iv4 ,,in ,,early ,,christianity #ec ,v4 ,,in ,,medi,,val ,,art #ha ,,vi4 ,,in ,,english ,,literature ,,and ,,art #ajd ,,vii4 ,,in ,,french ,,and ,,german ,,literature #ahj ,,viii4 ,,hans ,,christian ,,andersen #bja ,,ix4 ,,in ,,american ,,literary ,,art #bag ,,index #bdg ,,childhood ,,in ,,literature ,,and ,,art ,i ,,introduction ,there was a time1 just beyond the memory of men now living1 when the ,child was born in literature4 ,at the same period books for children began to be written4 ,there were children1 indeed1 in literature before ,wordsworth created ,alice ,fell and ,lucy ,gray1 or breathed the lines beginning1 8,she was a phantom of delight10 and there were books for the young before ,mr4 ,day wrote ,sandford and ,merton2 especially is it to be noted that ,goldsmith1 who was an avant-courier of ,wordsworth1 had a very delightful perception of the child1 and amused himself with him in the ,vicar of ,wakefield1 while he or his double entertained his little friends in real life with the ,renowned ,history of ,goody ,two ,shoes4 ,nevertheless1 there has been1 since the day of ,wordsworth1 such a succession of childish figures in prose and verse that we are justified in believing childhood to have been discovered at the close of the last century4 ,the child has now become so common that we scarcely consider how absent he is from the earlier literature4 ,men and women are there1 lovers1 maidens1 and youth1 but these are all with us still4 ,the child has been added to the dramatis person of modern literature4 ,there is a correlation between childhood in literature and a literature for children1 but it will best be understood when one has considered the meaning of the appearance and disappearance of the child in different epochs of literature and art2 for while a hasty survey certainly assures one that the nineteenth century regards childhood far more intently than any previous age1 it is impossible that so elemental a figure as the child should ever have been wholly lost to sight4 ,a comparison of literatures with reference to this figure may disclose some of the fundamental differences which exist between this century and those which have preceded it2 it may also disclose a still deeper note of unity1 struck by the essential spirit in childhood itself4 ,it is not worth while in such a study to have much recourse to the minor masters2 if a theme so elemental and so universal in its relations is not to be illustrated from the great creative expositors of human nature1 it cannot have the importance which we claim for it4 ,,ii ,,in ,,greek ,,and ,,roman ,,literature ,i ,when ,dr4 ,schliemann with his little shovel uncovered the treasures of ,mycen and ,ilium1 a good many timid souls rejoiced exceedingly over a convincing proof of the authenticity of the ,homeric legends4 ,there always will be those who find the proof of a spiritual fact in some corresponding material fact2 who wish to see the bones of ,agamemnon before they are quite ready to believe in the ,agamemnon of the ,iliad2 to whom the ,bible is not true until its truth has been confirmed by some external witness4 ,but when science has done its utmost1 there still remains in a work of art a certain testimony to truth1 which may be illustrated by science1 but cannot be superseded by it4 ,agamemnon has lived all these years in the belief of men without the aid of any cups1 or saucers1 or golden vessels1 or even bones4 ,literature1 and especially imaginative literature1 is the exponent of the life of a people1 and we must still go to it for our most intimate knowledge4 ,no careful antiquarian research can reproduce for us the women of early ,greece as ,homer has set them before us in a few lines in his pictures of ,helen and ,penelope and ,nausika4 ,when1 therefore1 we ask ourselves of childhood in ,greek life1 we may reconstruct it out of the multitudinous references in ,greek literature to the education of children1 to their sports and games2 and it is no very difficult task to follow the child from birth through the nursery to the time when it assumes its place in the active community3 but the main inquiries must still be1 ,what pictures have we of childhood8 ,what part does the child play in that drama which is set before us in a microcosm by poets and tragedians8 ,the actions of ,homer's heroes are spiritualized by reflection4 ,that is1 as the tree which meets the eye becomes a spiritual tree when one sees its answering image in the pool which it overhangs1 so those likenesses which ,homer sets over against the deeds of his heroes release the souls of the deeds1 and give them wings for a flight in the imagination4 ,a crowd of men flock to the assembly3 seen in the bright reflection of ,homer's imagination1 they are a swarm of bees3-- 8,being abroad1 the earth was overlaid ,with flockers to them1 that came forth1 as when of frequent bees ,swarms rise out of a hollow rock1 repairing the degrees ,of their egression endlessly1 with ever rising new ,from forth their sweet nest2 as their store1 still as it faded1 grew1 ,and never would cease sending forth her clusters to the spring1 ,they still crowd out so2 this flock here1 that there1 belaboring ,the loaded flowers40#a ,so ,chapman1 in his ,gothic fashion1 running up his little spires and pinnacles upon the building which he has raised from ,homer's material2 but the idea is all ,homer's1 and ,chapman's 8repairing the degrees of their egression endlessly10 with its resonant hum1 is hardly more intentionally a reflex of sound and motion than ,homer's 4 ,we look again at ,chapman's way of rendering the caressing little passage in the fourth book of the ,iliad1 where ,homer1 wishing to speak of the ease and tenderness with which ,athene turns aside the arrow shot at ,menelaos1 calls up the image of a mother brushing a fly from the face of her sleeping child3-- 8,stood close before1 and slack'd the force the arrow did confer ,with as much care and little hurt as doth a mother use1 ,and keep off from her babe1 when sleep doth through his powers diffuse ,his golden humor1 and th' assaults of rude and busy flies ,she still checks with her careful hand40#b ,here the ,englishman has caught the notion of ease1 and emphasized that2 yet he has missed the tenderness1 and all because he was not content to accept the simple image1 but must needs refract it into 8assaults of rude and busy flies40 ,better is the rendering of the picturesque figure in which ,ajax1 beset by the ,trojans1 is likened to an ass belabored by a pack of boys3-- 8,as when a dull mill ass comes near a goodly field of corn1 ,kept from the birds by children's cries1 the boys are overborne ,by his insensible approach1 and simply he will eat ,about whom many wands are broke1 and still the children beat1 ,and still the self-providing ass doth with their weakness bear1 ,not stirring till his paunch be full1 and scarcely then will steer40#c ,apollo1 sweeping away the rampart of the ,greeks1 does it as easily as a boy1 who has heaped a pile of sand upon the seashore in childish sport1 in sport razes it with feet and hands4 ,achilles half pities1 half chides1 the imploring1 weeping ,patroclos1 when he says1-- 8,wherefore weeps my friend ,so like a girl1 who1 though she sees her mother cannot tend ,her childish humors1 hangs on her1 and would be taken up1 ,still viewing her with tear-drowned eyes1 when she has made her stoop40#d ,chapman's 8hangs on her0 is hardly so particular as ,homer's 1 plucks at her gown2 and he has quite missed the picture offered by the poet1 who makes the child1 as soon as she discovers her mother1 beg to be taken up1 and insistently stop her as she goes by on some errand4 ,here again the nave domestic scene in ,homer is charged in ,chapman with a certain half-tragic meaning4 ,this1 we think1 completes the short catalogue of ,homer's indirect reference to childhood1 and the comparison with the ,elizabethan poet's use of the same forms brings out more distinctly the sweet simplicity and native dignity of the ,greek4 ,when childhood is thus referred to by ,homer1 it is used with no condescension1 and with no thought of investing it with any adventitious property4 ,it is a part of nature1 as the bees are a part of nature2 and when ,achilles likens his friend in his tears to a little girl wishing to be taken up by her mother1 he is not taunting him with being a 8cry-baby40 ,leaving the indirect references1 one recalls immediately the single picture of childhood which stands among the heroic scenes of the ,iliad4 ,when ,hector has his memorable parting with ,andromache1 as related in the sixth book of the ,iliad1 the child ,astyanax is present in the nurse's arms4 ,here ,chapman is so careless that we desert him1 and fall back on a simple rendering into prose of the passage relating to the child3-- 8,with this1 famous ,hector reached forth to take his boy1 but back into the bosom of his fair-girded nurse the boy shrank with a cry1 frightened at the sight of his dear father2 for he was afraid of the brass1--yes1 and of the plume made of a horse's mane1 when he saw it nodding dreadfully at the helmet's peak4 ,then out laughed his dear father and his noble mother4 ,quick from his head famous ,hector took the helmet and laid it on the ground1 where it shone4 ,then he kissed his dear son and tossed him in the air1 and thus he prayed to ,zeus and all the gods4444 ,these were his words1 and so he placed the boy1 his boy1 in the hands of his dear wife2 and she received him into her odorous bosom1 smiling through her tears4 ,her husband had compassion on her when he saw it1 and stroked her with his hand1 spoke to her1 and called her by her name40#e ,like so many other passages in ,homer1 this at once offers themes for sculpture4 ,flaxman was right when he presented his series of illustrations to the ,iliad and ,odyssey in outline1 and gave a statuesque character to the groups1 though his interpretation of this special scene is commonplace4 ,there is an elemental property about the life exhibited in ,homer which the firm boundaries of sculpture most fitly inclose4 ,thus childhood1 in this passage1 is characterized by an entirely simple emotion1--the sudden fear of an infant at the sight of his father's shining helmet and frowning plume2 while the relation of maturity to childhood is presented in the strong man's concession to weakness1 as he laughs and lays aside his helmet1 and then catches and tosses the child4 ,it is somewhat perilous to comment upon ,homer4 ,the appeal in his poetry is so direct to universal feeling1 and so free from the entanglements of a too refined sensibility1 that the moment one begins to enlarge upon the sentiment in his epic one is in danger of importing into it subtleties which would have been incomprehensible to ,homer4 ,there is preserved1 especially in the ,iliad1 the picture of a society which is physically developed1 but intellectually unrefined4 ,the men weep like children when they cannot have what they want1 and the passions which stir life are those which lie nearest the physical forms of expression4 ,when we come thus upon this picture of ,hector's parting with ,andromache1 we are impressed chiefly with the fact that it is human life in outline4 ,here are great facts of human experience1 and they are so told that not one of them requires a word of explanation to make it intelligible to a child4 ,the child1 we are reminded in a later philosophy1 is father of the man1 and ,astyanax is a miniature ,hector2 for we have only to go forward a few pages to find ,hector1 when brought face to face with ,ajax1 confessing to a terrible thumping of fear in his breast4 ,there is one figure in early ,greek domestic life which has frequent recognition in literature4 ,it helps in our study of this subject to find the nurse so conspicuous2 in the passage last quoted she is given an epithet which is reserved for goddesses and noble women4 ,the definite regard paid to one so identified with childhood is in accord with the open acceptance of the physical aspect of human nature which is at the basis of the ,homeric poems4 ,the frankness with which the elemental conditions of life are made to serve the poet's purpose1 so that eating and drinking1 sleeping and fighting1 weeping and laughing1 running and dancing1 are familiar incidents of the poem1 finds a place for the nurse and the house-dog4 ,few incidents in the ,odyssey are better remembered by its readers than the recognition of the travel-worn ,odysseus by the old watch-dog1 and by the nurse who washes the hero's feet and discovers the scar of the wound made by the boar's tusk when the man before her was a youth4 ,the child1 in the ,homeric conception1 was a little human creature uninvested with any mystery1 a part of that society which had itself scarcely passed beyond the bounds of childhood4 ,as the horizon which limited early ,greece was a narrow one1 and the world in which the heroes moved was surrounded by a vast terra incognita1 so human life1 in its ,homeric acceptance1 was one of simple forms2 that which lay beyond tangible and visible experience was rarely visited1 and was peopled with shapes which brought a childish fright4 ,there was1 in a word1 nothing in the development of man's nature1 as recorded by ,homer1 which would make him look with questioning toward his child4 ,he regarded the world about him with scarcely more mature thought than did the infant whom he tossed in the air1 and1 until life should be apprehended in its more complex relations1 he was not likely to see in his child anything more than an epitome of his own little round4 ,the contrast between childhood and manhood was too faint to serve much of a purpose in art4 ,the difference between ,homer and the tragedians is at once perceived to be the difference between a boy's thought and a man's thought4 ,the colonial growth1 the ,persian war1 the political development1 the commerce with other peoples1 were witnesses to a more complex life and the quick causes of a profounder apprehension of human existence4 ,it happens that we have in the dipus ,tyrannus of ,sophocles an incident which offers a suggestive comparison with the simple picture of the parting of ,hector and ,andromache4 ,in the earlier poem1 the hero1 expecting the fortunes of war1 disdains all suggestions of prudence1 and speaks as a brave man must1 who sets honor above ease1 and counts the cost of sacrifice only to stir himself to greater courage and resolution4 ,he asks that his child may take his place in time1 and he dries his wife's tears with the simple words that no man can separate him from her1 that fate alone can intervene2 in ,chapman's nervous rendering3-- 8,afflict me not1 dear wife1 ,with these vain griefs4 ,he doth not live that can disjoin my life ,and this firm bosom but my fate2 and fate1 whose wings can fly8 ,noble1 ignoble1 fate controls4 ,once born1 the best must die40 ,here1 the impending disaster to ,troy1 with the inclusion of ,hector's fortune1 appears as one fact out of many1 an incident in life1 bringing other incidents in its train1 yet scarcely more ethical in its relations than if it followed from the throw of dice4 ,in the dipus1 when the king1 overwhelmed by his fate1 in the supreme hour of his anguish takes vengeance upon his eyes1 there follows a passage of surpassing pathos4 ,to the mad violence has succeeded a moment of tender grief1 and the unhappy dipus stretches out his arms for his children1 that he may bid them farewell4 ,his own terrible fate is dimmed in his thought by the suffering which the inevitable curse of the house is to bring into their lives4 ,he reflects2 he dismisses his sons1--they1 at least1 can fight their battles in the world2 he turns to his defenseless little daughters1 and pours out for them the tears of a stricken father4 ,the not-to-be-questioned fate of ,homer1 an inexplicable incident of life1 which men must set aside from calculation and thought because it is inexplicable1 has become in ,sophocles a terrible mystery1 connecting itself with man's conduct1 even when that is unwittingly in violation of divine decree1 and following him with such unrelenting vigilance that death cannot be counted the end of perilous life4 ,the child1 in the supreme moment of ,hector's destiny1 is to him the restoration of order1 the replacement of his loss2 the children1 in the supreme moment of the destiny of dipus1 are to him only the means of prolonging and rendering more murky the darkness which has fallen upon him4 ,hector1 looking upon ,astyanax1 sees the world rolling on1 sunlight chasing shadow1 repeating the life he has known2 dipus1 looking upon ,antigone and ,ismene1 sees new disclosures of the possibilities of a dread power under which the world is abiding4 ,in taking one step more from ,sophocles to ,euripides1 there is food for thought in a new treatment of childhood4 ,whatever view one may choose to take of ,euripides and his art in its relation to the heroic tragedy1 there can be no question as to the nearness in which ,euripides stands to the characters of his dramas1 and this nearness is shown in nothing more than in the use which he makes of domestic life4 ,with him1 children are the necessary illustrations of humanity4 ,thus1 in the ,medea1 when ,medea is pleading with ,creon for a respite of a day only from banishment1 the argument which prevails is that which rests on pity for her little ones1 and in the very centre of ,medea's vengeance is that passion for her children which bids her slay them rather than leave them 8,among their unfriends1 to be trampled on40 ,again1 in ,alkestis1 the last words of the heroine before she goes to her sacrifice are a demand of ,admetus that the integrity of their home shall be preserved1 and no step-dame take her place with the children4 ,both ,alkestis and ,admetus1 in that wonderful scene1 are imaged to the eye as part of a group1 and1 though the children themselves do not speak1 the words and the very gestures are directed toward them4 ,alkestis4 ,my children1 ye have heard your father's pledge ,never to set a step-dame over you1 ,or thrust me from the allegiance of his heart4 ,admetus4 ,what now ,i say shall never be unsaid4 ,alkestis4 ,then here our children ,i entrust to thee4 ,admetus4 ,and ,i receive them as the gage of love4 ,alkestis4 ,be thou a mother to them in my place4 ,admetus4 ,need were1 when such a mother has been lost4 ,alkestis4 ,children1 ,i leave you when ,i fain would live4 ,admetus4 ,alas6 what shall ,i do1 bereft of thee8 ,alkestis4 ,time will assuage thy grief3 the dead are nought4 ,admetus4 ,take1 take me with thee to the underworld4 ,alkestis4 ,it is enough that ,i must die for thee4 ,admetus4 ,o ,heaven6 of what a partner ,i am reft6 ,alkestis4 ,my eyes grow dim and the long sleep comes on4 ,admetus4 ,i too am lost if thou dost leave me1 wife4 ,alkestis4 ,think of me as of one that is no more4 ,admetus4 ,lift up thy face1 quit not thy children dear4 ,alkestis4 ,not willingly2 but1 children1 fare ye well4 ,admetus4 ,oh1 look upon them1 look6 ,alkestis4 ,my end is come4 ,admetus4 ,oh1 leave us not4 ,alkestis4 ,farewell4 ,admetus4 ,i am undone4 ,chorus4 ,gone1 gone2 thy wife1 ,admetus1 is no more4#f ,a fragment of ,dana puts into the mouth of ,dana herself apparently lines which send one naturally to ,simonides3-- 8,he1 leaping to my arms and in my bosom1 ,might haply sport1 and with a crowd of kisses ,might win my soul forth2 for there is no greater ,love-charm than close companionship1 my father40#g ,it cannot have escaped notice how large a part is played by children in the spectacular appointments of the ,greek drama4 ,those symbolic processions1 those groups of human life1 those scenes of human passion1 are rendered more complete by the silent presence of children4 ,they serve in the temples2 their eyes are quick to catch the coming of the messenger2 they suffer dumbly in the fate that pulls down royal houses and topples the pillars of ancestral palaces4 ,it was impossible that it should be otherwise4 ,the ,greek mind1 which found expression in tragic art1 was oppressed by the problems1 not alone of individual fate1 but of the subtle relations of human life4 ,the serpents winding about ,laokon entwined in their folds the shrinking youths1 and the father's anguish was for the destiny which would not let him suffer alone4 ,yet there is scarcely a child's voice to be heard in the whole range of ,greek poetic art4 ,the conception is universally of the child1 not as acting1 far less as speaking1 but as a passive member of the social order4 ,it is not its individual life so much as its related life which is contemplated4 ,we are related to the ,greeks not only through the higher forms of literature1 but through the political thought which had with them both historical development and speculative representation4 ,it comes thus within the range of our inquiry to ask what recognition of childhood there was in writings which sought to give an artistic form to political thought4 ,there is a frequent recurrence by ,plato to the subject of childhood in the state1 and we may see in his presentation not only the germinal relation which childhood bears1 so that education becomes necessarily one of the significant functions of government1 but also what may not unfairly be called a reflection of divinity4 ,the education which in the ideal state is to be given to children is represented by him1 indeed1 as the evolution from the sensations of pleasure and pain to the perception of virtue and vice4 8,pleasure and pain10 he says1#h 8,i maintain to be the first perceptions of children1 and ,i say that they are the forms under which virtue and vice are originally present to them4 ,as to wisdom and true and fixed opinions1 happy is the man who acquires them1 even when declining in years2 and he who possesses them1 and the blessings which are contained in them1 is a perfect man4 ,now ,i mean by education that training which is given by suitable habits to the first instincts of virtue in children2 when pleasure and friendship and pain and hatred are rightly implanted in souls not yet capable of understanding the nature of them1 and who find them1 after they have attained reason1 to be in harmony with her4 ,this harmony of the soul1 when perfected1 is virtue2 but the particular training in respect of pleasure and pain which leads you always to hate what you ought to hate1 and love what you ought to love1 from the beginning to the end1 may be separated off1 and1 in my view1 will be rightly called education40 ,in the ,republic1 ,plato theorizes at great length upon a possible selection and training of children1 which rests for its basis upon a too pronounced physical assumption1 so that one in reading certain passages might easily fancy that he was considering the production of a superior breed of colts1 and that the soul was the product of material forces only2 but the fifth book1 which contains these audacious speculations1 may fairly be taken in the spirit in which ,proudhon is said to have thrown out some of his extravagant assertions1--he expected to be beaten down in his price4 ,there are other passages1 especially in the ,laws1 in reading which one is struck by a certain reverence for childhood1 as that interesting one where caution is given against disturbing the uniformity of children's plays on account of their connection with the life of the state4 ,the modern theories of the ,kindergarten find a notable support in ,plato's reasoning3 8,i say that in states generally no one has observed that the plays of childhood have a great deal to do with the permanence or want of permanence in legislation4 ,for when plays are ordered with a view to children having the same plays and amusing themselves after the same manner and finding delight in the same playthings1 the more solemn institutions of the state are allowed to remain undisturbed4 ,whereas1 if sports are disturbed and innovations are made in them1 and they constantly change1 and the young never speak of their having the same likings or the same established notions of good and bad taste1 either in the bearing of their bodies or in their dress1 but he who devises something new and out of the way in figures and colors and the like is held in special honor1 we may truly say that no greater evil can happen in a state2 for he who changes the sports is secretly changing the manners of the young1 and making the old to be dishonored among them1 and the new to be honored4 ,and ,i affirm that there is nothing which is a greater injury to all states than saying or thinking thus40#i ,it is1 however1 most germane to our purpose to cite a striking passage from the ,laws1 in which ,plato most distinctly recognizes the power resident in childhood to assimilate the purest expression of truth4 ,the ,athenian1 in the dialogue1 is speaking1 and says3 8,the next suggestion which ,i have to offer is that all our three choruses that is1 choruses representing the three epochs of life shall sing to the young and tender souls of children1 reciting in their strains all the noble thoughts of which we have already spoken1 or are about to speak2 and the sum of them shall be that the life which is by the gods deemed to be the happiest is the holiest1 and we shall affirm this to be a most certain truth2 and the minds of our young disciples will be more likely to receive these words of ours than any others which we might address to them4444 8,first will enter1 in their natural order1 the sacred choir1 composed of children1 which is to sing lustily the heaven-taught lay to the whole city4 ,next will follow the chorus of young men under the age of thirty1 who will call upon the ,god ,pan to testify to the truth of their words1 and will pray to him to be gracious to the youth and to turn their hearts4 ,thirdly1 the choir of elder men1 who are from thirty to sixty years of age1 will also sing4 ,there remain those who are too old to sing1 and they will tell stories illustrating the same virtues1 as with the voice of an oracle40#aj ,plato used human society as material from which to construct an organization artistically perfect and representing political order1 just as ,pheidias or ,praxiteles used clay as a material from which to construct the human being artistically perfect and representing the soul of man4 ,with this fine organism of the ideal state ,plato incorporated his conception of childhood in its two relations of singing and being sung to4 ,he thought of the child as a member of the three-fold chorus of life3 and when he set these choirs hymning the divine strain1 he made the recipients of the revelation to be themselves children1 the forming elements of the growing1 organic state4 ,certainly it is a wide arc which is spanned by these three great representatives of ,greek art1 and in passing from ,homer to ,sophocles1 and from ,sophocles to ,plato1 we are not merely considering the epic1 the tragic1 and the philosophic treatment of childhood in literature2 we are discovering the development of the conception of childhood in a nation which has communicated to history the eidolon of the fairest humanity4 ,it is scarcely too much to speak of it as the evolution of a soul1 and to find1 as one so often finds in his study of ,greece1 the outline of the course of the world's thought4 ,the old1 formal view of antiquity1 which once placed ,grecian life almost beyond the pale of our human sympathy1 and made the men and women cold marble figures in our imagination1 has given place to a warmer regard4 ,through literary reproduction1 which paraphrases ,greek life in the dramatic art of ,browning and ,fitzgerald1 gives us ,spencerian versions of ,homer1 or1 better still1 the healthy childlike recital in ,mr4 ,palmer's version of the ,odyssey1 and enables us to sit down after dinner with ,plato1 ,mr4 ,jowett being an idiomatic interpreter2 through the discoveries of ,schliemann and others1 by which the mythic and heroic ages of ,greece are made almost grotesquely familiar1--we are coming to read ,grecian history1 in ,niebuhr's felicitous phrase1 as if it really happened1 and to lay aside our artificial and distant ways of becoming familiar with ,greek life4 ,yet the means which have led to this modern attitude toward classic antiquity are themselves the product of modern life2 the secrets of ,greek life are more open to us now because our own life has become freer1 more hospitable1 and more catholic4 ,it is a delight to us to turn from the marble of ,pheidias to the terra cotta of the unknown modelers of the ,tanagra figurines1 while these homelike1 domestic images serve as interpreters1 also1 of the larger1 nobler designs4 ,so we have recourse to those fragments of the ,greek ,anthology which give us glimpses of ,greek interiors1 and by means of them we find a side-light thrown upon the more majestic expressions of poetic and dramatic art4 ,the ,anthology gathers for us the epigrams1 epitaphs1 proverbs1 fables1 and little odds and ends which have been saved from the ruins of literature1 and in turning its leaves one is impressed by the large number of references to childhood4 ,it is as when1 rambling through the streets of the uncovered ,pompeii1 one comes upon the playthings of children dead nigh two thousand years4 ,here are tender memorials of lost babes in inscriptions upon forgotten tombs1 and laments of fathers and mothers for the darkness which has come upon their dwellings4 ,we seem to hear the prattle of infancy and the mother's lullaby4 ,the ,greeks1 as we1 covered their loss with an instinctive trust in some better fortune in store for the child1 and hushed their skepticism with the song of hope and the remembrance of stories which they had come in colder hours to disbelieve4 ,here1 for example1 is an anonymous elegy3-- 8,thou hast not1 ,o ruler ,pluto1 with pious intent1 stolen for thy underground world a girl of five years1 admired by all4 ,for thou hast cut1 as it were1 from the root1 a sweet-scented rose in the season of a commencing spring1 before it had completed its proper time4 ,but come1 ,alexander and ,philtatus2 do not any longer weep and pour forth lamentations for the regretted girl4 ,for she had1 yes1 she had a rosy face which meant that she should remain in the immortal dwellings of the sky4 ,trust1 then1 to stories of old4 ,for it was not ,death1 but the ,naiads1 who stole the good girl as once they stole ,hylas40#aa ,perhaps the most celebrated of these tender domestic passages is to be found in the oft-quoted lines from ,simonides1 where ,dana sings over the boy ,perseus3-- 8,when in the ark of curious workmanship ,the winds and swaying waters fearfully ,were rocking her1 with streaming eyes1 around ,her boy the mother threw her arms and said3 8#8,o darling1 ,i am very miserable2 ,but thou art cosy-warm and sound asleep ,in this thy dull1 close-cabin'd prison-house1 ,stretched at full ease in the dark1 ebon gloom4 ,over thy head of long and tangled hair ,the wave is rolling2 but thou heedest not2 ,nor heedest thou the noises of the winds1 ,wrapt in thy purple cloak1 sweet pretty one4 8#8,but if this fearful place had fear for thee1 ,those little ears would listen to my words2 ,but sleep on1 baby1 and let the sea-waves sleep1 ,and sleep our own immeasurable woes4 ,o father ,zeus1 ,i pray some change may come2 ,but1 father1 if my words are over-bold1 ,have pity1 and for the child's sake pardon me4'0#ab ,,ii ,as before we stopped in front of the charming group which ,homer gives us in the parting of ,hector and ,andromache1 with the child ,astyanax set in the midst1 so in taking the poet who occupies the chief place in ,latin literature we find a significant contrast4 ,the picture of neas bearing upon his shoulders the aged ,anchises and leading by the hand the young ,ascanius is a distinct ,roman picture4 ,the two poems move through somewhat parallel cycles1 and have adventures which are common to both2 but the figure of ,odysseus is essentially a single figure1 and his wanderings may easily be taken to typify the excursions of the human soul4 neas1 on the other hand1 seems always the centre of a family group1 and his journeyings always appear to be movements toward a final city and nation4 ,the ,greek idea of individuality and the ,roman of relationship have signal illustration in these poems4 ,throughout the neid the figure of ,ascanius is an important one4 ,there is a nice disclosure of growth in personality1 and one is aware that the grandson is coming forward into his place as a member of the family1 to be thereafter representative4 ,the poet never loses sight of the boy's future4 ,homer1 in his shield of ,achilles1 that microcosm of human life1 forgets to make room for children4 ,virgil1 in his prophetic shield1 shows the long triumphs from ,ascanius down1 and casts a light upon the cave wherein the twin boys were suckled by the wolf4 ,one of the most interesting episodes in the neid is the childhood of ,camilla1 in which the warrior maid's nature is carried back and reproduced in diminutive form4 ,the evolutions of the boys in the fifth book1 while full of boyish life1 come rather under the form of mimic soldiery than of spontaneous youth4 ,in one of the ,eclogues1 ,virgil has a graceful suggestion of the stature of a child by its ability to reach only the lowest branches of a tree4 ,childhood1 in ,roman literature1 is not contemplated as a fine revelation of nature4 ,in the grosser conception1 children are reckoned as scarcely more than cubs2 but with the strong hold which the family idea had upon the ,roman mind1 it was impossible that in the refinement which came gradually upon life childhood should not play a part of its own in poetry1 and come to represent the more spiritual side of the family life4 ,thus ,catullus1 in one of his nuptial odes1 has a charming picture of infancy awaking into consciousness and affection3-- 8,soon my eyes shall see1 mayhap1 ,young ,torquatus on the lap ,of his mother1 as he stands ,stretching out his tiny hands1 ,and his little lips the while ,half open on his father's smile4 8,and oh6 may he in all be like ,manlius1 his sire1 and strike ,strangers when the boy they meet ,as his father's counterfeit1 ,and his face the index be ,of his mother's chastity40#ac ,the epitaphs and the elegies of the ,greek ,anthology have their counterpart in ,latin4 ,mr4 ,thompson has tried his hand at a passage from ,statius3#ad-- ,,on ,,the ,,death ,,of ,a ,,child4 ,shall ,i not mourn thee1 darling boy8 with whom1 ,childless ,i missed not children of my own2 ,i1 who first caught and pressed thee to my breast1 ,and called thee mine1 and taught thee sounds and words1 ,and solved the riddle of thy murmurings1 ,and stoop'd to catch thee creeping on the ground1 ,and propp'd thy steps1 and ever had my lap ,ready1 if drowsy were those little eyes1 ,to rock them with a lullaby to sleep2 ,thy first word was my name1 thy fun my smile1 ,and not a joy of thine but came from me4 ,there is1 too1 that epitaph of ,martial on the little girl ,erotion1 closing with the lines which may possibly have been in ,gray's mind when he wrote the discarded verse of his ,elegy1 ,englished thus3-- 8,let not the sod too stiffly stretch its girth ,above those tender limbs1 erstwhile so free2 ,press lightly on her form1 dear ,mother ,earth1 ,her little footsteps lightly fell on thee40#ae ,in the literature which sounds the deeper waters of life1 we find references to childhood2 but the child rarely1 if ever1 draws the thought outside of the confines of this world4 ,as near an approach as any to a perception of the mystery of childhood is in a passage in ,lucretius1 where the poet looks down with compassion upon the new-born infant as one of the mysteries of nature3 8,moreover1 the babe1 like a sailor cast ashore by the cruel waves1 lies naked on the ground1 speechless1 in need of every aid to life when first nature has cast him forth by great throes from his mother's womb1 and he fills the air with his piteous wail1 as befits one whose doom it is to pass through so much misery in life40#af ,lucretius displayed a profound reverence for human affection4 ,scattered through his great poem are fine lines in which childhood appears4 8,soon10 he says1 in one mournful passage1--8soon shall thy home receive thee no more with glad welcome1 nor thy dear children run to snatch thy first kiss1 touching thy heart with silent gladness40#ag ,juvenal1 with the thought of youth as the possible restoration of a sinking world1 utters a cry1 which has often been taken up by sensualists even1 when he injects into his pitiless satire the solemn words1 8the greatest reverence is due to the boy40#ah ,any survey of ancient ,greek and ,roman life would be incomplete which left out of view the supernatural element4 ,we need not inquire whether there was a conscious materialization of spiritual forces1 or an idealization of physical phenomena4 ,we have simply to do with certain shapes and figures which dwelt in the mind and formed a part of its furniture2 coming and going like shadows1 yet like shadows confessing a forming substance2 embodying belief and symbolizing moods4 ,in that overarching and surrounding world1 peopled by the countless personages of ,greek and ,roman supernaturalism1 we may discover1 if we will1 a vague1 distorted1 yet sometimes transcendent reflection of the life which men and women were living upon the more palpable and tangible earth4 ,what1 then1 has the childhood of the gods to tell us8 ,we have the playful incident of ,hermes1 or ,mercurius1 getting out of his cradle to steal the oxen of ,admetos1 and the similar one of ,herakles strangling the snakes that attacked him just after his birth2 but these are simply stories intended to carry back into childhood the strength of the one and the cunning of the other4 ,it is more to our purpose to note the presence in the ,pantheon of the child who remains always a child1 and is known to us familiarly as ,eros1 or ,cupid1 or ,amor4 ,it is true that the myth includes the union of ,cupid and ,psyche2 nevertheless1 the prevailing conception is of a boy1 winged1 armed with bow and arrows1 the son and messenger of ,venus4 ,it may be said that the myth gradually adapted itself to this form1 which is not especially apparent in the earlier stories4 ,the figure of ,love1 as thus presented1 has been more completely adopted into modern poetry than any other in the old mythology1 and it cannot be said that its characteristics have been materially altered4 ,it is doubtful whether the ancient idea was more simple than the same when reproduced in ,thorwaldsen's sculpture1 or in ,ben ,jonson's ,venus' ,runaway4 ,the central conception is essentially an unmoral one2 it knows not right or wrong1 good or evil2 the mischief-making is capricious1 and not malicious4 ,there is the idea only of delight1 of an innocence which is untutored1 of a will which is the wind's will4 ,it would seem as if1 in fastening upon childhood as the embodiment of love1 the ancients1 as well as their modern heirs1 were bent upon ridding life of conscience and fate1--upon making love to have neither memory nor foresight1 but only the joy of the moment4 ,this sporting child was a refuge1 in their minds1 from the ills of life1 a residence of the one central joy of the world4 ,there is an infinite pathos in the erection of childhood into a temple for the worship of ,love4 ,there was1 indeed1 in the reception of this myth1 a wide range from purity to grossness1 as the word 8love0 itself has to do service along an arc which subtends heaven and hell2 but when we distill the poetry and art which gather about the myth of ,cupid1 the essence will be found in this conception of love as a child1--a conception never wholly lost1 even when the child was robbed of the purity which we recognize as its ideal property4 ,it should be noted1 also1 that the ,romans laid hold of this idea more eagerly than did the ,greeks2 for the child itself1 though more artistically set forth in ,greek literature1 appears as a more vital force in ,roman literature4#ai ,,iii ,,in ,,hebrew ,,life ,,and ,,literature ,the literature of ,greece and ,rome is a possession of the modern world4 ,for the most part it has been taken as an independent creation1 studied indeed with reference to language as the vehicle of thought1 but after all chiefly as an art4 ,it is within a comparatively recent time that the conception of an historical study of literature has been prominent1 and that men have gone to ,greek and ,roman poetry with an eager passion for the discovery of ancient life4 ,the result of these new methods has been to humanize our conception of the literature under examination4 ,singularly enough1 while the modern world has been influenced by the classic world chiefly through its language1 literature1 and institutions1 the third great stream of influence which has issued from ancient sources has been one in which literature as such has been almost subordinated to the religious and ethical ideas of which it was the vehicle2 even the strong institutional forces inherent in it have had only exceptional attention4 ,there was a time1 indeed1 when the history of the ,jews1 as contained in the books of the ,old ,testament1 was isolated from the history of mankind and treated in an artificial manner1 at its best made to illustrate conduct1 somewhat as ,latin literature was made to exemplify syntax4 ,the old distinction of sacred and profane history did much to obscure the human element in what was called sacred history1 and to blot out the divine element in what was called profane history4 ,there are many who can remember the impression made upon their minds when they learned for the first time of the contemporaneousness of events in ,jewish and ,grecian history2 and it is not impossible that some can even recall a period in their lives when ,bible people and the ,bible lands were almost as distinct and separate in their conception as if they belonged to another planet4 ,nevertheless1 the reality of ,old ,testament history1 while suffering from lack of proportion in relation to other parts of human history1 has been impressed upon modern civilization through its close identification with the religious life4 ,the inheritance of these scriptures of the ancient ,hebrew has been so complete that the modern ,jew is regarded almost as a pretender when he sets up a claim to special possession4 ,we jostle him out of the way1 and appropriate his national documents as the old title-deeds of ,christianity4 ,there is1 indeed1 an historic truth involved in this2 but1 however we may regard it1 we are brought back to the significant fact that along with the ,greek and the ,roman influence upon modern life has been the mighty force of ,hebraism4 ,the ,greek has impressed himself upon our modes and processes of thought1 the ,roman upon our organization1 the ,hebrew upon our religious and social life4#bj ,it is certain that the ,bible has been a storehouse from which have been drawn illustrations of life and character1 and that these have had an authority beyond anything in classic history and literature4 ,it has been the book from which youth with us has drawn its conceptions of life outside of the limited circle of human experience2 and the geographical1 historical1 and archological apparatus employed to illustrate it has been far more considerable than any like apparatus in classical study4 ,the ,bible has been the university to the person of ordinary culture2 it has brought into his life a foreign element which ,greece and ,rome have been powerless to present2 and though the images of this remote foreign life often have been distorted1 and strangely mingled with familiar notions1 there can be no doubt that the mind has been enlarged by this extension of its interests and knowledge4 ,it is worth while1 therefore1 to ask what conceptions of childhood are discoverable in the ,old ,testament literature4 ,the actual appearances of children in the narrative portions are not frequent4 ,we have the incident of the exposure of ,moses as a babe in the bulrushes2 the sickness and death of ,bathsheba's child1 with the pathetic story of the erring father's fasting and prayer2 the expulsion of ,ishmael2 the childhood of ,samuel in the temple2 the striking narrative of the restoration of the son of the widow of ,zarephath by ,elijah2 and the still more graphic and picturesque description of the bringing back to life by ,elisha of the child who had been born at his intercession to the ,shunamite1 and had been sunstruck when in the field with his father4 ,then there is the abrupt and hard to be explained narrative of the jeering boys who followed the prophet ,elisha with derisive cries1 as they saw how different he was in external appearance from the rugged and awe-inspiring ,elijah4 ,whatever may be the interpretation of the fearful retribution which befell those rude boys1 and the indication which was shown of the majesty of the prophetic office1 it is clear that the ,jew of that day would not have felt any disproportion between the guilt of the boys and their dire and speedy punishment2 he would have been impressed by the sanctity of the prophet1 and the swiftness of the divine demonstration4 ,life and death were nothing before the integrity of the divine ideal1 and the complete subordination of children to the will of their parents accustomed the mind to an easy assent to the exhibition of what seems to us almost arbitrary will4 ,no attentive reader of the ,old ,testament has failed to remark the prominence given to the preservation of the family succession1 and to the birth of male children4 ,that laugh of ,sarah--at first of scorn1 then of triumph--sounds out from the early records with a strange1 prophetic voice2 and one reads the thirtieth chapter of the book of ,genesis with a sense of the wild1 passionate rivalry of the two wives of ,jacob1 as they bring forth1 one after another1 the twelve sons of the patriarch4 ,the burst of praise also from ,hannah1 when she was freed from her bitter shame and had brought forth her son ,samuel1 has its echo through history and psalm and prophecy until it issues in the clear1 bell-like tones of the ,magnificat1 thenceforward to be the hymn of triumph of the ,christian church4 ,the voice of ,god1 as it uttered itself in commandment and prophetic warning1 was for children and children's children to the latest generation4 ,it is not the person so much as the family that is addressed1 and the strongest warnings1 the brightest promises to the fathers1 are through the children4 ,the prophet ,hosea could use no more terrible word to the people than when1 speaking as the mouthpiece of ,god1 he says3 8,seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy ,god1 ,i will also forget thy children20#ba and ,zechariah1 inspiriting the people1 declares3 8,they shall remember me in far countries2 and they shall live with their children40#bb ,the promise of the golden age of peace and prosperity has its climax in the innocence of childhood4 8,there shall yet old men and old women dwell in the streets of ,jerusalem1 and every man with his staff in his hand for very age4 ,and the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof20#bc while the lofty anticipation of ,isaiah1 in words which still serve as symbols of hopeful humanity1 reaches its height in the prediction of a profound peace among the very brutes1 when the wolf and the lamb1 the leopard and the kid1 the calf1 the young lion1 and the fatling shall not only lay aside their mutual hate and fear1 but shall be obedient to the tender voice and gentle hand of a little child1 and even the noxious reptiles shall be playmates for the infant4#bd ,in the ,greek fable1 ,hercules in his cradle strangled the snakes by his might2 in the ,jewish picture1 the child enters fearlessly the very dens of the asp and the adder1 secure under the reign of a perfect righteousness4 ,milton1 in his ,ode on the ,morning of ,christ's ,nativity1 has pointed out this parallel3-- 8,he feels from ,judah's land ,the dreaded infant's hand1 ,the rays of ,bethlehem blind his dusky eyne2 ,nor all the gods beside ,longer dare abide1 ,not ,typhon huge ending in snaky twine2 ,our babe1 to show his ,godhead true1 ,can in his swaddling bands control the damnd crew40 ,to the ,jew1 childhood was the sign of fulfillment of glorious promises4 ,the burden of psalm and prophecy was of a golden age to come1 not of one that was in the dim past4 ,a nation is kept alive1 not by memory1 but by hope4 ,the ,god of ,abraham and of ,isaac and of ,jacob was the ,god of a procession of generations1 a ,god of sons and of sons' sons2 and when we read1 in the last words of the last canonical book of the ,old ,testament1 that 8he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children1 and the heart of the children to their fathers10#be we are prepared for the opening1 four centuries later1 of the last chapter in the ancient history of this people4 ,in the adoration there of the child we seem to see the concentration of ,jewish hope which had for centuries found expression in numberless ways4 ,the ,magnificat of ,mary is the song of ,hannah1 purified and ennobled by generations of deferred hope1 and in all the joy and prophecy of the shepherds1 of ,simeon and of ,anna1 we listen to strains which have a familiar sound4 ,it is indeed the expectation of what this child will be and do which moves the pious souls about it1 but there is a direct veneration of the babe as containing the hope of the people4 ,in this supreme moment of the ,jewish nation1 age bows itself reverently before childhood1 and we are able by the light which the event throws backward to perceive more clearly how great was the power of childhood1 through all the earlier periods1 in its influence upon the imagination and reason4 ,we may fairly contend that the apprehension of the sanctity of childhood was more positive with the ,jew than with either the ,greek or the ,roman4 ,it remains1 however1 that this third great stream of humanity passes out1 in the ,new ,testament1 from its ,hebraic limitations1 and we are unable1 except by a special effort1 to think of it as ,jewish at all4 ,the ,gospels transcend national and local and temporal limits1 and we find ourselves1 when considering them1 reading the beginnings of modern1 not the close of ,jewish history4 ,the incidents lying along the margin of the ,gospels and relating to the birth of the ,christ do1 as we have seen1 connect themselves with the earlier national development1 but the strong light which comes at the dawn of ,christianity inevitably draws the mind forward to the new day4 ,the evangelists record no incidents of the childhood of ,jesus which separate it from the childhood of other of the children of men4 ,the flight into ,egypt is the flight of parents with a child2 the presence of the boy in the temple is marked by no abnormal sign1 for it is a distorted imagination which has given the unbiblical title to the scene1--,christ disputing with the ,doctors1 or ,christ teaching in the ,temple4 ,but as the narrative of the ,saviour's ministry proceeds1 we are reminded again and again of the presence of children in the multitudes that flocked about him4 ,the signs and wonders which he wrought were more than once through the lives of the young1 and the suffering and disease of humanity which form the background in the ,gospels upon which we see sketched in lines of light the outline of the redeeming ,son of ,man are shown in the persons of children1 while the deeper life of humanity is disclosed in the tenderness of parents4 ,it is in the ,gospels that we have those vignettes of human life1--the healing of the daughter of ,jairus1 the delivery of the boy possessed with devils1 that striking antithesis to the transfiguration which ,raphael's genius has served to fix in the mind1 the healing of the nobleman's son1 and the blessing of children brought to the ,master by their fond mothers4 ,most notable1 too1 is the scene of the final entry into ,jerusalem1 when the ,saviour appeared to accept from children the tribute which he shunned when it came from their elders4 ,here1 as in other cases1 we ask what was the attitude of the ,saviour toward children1 since the literature of the ,new ,testament is so confessedly a revelation of life and character that we instinctively refuse to treat it otherwise4 ,in vain do we listen to those who point out the ethical beauty of the ,sermon on the ,mount1 or the pathos of this or that incident2 our minds break through all considerations of style and form1 to seize upon the facts and truths in their relation to life4 ,we do not ask1 what is the representation of childhood to be found in the writings of certain ,jews known as ,matthew1 ,mark1 ,luke1 and ,john2 we ask1 what is there between children and the central figure disclosed in those writings4 ,we ask purposely1 for1 when we leave behind this ancient world1 we enter upon the examination of literature and art which are never beyond the horizon lying under the rays of the ,sun of ,righteousness4 ,the attitude which ,christ took toward children must contain the explanation of the attitude which ,christianity takes toward the same1 for the literature and art of ,christendom become the exponents of the conception had of the ,christ4 ,there are two or three significant words and acts which leave us in no doubt as to the general aspect which childhood wore to ,jesus ,christ4 ,in the conversation which he held with the intellectual ,nicodemus1 he asserted the necessity of a new birth for mankind2 in the rite of baptism he symbolized the same truth2 he expanded this word again1 accompanying it by a symbolic act1 when he placed a child in the midst of his disciples and bade them begin life over again2 he illustrated the truth by an acted parable1 when he called little children to him with the words1 8,of such is the kingdom of heaven20 he turned from the hard1 skeptical men of that generation with the words of profound relief3 8,i thank thee1 ,o ,father1 ,lord of heaven and earth1 that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent1 and hast revealed them unto babes20 he symbolized the charity of life in the gift of a cup of cold water to a child4 ,the eyes of this ,jesus1 the ,saviour of men1 were ever upon the new heavens and the new earth4 ,the kingdom of heaven was the burden of his announcement2 the new life which was to come to men shone most plainly in the persons of young children4 ,not only were the babes whom he saw and blessed to partake of the first entrance into the kingdom of the spirit1 but childhood possessed in his sight the potency of the new world2 it was under the protection of a father and mother2 it was fearless and trusting2 it was unconscious of self2 it lived and did not think about living4 ,the words of prophets and psalmists had again and again found in the throes of a woman in labor a symbol of the struggle of humanity for a new generation4 ,by a bold and profound figure it was said of the great central person of humanity3 8,he shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied40 ,a foregleam of that satisfaction is found in his face as he gazes upon the children who are brought to him4 ,there is sorrow as he gazes upon the world1 and his face is set toward ,jerusalem2 there is a calm joy as he places a child before him and sees in his young innocence the promise of the kingdom of heaven2 there is triumph in his voice as he rebukes the men who would fain shut the mouths of the shouting children that run before him4 ,the pregnant words which ,jesus ,christ used regarding childhood1 the new birth1 and the kingdom of heaven become indicative of the great movements in life and literature and art from that day to this4 ,the successive gestations of history have their tokens in some specific regard of childhood4 ,there have been three such periods1 so mighty that they mark each the beginning of a new heaven and a new earth4 ,the first was the genesis of the ,christian church2 the second was the ,renaissance2 the third had its great sign in the ,french ,revolution4 ,,iv ,,in ,,early ,,christianity ,the parabolic expression1 8,destroy this temple1 and in three days ,i will raise it up10 has been applied with force to the destruction of ,judaism1 and the reconstruction upon its ruins of a living ,christianity4 ,it may be applied with equal justice1 though in more recondite sense1 to the death of the old literature and art1 and the resurrection of the beautiful creations of the human mind in new form4 ,the three days were more than a thousand years1 and during that long sleep what had become of those indestructible forces of imagination and reason which combine in literature and art8 ,roughly speaking1 they were disjoined1 and only when reunited did they again assert themselves in living form4 ,the power which kept each in abeyance was structural ,christianity1 and only when that began to be burst asunder by the vital force inherent in spiritual ,christianity was there opportunity for the free union of the imagination and reason4 ,as the ,jewish temple could no longer inclose divinity1 but was thrust apart by the expansive power of the ,christianity which was fostered within it1 so the ,christian church1 viewed as an institution which aimed at an inclosure of humanity1 was in its turn disrupted by the silent growth of the human spirit which had fed within its walls upon the divine life4 ,after the birth of ,christianity the parallel continuity of the old world was broken4 ,the ,greek1 the ,roman1 and the ,hebrew no longer carried forward their separate movements4 ,christianity1 professing to annul these forces1 had taken their place in history4 ,again1 at the ,renaissance1 it was found that the three great streams of human thought had been flowing underground2 they reissued to the light in a generous flood1 each combining with the others4 ,it was during this long period of apparent inaction in literature and art that the imagination1 dissevered from reason1 was in a state of abnormal activity4 ,the compression of its field caused the faculty to find expression through forms which were very closely connected with the dominant sphere of human life4 ,before religious art and ecclesiastical architecture had become the abundant expression of ,christian imagination1 there was generated a great mass of legend and fable1 which only by degrees became formally embodied in literature or perpetuated in art and symbol4 ,the imaginative faculty had given it1 for material in which to work the new life1 the soul of man as distinctly related to ,god4 ,an ethical principle lay at the foundation of ,christianity1 and the imagination1 stimulated by faith1 built with materials drawn from ethical life4 ,the germinal truth of ,christianity1 that ,god had manifested himself to men in the person of ,jesus ,christ1 however it might be obscured or misunderstood1 was the efficient cause of the operations of the ,christian imagination4 ,this faculty set before itself the perfect man1 and in that conceived not the physical and intellectual man of the ,greek conception1 nor the ,csar of the ,roman ideal1 nor even the moral man of the ,jewish light1 but a man whose perfection was the counterpart of the perfection of ,god and its great exemplar1 the man ,jesus ,christ4 ,in his life the central idea of service1 of victory through suffering and humiliation1 of self-surrender1 and of union with ,god was perceived with greater or less clearness1 and this idea was adumbrated in that vast gallery of saints constructed by ,christianity in its ceaseless endeavor to reproduce the perfect type4 ,through all the extravagance and chaotic confusion of the legendary lore of the medival church1 one may discover the perpetually recurring notes of the perfect life4 ,the beatitudes--those spiritual witnesses of the redeemed human character--are ever floating before the early imagination1 and offering the standards by which it measures its creations4 ,it was by no fortuitous suggestion1 but by a profound sense of fitness1 that the church made the gospel of ,all ,saints' ,day to consist of those sentences which pronounce the blessedness of the poor in spirit1 the meek1 and the persecuted for righteousness sake2 while the epistle for the same day is the roll-call of the saints who are to sit on the thrones of the twelve tribes1 and of the multitudes who have overcome the world4 ,it is not strange1 therefore1 that the imagination1 busying itself about the spiritual life of man1 should have dwelt with special emphasis upon those signs of the new life brought to light in the ,gospels1 which seemed to contain the promise of perfection4 ,it seized upon baptism as witnessing to a regeneration2 it traced the lives of saints back to a childhood which began with baptism2 it invested the weak things of the world with a mighty power2 and1 keeping before it the pattern of the ,head of the church1 it traced in the early life of the ,saviour powers which confounded the common wisdom of men4 ,it dwelt with fondness upon the adoration of the ,magi1 as witnessing to the supremacy of the infant ,redeemer2 and1 occupied as it was with the idea of a suffering ,saviour1 it carried the cross back to the cradle1 and found in the ,massacre of the ,innocents the type of a substitution and vicarious sacrifice4 ,the simple annals of the ,gospels shine with great beauty when confronted by the ingenuity and curious adornment of the legends included in the so-called ,apocryphal ,gospels4 ,yet these legends illustrate the eagerness of the early ,christian world to invest the person of ,jesus with every possible charm and power2 and since the weakness of infancy and childhood offers the strongest contrast to works of thaumaturgy1 this period is very fully elaborated4 ,a reason may also be found in the silence of the evangelists1 which needed to be broken by the curious4 ,thus1 when1 in the flight into ,egypt1 the ,holy ,family was made to seek rest in a cave1 there suddenly came out many dragons2 and the children who were with the family1 when they saw the dragons1 cried out in great terror4 8,then ,jesus10 says the narrative1 8went down from the bosom of his mother1 and stood on his feet before the dragons2 and they adored ,jesus1 and thereafter retired4444 ,and the young child ,jesus1 walking before them1 commanded them to hurt no man4 ,but ,mary and ,joseph were very much afraid lest the child should be hurt by the dragons4 ,and ,jesus said to them2 #8,do not be afraid1 and do not consider me to be a little child2 for ,i am and always have been perfect1 and all the beasts of the field must needs be tame before me4' ,lions and panthers adored him likewise1 and accompanied them in the desert4 ,wherever ,joseph and the blessed ,mary went1 these went before them1 showing them the way and bowing their heads1 and showing their submission by wagging their tails2 they adored him with great reverence4 ,now at first1 when ,mary saw the lions and the panthers1 and various kinds of wild beasts coming about them1 she was very much afraid4 ,but the infant ,jesus looked into her face with a joyful countenance1 and said3 #8,be not afraid1 mother2 for they come not to do thee harm1 but they make haste to serve both thee and me4' ,with these words he drove all fear from her heart4 ,and the lions kept walking with them1 and with the oxen and the asses and the beasts of burden which carried their baggage1 and did not hurt a single one of them2 but they were tame among the sheep and the rams which they had brought with them from ,juda1 and which they had with them4 ,they walked among wolves and feared nothing1 and no one of them was hurt by another40#bf ,so1 too1 when ,mary looked helplessly up at the fruit of a palm-tree hanging far out of her reach1 the child ,jesus1 8with a joyful countenance1 reposing in the bosom of his mother1 said to the palm1 #8,o tree1 bend thy branches1 and refresh my mother with thy fruit4' ,and immediately at these words the palm bent its top down to the very feet of the blessed ,mary2 and they gathered from its fruit1 with which they were all refreshed4 ,and after they had gathered all its fruit1 it remained bent down1 waiting the order to rise from him who had commanded it to stoop4 ,then ,jesus said to it1 #8,raise thyself1 ,o palm-tree1 and be strong1 and be the companion of my trees which are in the paradise of my ,father2 and open from thy roots a vein of water which has been hid in the earth1 and let the waters flow1 so that we may be satisfied from thee4' ,and it rose up immediately1 and at its root there began to come forth a spring of water1 exceedingly clear and cool and sparkling4 ,and when they saw the spring of water they rejoiced with great joy1 and were satisfied1 themselves and all their cattle and their beasts4 ,wherefore they gave thanks to ,god40 ,the legends which relate to the boyhood of ,jesus carry back with a violent or confused sense the acts of his manhood4 ,thus he is represented more than once as willing the death of a playmate1 and then contemptuously bringing him to life again4 ,a favorite story grossly misconceives the incident of ,christ with the ,doctors in the temple1 and makes him turn his schoolmaster into ridicule4 ,there are other stories1 the incidents of which are not reflections of anything in the ,gospels1 but are used to illustrate in a childish way the wonder-working power of the boy4 ,here is one which curiously mingles the miraculous power with the ,saviour's doctrine of the ,sabbath3-- 8,and it came to pass1 after these things1 that in the sight of all ,jesus took clay from the pools which he had made1 and of it made twelve sparrows4 ,and it was the ,sabbath when ,jesus did this1 and there were very many children with him4 ,when1 therefore1 one of the ,jews had seen him doing this1 he said to ,joseph1 #8,joseph1 dost thou not see the child ,jesus working on the ,sabbath at what it is not lawful for him to do8 ,for he has made twelve sparrows of clay4' ,and when ,joseph heard this1 he reproved him1 saying1 #8,wherefore doest thou on the ,sabbath such things as are not lawful for us to do8' ,and when ,jesus heard ,joseph he struck his hands together1 and said to his sparrows1 #8,fly6' and at the voice of his command they began to fly4 ,and in the sight and hearing of all that stood by he said to the birds1 #8,go and fly through the earth1 and through all the world1 and live4' ,and when those that were there saw such miracles they were filled with great astonishment40 ,it is interesting to note how many of these stories connect the child with animals4 ,the passage in ,isaiah which prophesied the great peace in the figure of a child leading wild beasts had something to do with this2 so had the birth of ,jesus in a manger1 and the incident of the entry into ,jerusalem3 but ,i suspect that the imagination scarcely needed to hunt very far or very curiously for suggestions1 since the world over childhood has been associated with brute life1 and the writers of the ,apocryphal ,gospels had only to make these animals savage when they would illustrate the potency of the childhood of ,jesus4 8,there is a road going out of ,jericho10 says the ,pseudo-gospel of ,matthew1 8and leading to the river ,jordan1 to the place where the children of ,israel crossed2 and there the ark of the covenant is said to have rested4 ,and ,jesus was eight years old1 and he went out of ,jericho and went towards the ,jordan4 ,and there was beside the road1 near the banks of the ,jordan1 a cave1 where a lioness was nursing her cubs2 and no one was safe who walked that way4 ,jesus1 then1 coming from ,jericho1 and knowing that in that cave the lioness had brought forth her young1 went into it in the sight of all4 ,and when the lions saw ,jesus they ran to meet him1 and adored him4 ,and ,jesus was sitting in the cavern1 and the lion's cubs ran hither and thither round his feet1 fawning upon him and sporting4 ,and the older lions1 with their heads bowed down1 stood at a distance and adored him1 and fawned upon him with their tails4 ,then the people1 who were standing afar off1 not seeing ,jesus1 said1 #8,unless he or his parents had committed grievous sins1 he would not of his own accord have offered himself up to the lions4' ,and when the people were thus reflecting within themselves1 and were lying under great sorrow1 behold1 on a sudden1 in the sight of the people1 ,jesus came out of the cave1 and the lions went before him1 and the lion's cubs played with each other before his feet4 ,and the parents of ,jesus stood afar off1 with their heads bowed down1 and watched2 likewise1 also1 the people stood at a distance1 on account of the lions2 for they did not dare to come close to them4 ,then ,jesus began to say to the people1 #8,how much better are the beasts than you1 seeing that they recognize their ,lord and glorify him2 while you men1 who have been made after the image and likeness of ,god1 do not know him6 ,beasts know me1 and are tame2 men see me1 and do not acknowledge me4'0 ,to the mind of these early ,christians the life of ,jesus was compounded of holiness and supernatural power2 so far as they distinguished these1 the holiness was the cause of the power1 and hence1 when the imagination fashioned saints out of men and women1 it followed the same course which it had taken with the ,master4 ,the childhood of the saints was an anticipation of maturer virtues and powers1 rather than a manifestation of ingenuous innocence4 ,there was a tendency to explain exceptional qualities in lives by extending them backward into youth1 thereby gaining for them an apparent corroboration4 ,the instances of this in the legends are frequent4 ,mothers1 like the ,virgin ,mary1 have premonitions that their children are to be in some special manner children of ,god1 and the characteristics of later life are foreshadowed at birth4 ,the ,virgin herself was thus dealt with4 ,the strong human feeling which subsequently1 when the tenderness of ,christ had been petrified into judgment1 interposed the ,virgin as mediator1 found gratification in surrounding ,mary's infancy and childhood with a supernatural grace and power1 the incidents in some cases being faint reflections of incidents in the life of her son2 as when we are told that ,joachim and ,anna carried ,mary1 then three years old1 to place her among the virgins in the temple of ,god4 8,and when she was put down before the doors of the temple1 she went up the fifteen steps so swiftly that she did not look back at all2 nor did she1 as children are wont to do1 seek for her parents4 ,whereupon her parents1 each of them anxiously seeking for the child1 were both alike astonished until they found her in the temple1 and the priests of the temple themselves wondered40 ,in like manner a halo of light played about ,s4 ,catherine's head when she was born4 ,the year of the birth of ,s4 ,elizabeth of ,hungary was full of blessings to her country2 the first words she uttered were those of prayer1 and when three years old she gave signs of the charity which marked her life by giving her toys and garments to those less fortunate than herself4 ,a pretty story is told of her betrothal to ,prince ,louis of ,thuringia4 ,herman of ,thuringia sent an embassy to the king of ,hungary1 desiring the little ,elizabeth1 then only four years old1 for his son2 and the maiden accompanied the embassy1 carrying with her a silver cradle and silver bath1 which her father had given her4 ,she was betrothed to ,louis1 and the little pair played happily together in the same cradle4 ,s4 ,genevieve of ,paris was a maiden of seven1 who tended a flock of sheep at the village of ,narterre4 ,hither came ,s4 ,germain1 and when the inhabitants were assembled to receive his benediction his eyes rested on the little shepherdess1 and seeing her saintliness he set her apart as a bride of ,christ4 ,s4 ,gregory ,nazianzen had a dream when he was a boy1 in which two heavenly virgins of celestial beauty visited him3 they were ,chastity and ,temperance1 and so captivating was their presence1 so winning were their words1 that he awoke to take perpetual vows of continence4 ,s4 ,john ,chrysostom was a dull boy at school1 and so disturbed was he by the ridicule of his fellows that he went into a church to pray to the ,virgin for help4 ,a voice came from the image3 8,kiss me on the mouth1 and thou shalt be endowed with all learning40 ,he did this1 and when he returned to his school-fellows they saw a golden circle about his mouth1 and his eloquence and brilliancy astounded them4 ,martyrdom was the portion of these saintly children as well as of their elders4 ,the story is told of ,hilarion1 one of the four children of ,saturninus the priest1 that when the proconsul of ,carthage thought to have no difficulty in dealing with one of tender age1 the child resisted all cajolings and threats4 8,i am a ,christian10 said the little fellow4 8,i have been at the collect that is1 assisted as an acolyte1 and it was of my own voluntary choice1 without any compulsion40 ,thereupon the proconsul1 who was probably a father1 threatened him1 as the story runs1 8with those little punishments with which children are accustomed to be chastised10 but the child only laughed at the idea of giving up his faith for fear of a whipping4 8,i will cut off your nose and ears60 shouted the exasperated inquisitor4 8,you may do it1 but ,i shall be a ,christian still10 replied the undaunted boy2 and when he was ordered off to prison with the rest1 he was heard to pipe forth1 8,god be thanked10 and so was led away4 ,these random incidents are1 for the most part1 mainly anticipatory of mature experience4 ,they can be matched with the details of ,protestant hagiology as recorded in a class of books more common forty years ago than now4 ,it is their remoteness that lends a certain grace and charm to them4 ,the life of a little ,christian in the fourth century is invested with an attraction which is wanting in the circumstance of some juvenile saint living in the midst of indifferent scoffers of the early part of the nineteenth century4 ,occasionally1 however1 the legends inclose the saintly attributes in some bit of romance1 or betray a simple1 ingenuous sympathy with childish nature4 ,the legend of ,s4 ,kenelm has a faint suspicion of kinship with the story of the babes in the wood4 ,king ,kenwulf of ,wessex died1 and left two daughters1 ,cwendrida and ,burgenilda1 and a son of seven years1 named ,kenelm4 ,the elder of the daughters wished the child out of the way1 that she might reign2 so she gave money to ,askbert1 his guardian1 the wicked uncle of the story1 and bade him privily slay the boy4 ,so ,askbert took ,kenelm into a wood1 as if for a hunt1 and by and by the child1 tired with the heat1 fell asleep under the shade of a tree4 ,askbert1 seeing his time had come1 set to work to dig a grave1 that all might be in readiness2 but ,kenelm woke1 and said1 8,it is in vain that you think to kill me here4 ,i shall be slain in another spot4 ,in token whereof1 see this rod blossom20 and so saying1 he stuck a stick into the ground1 and it instantly took root and began to flower4 ,in after days it was a great ash-tree1 known as ,s4 ,kenelm's ash4 ,then ,askbert took the little king to another spot1 and the child1 now wide awake1 began to sing the ,te ,deum4 ,when he came to the verse1 8,the noble army of martyrs praise ,thee10 ,askbert cut off his head1 and then buried him in the wood4 ,just as he did this1 a white dove flew into the church of ,s4 ,peter in ,rome1 and laid on the high altar a letter1 which it bore in its beak4 ,the letter was in ,english1 and it was some time before any one could be found who could read it4 ,then it was discovered that ,kenelm had been killed and his body hidden away4 ,the ,pope thereupon wrote letters into ,england telling of this sorry affair1 and men went forth to find the body of the little king4 ,they were led by a pillar of light1 which stood over the place where the body lay4 ,so they bore it off and buried it2 but they built a chapel over the spot where they had found the body1 which is known as ,s4 ,kenelm's chapel to this day4 ,there the chapel stands near ,hales ,owen2 how else did it get its name8 and as ,mr4 ,freeman sagely remarks1 8,it is hard to see what should have made anybody invent such a tale1 if nothing of the kind had ever happened40 ,another of the stories which has a half fairy-tale character is that of the martyrdom of the little ,s4 ,christina1 who was shut up in a high tower by her father1 and bidden spend her time before gold and silver gods2 his private purpose being to keep her out of the way of troublesome lovers4 ,christina tired of her divine playthings1 and in spite of her father's indulgence1 since he obligingly took away all the images but three1 would have nothing to do with false gods4 ,she was visited by angels and instructed in ,christianity4 ,she combined courage in her new faith with a fine spirit of adventure2 for she is represented as smashing the idols1 letting herself down by a rope from her tower-prison1 distributing the fragments of the idols among the poor1 and clambering up again before morning4 ,her martyrdom showed various ingenious inventions of torture1 but the odd part of the story is the manner in which the gold and silver idols always suggest a girl's playthings4 ,we are told that when she was taken into the temple of ,apollo she bade the idol step down and walk about the temple until she sent it back to its place4 ,then1 proceeds the story gravely1 she was put in a cradle filled with boiling pitch and oil1 and four soldiers were set to rocking her4 ,in these and similar stories which abound in the ,acta ,sanctorum1 the simple attributes of childish nature rarely shine through the more formal covering of churchly investiture4 ,nature could not always be expelled1 but the imagination1 busy with the construction of the ideal ,christian life1 was more concerned1 as time went on1 to make that conform to an ecclesiastical standard4 ,it is pathetic to see the occasional struggle of poor humanity to break through the meshes in which it was entangled4 ,the life of ,s4 ,francis of ,assisi is full of incidents which illustrate this4 ,his familiar intercourse with birds and beasts was but one of the signs of an effort to escape from the cage in which he was an unconscious prisoner4 ,one night1 we are told1 he rose suddenly from the earthen floor which made his bed and rushed out into the open air4 ,a brother monk1 who was praying in his cell1 looked through his window and saw ,s4 ,francis1 under the light of the moon1 fashion seven little figures of snow4 8,here is thy wife10 he said to himself3 8these four are thy sons and daughters2 the other two are thy servant and handmaid3 and for all these thou art bound to provide4 ,make haste1 then1 and provide clothing for them1 lest they perish with cold4 ,but if the care of so many trouble thee1 be thou careful to serve the ,lord alone40 ,the injunction to give up father and mother and family for the ,lord's sake1 when obeyed by one so tremulously alive to human sympathy as was ,s4 ,francis1 had in it a power suddenly to disclose the depths of the human soul2 nor can it be doubted that those who1 like ,s4 ,francis1 were eagerly thrusting aside everything which seemed to stand between them and the realization of the divine life paid heed to the significant words of the ,lord which made a child the symbol of that life4 ,in practical dealing with the evils of the world the early church never lost sight of children4 ,orphans1 especially the orphans of martyrs1 were a sacred charge1 and when monasteries arose and became1 at least in the ,west1 centres of civilization1 they were refuges for foundlings as well as schools for the young4 ,it is one of the distinct signs of the higher life which ,christianity was slowly bringing into the world that the church adopted and protected children as children1 for their own sakes4 ,foundlings had before been nurtured for the sake of profit1 and we can easily do poor human nature the justice to believe in instances where pity and love had their honest sway2 but it certainly was left to the church to incorporate in its very constitution that care of helpless childhood which springs from a profound sense of the dignity of life1 and a growing conviction of the rights which pertain to personality4 ,for the history of ,christianity is in the development of personality1 and childhood has1 from the beginning1 come under the influence of a power which has been at work lifting the world into a recognition of its relation to ,god4 ,it was impossible that the few significant words spoken by ,christ should be forgotten2 nevertheless1 they do not seem to have impressed themselves upon the consciousness of men4 ,at least it may be said that in the growth of ,latin ,christianity they do not come forward specifically as furnishing the ground and reason for a regard for childhood4 ,the work to be done by the ,latin church was largely one of organizing human society under an anthropomorphic conception of ,god4 ,it gave a certain fixed objectivity to ,god1 placed him at a distance from the world1 and made the approach to him to be by a succession of intermediary agents4 ,nevertheless1 the hierarchy which resulted rested upon ethical foundations4 ,the whole grand scheme did1 in effect1 rivet and fix the sense of personal responsibility and personal integrity4 ,it made each man and woman aware of his and her relation to law in the person of its ministers1 and this law was a law which reached to the thoughts of the heart4 ,the system1 as such1 had little to do with childhood4 ,it waited for its close1 but it pushed back its influence over the line of adolescence1 making as early as might be the day when the child should come into conscious relation with the church4 ,through the family1 however1 it powerfully affected the condition of childhood1 for by its laws and its ritual it was giving religious sanction to the family1 even while it was gradually divorcing itself from humanity under plea of a sanctity which was more than human4 ,its conception of a religious devotedness which was too good for this world1 whereby contempt of the body was put in place of redemption of the body1 and celibacy made more honorable than marriage1 undermined its hold upon the world1 which it sought to govern and to furnish with ideals4 ,inasmuch as this great system dealt with persons in relations which could be exactly defined and formulated1 it would be idle to seek in the literature which reflects it for any considerable representation of that period of human life in which the forms are as yet undetermined4 ,nevertheless1 childhood exercises even here its subtle power of recalling men to elemental truths4 ,dante was the prophet of a spiritual ,rome1 which he saw in his vision outlined against the background of the existing hierarchy4 ,it would be in vain to search through the ,divine ,comedy for many references to childhood4 ,as he says himself in the ,inferno1-- 8,for this is not a sportive enterprise ,to speak the universe's lowest hold1 ,nor suits a tongue that ,pa and ,mammy cries40#bg ,and the only picture of childhood in that vision is the melancholy one of the horrid sufferings of ,count ,ugolino and his children in the ,tower of ,hunger4 ,in the ,paradiso there are two passages of interest4 ,near the close of the twenty-seventh canto1 ,beatrice1 breaking forth into a rapt utterance of the divine all in all1 suddenly checks herself as she remembers how the curse of covetousness shuts men out from entrance into the full circle of divine movement1 and then1 with a swift and melancholy survey of the changes in human life1 cries bitterly3-- 8,faith1 ,art1 and ,innocence are found alone ,with little children2 then they scatter fast ,before the down across the cheek have grown4 ,there is that lispeth1 and doth learn to fast1 ,who afterward1 with tongue untied from ,may ,to ,april1 down his throat all meats will cast4 ,there is that1 lisping1 loveth to obey ,his mother1 and he'll wish her in the tomb1 ,when sentences unbroken he can say40 ,again1 in the thirty-second canto1 ,s4 ,bernard is pointing out the circles of the ,rose1 and after denoting the degrees of saints before ,christ and after1 proceeds3-- 8,and from the seats1 in midway rank1 that knit ,these double files1 and downwards1 thou wilt find ,that none do for their own deserving sit1 ,but for another's under terms assigned2 ,for every one of these hath been set free ,ere truly self-determined was the mind4 ,this by the childish features wilt thou see1 ,if well thou scan them1 and if well thou list ,wilt hear it by the childlike symphony40 ,dante is perplexed by the difference even in these innocent babes1 but ,s4 ,bernard reminds him that there is difference in endowment1 but that all are subject to the divine all-embracing law3-- 8,and therefore these1 who took such hasty flight1 ,into the true life not without a cause ,are entered so1 these more1 and those less1 bright10-- an interpretation of the vision which is really less scholastic than suggested by the deeper insight of the poetic mind4 ,the most significant passage1 however1 is found in the famous words at the beginning of the ,vita ,nuova1 which fix ,dante's first sight of ,beatrice when he was nine years old4 8,and since10 he closes1 8to dwell upon the passions and actions of such early youth seems like telling an idle tale1 ,i will leave them1 and1 passing over many things which might be drawn from the original where these lie hidden1 ,i will come to those words which are written in my memory under larger paragraphs40#bh ,in these last words is apparent ,dante's own judgment upon the worth of his recollections of childhood3 one page only in that book of his memory he deems worthy of regard1--the page upon which fell the image of ,beatrice4 ,it will be said with truth that the childhood of ,dante and ,beatrice is in reality the beginning of maturity1 for it is counted only as the initiation of a noble passion4 ,the time1 indeed1 had not yet come in the history of human life when the recollection of that which is most distinctive of childhood forms the basis of speculation and philosophic dream4 ,the absence of childhood from the visions of ,dante is a negative witness to the absence from the world1 in the age prior to the ,renaissance1 of hope and of simple faith and innocence4 ,dante's faint recognition of these qualities throws them back into a quickly forgotten and outgrown childhood4 ,the lisping child becomes the greedy worldling1 the cruel and unloving man1 and the tyranny of an empire of souls is hinted at in the justification by the poet of the presence of innocent babes in ,paradise2 they are there by the interposition of a sacrificial act4 ,the poet argues to still the doubts of men at finding these children in ,paradise4 ,it would almost seem as if the words had been forgotten which characterized heaven through the very image of childhood4 ,indeed1 it is not to be wondered at that childhood was little regarded by an age which found its chief interest in a thought of death4 8,even the gay and licentious ,boccaccio10 we are reminded by ,mr4 ,pater1 8gives a keener edge to his stories by putting them in the mouths of a party of people who had taken refuge from the plague in a country house40#bi ,the great ,florentine work was executed under this dominant thought2 nevertheless1 an art which is largely concerned about tombs and sepulchral monuments implies an overweening pride in life and a weightier sense of the years of earth4 ,the theology which had furnished the panoply within which the human soul was fighting its battle emphasized the idea of time1 and made eternity itself a prolongation of human conditions4 ,the imagination1 at work upon a future1 constructed it out of the hard materials of the present1 and was always looking for some substantial bridge which should connect the two worlds2 seeing decay and change here1 it transferred empires and powers to the other side of the gulf1 and sought to rerect them upon an everlasting basis4 ,such thought had little in common with the hope1 the fearlessness1 the faith1 of childhood1 and thus childhood as an image had largely faded out of art and literature4 ,one only great exception there was1--the representation in art of the child ,jesus2 and in the successive phases of this representation may be read a remarkable history of the human soul4 ,v ,,in ,,medi,,val ,,art ,the power of ,christianity lies in its prophecy of universality1 and the most significant note of this power is in its comprehension of the poor and the weak1 not merely as the objects of a benediction proceeding from some external society1 but as themselves constituent members of that society1 sharing in all its rights and fulfilling its functions4 ,when the last great prophet of ,israel and forerunner of ,judaic ,christianity sent to inquire what evidence ,jesus of ,nazareth could give that he was the ,christ1 the answer which came back had the conclusive words1 8,to the poor the gospel is preached40 ,the same ,jesus1 when he would give his immediate followers the completest type of the kingdom which was to prevail throughout the world1 took a child1 and set him in the midst of them4 ,there is no hardly gained position in the development of human society which may not find its genetic idea in some word or act of the ,son of ,man1 and the proem to the great song of an expectant democracy is in the brief hour of the first ,christian society1 which held all things in common4 ,the sketch of a regenerated human society1 contained in the ,new ,testament1 has been long in filling out1 and the day which the first generation of ,christians thought so near at hand has thus far had only a succession of proleptic appearances2 but from the first the note of the power of ,christianity1 which lies in the recognition of poverty and weakness1 has never been wanting1 and has been most loudly struck in the great epochs of ,christian revival4 ,in the struggle after purity of associated life1 which had its witness in the orders of the church1 poverty was accepted as a necessary condition1 and the constructive genius of the human mind1 dealing with the realities of ,christian faith1 rose to its highest point in presenting1 not the maturity1 but the infancy of ,jesus ,christ4 ,each age offers its contribution to the perfection of the ,christian ideal1 and while1 in the centuries lying on either side of the ,renaissance1 the church as an ecclesiastical system was enforcing the dogma of mediatorial sacrifice as something outside of humanity1 the spirit of ,god1 in the person of great painters1 was drawing the thoughts of men to the redemption of the world1 which lies in the most sacred of human relations4 ,the great efflorescence of art1 which we recognize as the gift of these centuries1 has left as its most distinctive memorial the type of ,christianity expressed in the ,madonna4 ,i ,in the ,holy ,family the child is the essential figure4 ,in the earliest examples of the mother and child1 both ,mary and ,jesus are conceived as symbols of religious faith1 and the attitude of the child is unchildlike1 being that of a dispenser of blessings with uplifted hand4 ,the group is not distinctly of the mother and child1 but of the ,virgin and the ,saviour1 the ,saviour being represented as a child in order to indicate the ground of the adoration paid to the ,virgin4 ,they stand before one as possessed of cordinate dignity4 ,it is a curious and suggestive fact that the ,byzantine type of the ,madonna1 which rarely departed much from this symbolic treatment1 has continued to be the preference of those whose conceptions of the religious life are most closely identified with a remote sacramentarianism4 ,the ,italian lemonade-seller has a ,byzantine ,madonna in his booth3 the ,belgian churches abound in so-called sacred pictures3 the ,russian merchant salutes an icon of the same type2 and the ritualistic enthusiast of the ,anglican revival modifies his sthetic views by his religious sympathy1 and stops short in his admiration with ,cimabue and ,giotto4 ,in the development of the ,madonna from its first form as a rigid symbol to its latest as a realistic representation of motherhood1 we are aware of a change in the minds of the people who worship before the altars where the pictures are placed1 and in the minds of the painters who produce the almost endless variations on this theme4 ,the worshipper1 dispossessed of a belief in the fatherhood of ,god1 came to take refuge in the motherhood of ,mary4 ,formally taught the wrath of ,god1 he found in the familiar relation of mother and child the most complete type vouchsafed to him of that love which the church by many informal ways bade him believe lay somewhere in the divine life4 ,be this as it may1 the treatment of the subject in a domestic and historical form followed the treatment in a religious and ecclesiological mode4 ,in the earlier representations of the ,madonna there was a twofold thought exhibited4 ,the mother was the queen of heaven1 and she derived her dignity from the child on her knee4 ,hence she is sometimes shown adoring the child1 and the child looks up into the mother's face with his finger on his lip1 expressive of the utterance1 ,i am the ,word4 ,this adoration of the child by the mother was1 however1 but a transient phase3 the increasing worship paid to the ,virgin forbade that she should be so subordinated2 and in the gradual expansion of the theme1 by which saints and martyrs and angels were grouped in attendant ministry1 more and more importance was attached to the person of the ,virgin4 ,the child looks up in wonder and affectionate admiration4 ,he caresses her1 and offers her a child's love mingled with a divine being's calm self-content4 ,for throughout the whole period of the religious presentation of the ,madonna1 even when the ,madonna herself is conspicuously the occasion of the picture1 we may observe the influence of the child1--an influence sometimes subtle1 sometimes open and manifest4 ,it is not enough to say that this child is ,jesus1 as it is not enough to say that the mother is the ,virgin ,mary4 ,the divine child is the sign of an ever-present childhood in humanity2 the divine mother the sign of a love which the religion of ,christianity never wholly forgot4 ,the common imagination was perpetually seeking to relieve ,mary and ,jesus of all attributes which interfered with the central and inhering relation of mother and child3 through this type of love the mind apprehended the gospel of ,christianity as in no other way4 ,indeed1 this apotheosis of childhood and maternity is at the core of the religion of hope which was inclosed in the husk of medival ,christianity1 and it was made the theme of many variations4 ,before it had ceased to be a symbol of worship1 it was offering a nucleus for the expression of a more varied human hope and interest4 ,the ,holy ,family in the hands of painters and sculptors1 and the humbler class of designers which sprang into notice with the introduction of printing and engraving1 becomes more and more emblematic of a pure and happy domestic group4 ,joseph is more frequently introduced1 and ,john ,baptist appears as a playmate of the child ,jesus2 sometimes they are seen walking in companionship4 ,certain incidents in later life are symbolically prefigured in the realistic treatment of homely scenes1 as in the ,madonna by ,giulio ,romano1 where the child stands in a basin1 while the young ,s4 ,john pours water upon him1 ,mary washes him1 ,s4 ,elizabeth stands by holding a towel1 and ,s4 ,joseph watches the scene1--an evident prefigurement of the baptism in the ,jordan4 ,or again1 ,mary1 seated1 holds the infant ,christ between her knees2 ,elizabeth leans over the back of the chair2 ,joseph rests on his staff behind the ,virgin2 the little ,s4 ,john and an angel present grapes1 while four other angels are gathering and bringing them4 ,by such a scene ,ippolito ,andreasi would remind people that ,jesus is the true vine4 ,,ii ,the recognition of childhood as the heart of the family is discoverable even more emphatically in the art of the northern people1 among whom domestic life always had greater respect4 ,it may seem a trivial reason1 but ,i suspect nature holds the family more closely together in cold countries1 which compel much indoor and fireside life1 than in lands which tempt to vagrancy4 ,at any rate1 the fact remains that the ,germanic peoples have been home-cultivating4 ,it did not need the ,roman ,tacitus to find this out1 but his testimony helps us to believe that the disposition was a radical one1 which ,christianity reinforced rather than implanted4 ,lord ,lindsay makes the pregnant observation1 8,our ,saviour's benediction of the little children as a subject is from first to last ,teutonic1--,i scarcely recollect a single ,italian instance of it20#cj and in the revival of religious art1 at which ,overbeck and ,cornelius assisted1 this and similar subjects1 by their frequency1 mark a differentiation from art south of the ,alps1 whose traditions1 nevertheless1 the ,german school was consciously following4 ,although of a period subsequent to the ,renaissance1 an excellent illustration of the religious representation of the childhood of ,jesus in northern art is contained in a series of twelve prints executed in the ,netherlands1 and described in detail by ,mrs4 ,jameson4#ca ,the series is entitled ,the ,infancy of our ,lord ,god and ,saviour ,jesus ,christ1 and the title-page is surrounded by a border composed of musical instruments1 spinning-wheels1 distaffs1 and other implements of female industry1 intermixed with all kinds of masons' and carpenters' tools4 ,in the first of the prints1 the figure of ,christ is seen in a glory1 surrounded by cherubim4 ,in the second1 the ,virgin is seated on the hill of ,sion2 the infant in her lap1 with outspread arms1 looks up to a choir of angels1 and is singing with them4 ,in the third1 ,jesus slumbering in his cradle is rocked by two angels1 while ,mary sits by1 engaged in needlework4 ,beneath is a lullaby in ,latin which has been translated3-- 8,sleep1 sweet babe6 my cares beguiling1 ,mother sits beside thee1 smiling1 ,sleep my darling1 tenderly6 ,if thou sleep not1 mother mourneth ,singing as her wheel she turneth1 ,come soft slumber1 balmily60 ,the fourth shows the interior of a carpenter's shop3 ,joseph is plying his work1 while ,joachim stands near him2 the ,virgin is measuring linen1 and ,s4 ,anna looks on2 two angels are at play with the infant ,christ1 who is blowing soap-bubbles4 ,in the fifth picture1 ,mary prepares the family meal1 while ,joseph is in the background chopping wood2 more in front1 ,jesus sweeps together the chips1 and two angels gather them4 ,in the sixth1 ,mary is seen reeling off a skein of thread2 ,joseph is squaring a plank2 ,jesus is picking up chips1 again assisted by two angels4 ,the seventh shows ,mary seated at her spinning-wheel2 ,joseph1 aided by ,jesus1 is sawing through a large beam1 the two angels standing by4 ,the eighth is somewhat similar3 ,mary holds her distaff1 while ,joseph saws a beam on which ,jesus stands1 and the two angels help in the work4 ,in the ninth print1 ,joseph is busy building the framework of a house1 assisted by one of the angels2 ,jesus is boring with a large gimlet1 the other angel helping him2 and ,mary winds thread4 ,in the next1 ,joseph is at work roofing the house2 ,jesus1 in company with the angels1 carries a beam up the ladder2 while below1 in front1 ,mary is carding wool or flax4 ,the eleventh transfers the work1 with an apparent adaptation to ,holland1 to the building of a boat1 where ,joseph is helped by ,jesus1 who holds a hammer and chisel1 still attended by the angels2 the ,virgin is knitting a stocking1 and the newly built house is seen in the background4 ,in the last of the series1 ,joseph is erecting a fence round a garden2 ,jesus1 with the help of the angels1 is fastening the palings together2 while ,mary is weaving garlands of roses4 ,here is a reproduction of the childhood of the ,saviour in the terms of a homely ,netherland family life1 the naturalistic treatment diversified by the use of angelic machinery4 ,the prints were a part of the apparatus used by the priests in educating the people4 ,however such instruction may have fallen short of the highest truths of ,christianity1 its recognition of the simple duties of life and its enforcement of these by the example of the ,son of ,man make us slow to regard such interposition of the church as remote from the spirit of ,christ4 ,if1 as is quite possible1 these prints were employed by the ,jesuits1 then their significance becomes doubly noticeable4 ,in that vigorous attempt by ,loyola and his order to maintain an organic ,christian unity against the apparent disruption of ,christianity1 such a mode as this would find a place as serving to emphasize that connection between the church and the family which the ,jesuits instinctively felt to be essential to the supremacy of the former4 ,,iii ,whatever light the treatment of the ,madonna subject may throw upon the ages in which it is uppermost in men's thoughts1 the common judgment is sound which looks for the most significance in the works of ,raphael4 ,even those who turn severely away from him1 and seek for purer art in his predecessors1 must needs use his name as one of epochal consequence4 ,so many forces of the age meet in ,raphael1 who was peculiarly open to influences1 that no other painter can so well be chosen as an exponent of the idea of the time2 and as one passes in review the successive ,madonnas1 one may not only detect the influence of ,perugino1 of ,leonardo1 of ,michelangelo1 and other masters1 but may see the ripening of a mind1 upon which fell the spirit of the age1 busy with other things than painting4 ,of the early ,madonnas of ,raphael1 it is noticeable how many present the ,virgin engaged in reading a book1 while the child is occupied in other ways1 sometimes even seeking to interrupt the mother and disengage her attention4 ,thus in one in the ,berlin museum1 which is formal1 though unaffected1 ,mary reads a book1 while the child plays with a goldfinch2 in the ,madonna in the ,casa ,connestabile1 at ,perugia1 the child plays with the leaves of the book2 in the ,madonna del ,cardellino1 the little ,s4 ,john presents a goldfinch to ,jesus1 and the mother looks away from her book to observe the children2 in that at ,berlin1 which is from the ,casa ,colonna1 the child is held on the mother's knee in a somewhat struggling attitude1 and has his left hand upon the top of her dress1 near her neck1 his right upon her shoulder1 while the mother1 with a look of maternal tenderness1 holds the book aside4 ,in the middle period of ,raphael's work this motive appears once at least in the ,st4 ,petersburg ,madonna1 which is a quiet landscape-scene1 where the child is in the ,madonna's lap3 she holds a book1 which she has just been reading2 the little ,s4 ,john kneels before his divine companion with infantine grace1 and offers him a cross1 which he receives with a look of tender love2 the ,madonna's eyes are directed to the prophetic play of the children with a deep1 earnest expression4 ,the use of the book is presumably to denote the ,madonna's piety2 and in the earlier pictures she is not only the object of adoration to the worshipper1 who sees her in her earthly form1 yet endowed with sinless grace1 but the object also of interest to the child1 who sees in her the mother4 ,this reciprocal relation of mother and child is sometimes expressed with great force1 as in the ,madonna della ,casa ,tempi1 in the ,pinacothek at ,munich1 where the ,virgin1 who is standing1 tenderly presses the child's head against her face1 while he appears to whisper words of endearment4 ,in these and other of the earlier ,madonnas of ,raphael1 there is an enthusiasm1 and a dreamy sentiment which seems to seek expression chiefly through the representation of holy womanhood1 the child being a part of the interpretation of the mother4 ,the mystic solemnity of the subject is relieved by a lightness of touch1 which was the irrepressible assertion of a strong human feeling4 ,later1 in what is called his middle period1 a cheerfulness and happy contemplation of life pervade ,raphael's work1 as in the ,bridgewater ,madonna1 where the child1 stretched in the mother's lap1 looks up with a graceful and lively action1 and fixes his eyes upon her in deep thought1 while she looks back with maternal1 reverent joy4 ,the ,madonna of the ,chair illustrates the same general sentiment1 where the mother appears as a beautiful and blooming woman1 looking out of the picture in the tranquil enjoyment of motherly love2 the child1 full and strong in form1 leans upon her bosom in a child's careless attitude1 the picture of trust and content4 ,the works of ,raphael's third period1 and those executed by his pupils in a spirit and with a touch which leave them sometimes hardly distinguishable from the master's1 show a profounder penetration of life1 and at the same time a firmer1 more reasonable apprehension of the divinity which lies inclosed in the subject4 ,mary is now something more than a young man's dream of virginal purity and maternal tenderness1--she is also the blessed among women2 the infant ,christ is not only the innocent1 playful child1 but the prophetic soul1 conscious of his divinity and his destiny4 ,these characteristics pervade both the treatment which regards them as historic personages and that which invests them with adorable attributes as having their throne in heaven4 ,the ,holy ,family is interpreted in a large1 serious1 and dignified manner1 and in the exalted1 worshipped ,madonna there is a like vision of things eternal seen through the human form4 ,to illustrate this an example may be taken of each class4 ,the ,madonna del ,passegio1 in the ,bridgewater gallery1 is a well-known composition1 which represents the ,madonna and child walking through a field2 ,joseph is in advance1 and has turned to look for the others4 ,they have been stopped by the infant ,s4 ,john ,baptist1 clad in a rough skin1 who presses eagerly forward to kiss ,jesus4 ,the mother places a restraining hand upon the shoulders of ,s4 ,john1 and half withdraws the child ,jesus from his embrace4 ,a classic grace marks ,jesus1 who looks steadfastly into the eyes of the impassioned ,john4 ,the three figures in the principal group are conceived in a noble manner3 ,s4 ,john1 prophesying in his face the discovery of the ,lamb of ,god2 ,mary1 looking down with a sweet gravity which marks the holy children1 and would separate ,jesus as something more than human from too close fellowship with ,john2 ,jesus himself1 a picture of glorious childhood1 with a far-reaching look in his eye1 as he gently thrusts back the mother with one hand1 and with the other lays hold of the cross which ,john bears4 ,on the other hand1 an example of the treatment of the adorable ,madonna is that of ,san ,sisto1 in the ,dresden gallery4 ,it is not necessary to dwell on the details of a picture which rises at once to every one's mind4 ,the circumstance of innumerable angels' heads1 of the attendant ,s4 ,sixtus and ,s4 ,barbara1 the sweep of cloud and drapery1 the suggestion of depths below and of heights above1 of heaven itself listening at the ,madonna's feet1--all these translate the mother and babe with ineffable sweetness and dignity into a heavenly place1 and make them the centre of the spiritual universe4 ,yet in all this ,raphael has rested his art in no elaborate use of celestial machinery4 ,he has taken the simple1 elemental relation1 and invested it with its eternal properties4 ,he gives not a supernatural and transcendent mother and child1 but a glorified humanity4 ,therefore it is that this picture1 and with it the other great ,madonnas of ,raphael1 may be taken entirely away from altar and sanctuary1 and placed in the shrine of the household4 ,the universality of the appeal is seen in the unhesitating adoption of the ,sistine ,madonna as an expression of religious art by those who are even antagonistic to the church which called it forth4 ,,iv ,the concentration of ,raphael's genius to so large an extent upon the subject of the ,madonna was not a mere accident of the time1 nor1 when classic forms were renewing their power1 was it a solecism4 ,the spirit of the ,renaissance entered profoundly into ,raphael's work1 and determined powerfully the direction which it took4 ,when he was engaged upon purely classic themes1 it is interesting to see how frequently he turned to the forms of children4 ,his decorative work is rich with the suggestion which they bring4 ,one may observe the graceful figures issuing from the midst of flower and leaf2 above all1 one may note how repeatedly he presents the myth of ,amor1 and recurs to the ,amorini1 types of childhood under a purely naturalistic conception4 ,the child ,jesus and the child ,amor appear side by side in the creations of ,raphael's genius4 ,in the great ,renaissance1 of which he was so consummate an exponent1 the ancient classic world and the ,christian met in these two types of childhood3 the one a childhood of the air1 unmixed with good or evil2 the other a childhood of heaven and earth1 proleptic of earthly conflict1 proleptic also of heavenly triumph4 ,the coincidence is not of chance4 ,the new world into which men were looking was not1 as some thought1 to be in the submersion of ,christianity and a return to ,paganism1 nor1 as others1 in a stern asceticism1 which should render ,christianity an exclusive church1 standing aloof from the world as from a thing wholly evil4 ,there was to be room for truth and love to dwell together1 and the symbol of this union was the child4 ,raphael's ,christ child drew into its features a classic loveliness2 his ,amor took on a ,christ-like purity and truthfulness4 ,leslie1 in his ,handbook for ,young ,painters1 makes a very sensible reflection upon ,raphael's children1 as distinguished from the unchildlike children of ,francia1 for example4 8,a fault of many painters10 he says1 8in their representations of childhood is1 that they make it taking an interest in what can only concern more advanced periods of life4 ,but ,raphael's children1 unless the subject requires it should be otherwise1 are as we see them generally in nature1 wholly unconcerned with the incidents that occupy the attention of their elders4 ,thus the boy1 in the cartoon of the ,beautiful ,gate1 pulls the girdle of his grandfather1 who is entirely absorbed in what ,s4 ,peter is saying to the cripple4 ,the child1 impatient of delay1 wants the old man to move on4 ,in the ,sacrifice at ,lystra1 also1 the two beautiful boys placed at the altar1 to officiate at the ceremony1 are too young to comprehend the meaning of what is going on about them4 ,one is engrossed with the pipes on which he is playing1 and the attention of the other is attracted by a ram brought for sacrifice4 ,the quiet simplicity of these sweet children has an indescribably charming effect in this picture1 where every other figure is under the influence of an excitement they alone do not partake in4 ,children1 in the works of inferior painters1 are often nothing else than little actors2 but what ,i have noticed of ,raphael's children is true1 in many instances1 of the children in the pictures of ,rembrandt1 ,jan ,steen1 ,hogarth1 and other great painters1 who1 like ,raphael1 looked to nature for their incidents40 ,there was one artist of this time who looked to nature not merely for the incidents of childhood1 but for the soul of childhood itself4 ,it is impossible to regard the work of ,luca della ,robbia1 especially in that ware which receives his name1 without perceiving that here was a man who saw children and rejoiced in their young lives with a simple1 ingenuous delight4 ,the very spirit which led this artist to seek for expression in homely forms of material1 to domesticate art1 as it were1 was one which would make him quick to seize upon1 not the incidents alone1 but the graces1 of childhood4 ,nor is it straining a point to say that the purity of his color was one with the purity of this sympathy with childhood4 ,the ,renaissance as a witness to a new occupation of the world by humanity finds its finest expression in the hope which springs in the lovely figures of ,luca della ,robbia4 ,it is significant of this ,renaissance--it is significant1 ,i think we shall find1 of every great new birth in the world--that it turns its face toward childhood1 and looks into that image for the profoundest realization of its hopes and dreams4 ,in the attitude of men toward childhood we may discover the near or far realization of that supreme hope and confidence with which the great head of the human family saw1 in the vision of a child1 the new heaven and the new earth4 ,it was when his disciples were reasoning among themselves which of them should be the greatest that ,jesus took a child1 and set him by him1 and said unto them1 8,whosoever shall receive this child in my name receiveth me40 ,the reception of the ,christ by men1 from that day to this1 has been marked by successive throes of humanity1 and in each great movement there has been a new apprehension of childhood1 a new recognition of the meaning involved in the pregnant words of the ,saviour4 ,such a recognition lies in the children of ,raphael and of ,luca della ,robbia4 ,there may have been no express intimation on their part of the connection between their works and the great prophecy1 but it is often for later generations to read more clearly the presence of a thought by means of light thrown back upon it4 ,the course of ,christianity since the ,renaissance supplies such a light4 ,,vi ,,in ,,english ,,literature ,,and ,,art ,i ,to hunt through ,english literature and art for representations of childhood would seem to be like looking for the persons of children in any place where people congregate4 ,how could there be any conspicuous absence1 except under conditions which necessarily exclude the very young8 ,yet it is impossible to follow the stream of ,english literature1 with this pursuit in mind1 without becoming aware that at one point in its course there is a marked access of this force of childhood4 ,there is1 to be sure1 a fallacy lurking in the customary study of the development of literature4 ,we fall into the way of thinking of that literature as an organism proceeding from simpler to more complex forms2 we are attent upon the transition of one epoch into another2 we come to regard each period as essentially anticipatory of the succeeding period4 ,we make the same mistake often in our regard of historical sequence1 looking at all past periods simply and exclusively with reference to the present stand from which we take our observations4 ,a too keen sensibility to the logic which requires time for its conclusion1 a too feeble sense of the logic which dwells in the relation between the seen and the unseen1--these stand in the way of a clear perception of the forces immanent in literature and life4 ,the distinction is worth bearing in mind when one surveys ,english literature with the purpose of recognizing the child in it4 ,there are certain elemental facts and truths of which old and new cannot be predicated4 ,the vision of helpless childhood is no modern discovery2 it is no ancient revelation4 ,the child at play was seen by ,homer and by ,cowper1 and the latter did not derive his apprehension from any study of the former4 ,the humanism which underlies all literature is independent of circumstances for its perception of the great moving forces of life2 it is independent of the great changes in human history2 even so great a change as the advent of ,christianity could not interfere with the normal expression of elemental facts in life4 ,wherein1 then1 lies the difference between an antique and a modern apprehension of childhood8 ,for what may one look in a survey of ,english literature that he would not find in ,greek or ,roman authors8 ,is there any development of human thought in relation to childhood to be traced in a literature which has reflected the mind of the centuries since the ,renaissance8 ,the most aggressive type of modern ,christianity1 at any rate the most free type1 is to be found amongst ,english-speaking people2 and if ,christianity has in any way modified the course of thought regarding the child1 the effect will certainly be seen in ,english literature and art4 99 99 99 99 99 ,a recollection of ballad literature1 without critical inquiry of the comparative age of the writings1 brings to light the familiar and frequent incident of cruelty to children in some form3 of the secret putting away of babes1 as in the affecting ballad of the ,queen's ,marie2 of the cold and heartless murder1 as in the ,cruel ,mother1 and in the tragic tale of ,the ,child's ,last ,will1 where a sudden dramatic and revealing turn is given1 after the child has willed its various possessions1 in the lines1-- 8#8,what wish leav'st thou thy step-mother ,little daughter dear8' #8,of hell the bitter sorrow ,sweet step-mother mine ,for ah1 all6 ,i am so ill1 ah6' 8#8,what wish leav'st thou thy old nurse ,little daughter dear8' #8,for her ,i wish the same pangs ,sweet step-mother mine ,for ah1 ah6 ,i am so ill1 ah6'0 ,that grewsome story of ,lamkin1 with its dripping of blood in almost every stanza1 gets half its curdling power from the slow torture of the sensibilities1 as the babe is slain and then rocked in its cradle1 and the mother1 summoned by its cries1 meets her own fate at the hands of the treacherous nurse and ,lamkin1 whose name is a piece of bald irony3-- 8,then ,lamkin's ta'en a sharp knife ,that hang down by his gaire1 ,and he has gi'en the bonny babe ,a deep wound and a sair4 8,then ,lamkin he rocked1 ,and the fause nourice sang ,till frae ilkae bore o' the cradle ,the red blood out sprang4 8,then out it spak the ladie ,as she stood on the stair1 #8,what ails my bairn1 nourice1 ,that he's greeting sae sair8 8#8,o still my bairn1 nourice ,o still him wi' the pap6' #8,he winna still1 lady1 ,for this nor for that4' 8#8,o still my bairn1 nourice2 ,o still him wi' the wand6' #8,he winna still1 lady1 ,for a' his father's land4' 8#8,o still my bairn1 nourice1 ,oh still him wi' the bell6' #8,he winna still1 lady1 ,till ye come down yoursel4' 8,o the firsten step she steppit1 ,she steppit on a stane2 ,but the neisten step she steppit1 ,she met him1 ,lamkin40 ,another early and significant illustration is found in the popular story of ,hugh of ,lincoln2 but instead of turning to the ballad of that name1 one may better have recourse to ,chaucer's version as contained in the ,canterbury tale of the ,prioress4 ,in the prologue to this tale appear the words of ,scripture1 8,out of the mouths of babes and sucklings10 in a paraphrase1 and the ,prioress turns to the ,virgin1 beseeching her to give words for the telling of the piteous tale4 ,the story of ,hugh of ,lincoln--that in the reign of ,henry ,,iii41 the ,jews of ,lincoln stole a boy of eight years1 named ,hugh1 tortured and crucified him--was received with great credit1 for it concentrated the venomous enmity with which ,christians regarded the ,jews1 and by a refinement of cruelty pictured the ,jews in a solitary instance as behaving in a ,christian-like manner4 ,chaucer tells the story with exquisite pathos1 lingering upon the childish ways of ,hugh1 and preparing the tears of his readers by picturing the little boy as a miniature saint4 ,it can scarcely be called a picture of artless childhood2 for though touches here and there bring out the prattler1 ,chaucer appears to have meant that his readers should be especially impressed by the piety of this 8litel clergeoun10 or chorister boy3-- 8,a litel clergeoun1 seven yeer of age1 ,that day by day to scole was his wone2 ,and eek also1 whereas he saugh thymage ,of ,cristes mooder1 he hadde in usage1 ,as hym was taught1 to knele adoun and seye ,his ,ave ,marie1 as he goth by the weye40 ,and so we are told of the little fellow eager to learn the ,alma ,redemptoris of his elders1 and conning it as he went to and from school1 his way leading through the ,jews' quarter3-- 8,as ,i have seyd1 thurgh-out the ,jewerie ,this litel child1 as he cam to and fro1 ,ful murily wolde he synge and crie ,o ,alma redemptoris evere-mo ,the swetnesse hath his herte perced so ,of ,cristes mooder1 that to hire to preye ,he kan nat stynte of syngyng by the weye40 ,the wicked ,jews1 vexed by his singing1 kill him1 and cast his body into a pit4 ,his weeping mother seeks him1 and1 happening by the pit1 is made aware of his presence by the miracle of his dead lips still singing the ,alma ,redemptoris4 ,in two other stories has ,chaucer dwelt upon the pathos of childhood and bereft or suffering motherhood4 ,in the ,man of ,law's tale of ,custance1 there is a touching passage where ,custance and her babe are driven away from the kingdom1 and exposed to the sea in the ship which had brought them4 ,the mother kneels upon the sand before embarking1 and puts her trust in the ,lord4 8,her litel child lay wepying in hir arm1 ,and knelynge1 pitously to hym she seyde1 #8,pees litel sone1 ,i wol do thee noon harm6' ,with that hir kerchief of hir heed she breyde1 ,and over hise litel eyen she it leyde1 ,and in hir arm she lulleth it ful faste ,and in-to hevene hire eyen up she caste40 ,then she commits herself and her child to ,mary by the love of ,mary's child4 8,and up she rist1 and walketh doun the stronde ,toward the ship1--hir folweth al the prees1-- ,and evere she preyeth hire child to hold his pees40 ,again1 in the ,clerk's tale of ,patient ,griselda1 the effect of the story is greatly heightened by the narrative of the successive partings of the mother with her child2 and the climax is reached in the burst of gladness and pent-up feeling which overtakes ,griselda at the restoration of her son and daughter4 ,it is noticeable that in these and other instances childhood appears chiefly as an appeal to pity1 rarely as an object of direct love and joy4 ,this is not to be wondered at when one considers the character of the ,english race1 and the nature of the redemption which it has been undergoing in the slow process of its submission to the spirit of ,christ4 ,we say the ,english race1 without stopping to make nice distinctions between the elements which existed at the time of the ,great ,charter1 just as we may properly speak of the ,american people of the time of the ,constitution4 ,this character is marked by a brutality1 a murderous spirit1 which lies scarcely concealed1 to-day1 in the temper of every ,english crowd1 and has left its mark on literature from the ballads to ,oliver ,twist4 ,this brutal instinct1 this rude1 savage1 northern spirit1 is discovered in conflict with the disarming power of the spirit of ,christ1 and the stages of the conflict are most clearly indicated in poetry1 which is to ,england what pictorial and sculpturesque art is to the south1 the highest exponent of its spiritual life4 ,more comprehensively1 ,english literature affords the most complete means of measuring the advance of ,england in humanity4 ,it belongs to the nature of this deep conflict that there should appear from time to time the finest exemplars of the ideals formed by the divine spirit1 side by side with exhibitions of the most willful baseness4 ,english literature abounds in these contrasts2 it is still more expressive of tides of spiritual life1 the elevation of thought and imagination succeeded by almost groveling animalism4 ,and since one of the symbols of a perfected ,christianity is the child1 it is not unfair to seek for its presence in literature1 nor would it be a rare thing to discover it in passages which hint at the conflict between the forces of good and evil so constantly going on4 ,it is not strange1 therefore1 that the earliest illustrations of childhood should mainly turn1 as we have seen1 upon that aspect which is at once most natural and most ,christian4 ,pity1 like a naked1 new-born babe1 does indeed ride the blast in those wild1 more than half-savage bursts of the ,english spirit which are preserved for us in ballad literature2 and in the first springs of ,english poetic art in ,chaucer1 the child is as it were the mediator between the rough story and the melody of the singer4 ,one cannot fail to see how the introduction of the child by ,chaucer1 in close union with the mother1 is almost a transfer of the ,madonna into ,english poetry1--a ,madonna not of ritual1 but of humanity4 99 99 99 99 99 ,there are periods in the history of every nation when the inner life is more completely exposed to view1 and when the student1 if he be observant1 may trace most clearly the fundamental arteries of being4 ,such a period in ,england was the ,elizabethan era1 when the tumultuous ,english spirit manifested itself in religion1 in politics1 in enterprise1 in adventure1 and in intellectual daring1--that era which was dominated by the great master of ,english speech4 ,it is the fashion of every age to write its characteristics in forms which have become obsolete1 and to resort to masquerade for a display of its real emotions4 ,it was because chivalry was no longer the every-day habit of men that ,spenser used it for his purposes1 and translated the ,seven ,champions of ,christendom into a profounder and more impassioned poem1 emblematical of that great ethical conflict which has been a significant feature of ,english history from the first4 ,in that series of knightly adventures1 ,the ,faery ,queen1 wherein the field of human character is traversed1 sin traced to its lurking-place1 and the old dragon of unrighteousness set upon furiously1 there is a conspicuous incident contained in the second book4 ,in each book ,spenser conceives the antagonist of the knight1 in some spiritual form1 to have wrought a mischief which needs to be repaired and revenged4 ,thus a dragon occasions the adventures of the ,red ,cross knight1 and in the legend of ,sir ,guyon the enchantress ,acrasia1 or ,intemperance1 has caused the death of a knight and his lady2 the latter slays herself because of her husband's death1 and plunges her babe's innocent hands into her own bloody breast for a witness4 ,sir ,guyon and the ,palmer1 standing over the dead bodies1 hold grave discourse upon the incident2 then they bury the dead1 and seek in vain to cleanse the babe's hands in a neighboring fountain4 ,the pure water will not be stained1 and the child bears the name ,ruddymane1--the ,red-,handed1--and shall so bear the sign of a vengeance he is yet to execute4 ,it is somewhat difficult to see into the full meaning of ,spenser's allegory1 for the reason that the poet breaks through the meshes of his allegoric net and soars into a freer air2 but there are certain strong lines running through the poem1 and this of the ineradicable nature of sin is one of them4 ,to ,spenser1 vexed with problems of life1 that conception of childhood which knit it closely with the generations was a significant one1 and in the bloody hand of the infant1 which could not be suffered to stain the chaste fountain1 he saw the dread transmission of an inherited guilt and wrong4 ,the poet and the moralist struggle for ascendency1 and in this conflict one may see reflected the passion for speculation in divinity which was already making deep marks in ,english literature4 ,but the ,elizabethan era had its share of light-heartedness4 ,the songs of the dramatists and other lyrics exhibit very clearly the influence upon literature of the revival of ancient learning4 ,as the art of ,italy showed the old poetic grace risen again under new conditions1 so the dominant art of ,england caught a light from the uncovered glory of ,greece and ,rome4 ,it was the time of the great translations of ,phaer1 ,golding1 ,north1 and ,chapman2 and as those translations are bold appropriations of antiquity1 not timid attempts at satisfying the requisitions of scholarship1 so the figures of the old mythology are used freely and ingenuously2 they are naturalized in ,english verse far more positively than afterwards in the elegantia of the ,queen ,anne and ,georgian periods4 ,ben ,jonson's ,venus' ,runaway is an exquisite illustration of this rich1 decorative use of the old fable4 ,it was partly through this sportive appropriation of the myth of ,amor1 so vital in all literature1 that the lullabies of the time came to get their sweetness4 ,the poet1 in putting songs into the mother's mouth1 is not so much reflecting the ,virgin and ,child as he is possessed with the spirit of ,greek beauty1 and his delicate fancy plays about the image of a little ,love4 ,thus may we read the ,golden ,slumbers of ,dekker1 in his ,patient ,grissel4 ,by a pretty conceit ,george ,gascoigne1 in his ,lullaby of a ,lover1 captures the sentiment of a mother and babe1 to make it tell the story of his own love and content4 ,there is a touching song by ,robert ,greene in his ,menaphon1 where ,sephestia puts into her lullaby the story of her parting with the child's father3-- 8,weep not1 my wanton1 smile upon my knee1 ,when thou art old1 there's grief enough for thee4 ,the wanton smiled1 father wept1 ,mother cried1 baby leapt1 ,more thou crowed1 more he cried1 ,nature could not sorrow hide2 ,he must go1 he must kiss ,child and mother1 baby bless2 ,for he left his pretty boy1 ,father's sorrow1 father's joy4 ,weep not1 my wanton1 smile upon my knee1 ,when thou art old1 there's grief enough for thee40 ,we are apt to look for everything in ,shakespeare1 but in this matter of childhood we must confess that there is a meagreness of reference which almost tempts us into constructing a theory to account for it4 ,so far as dramatic representation is concerned1 the necessary limitations of the stage easily account for the absence of the young4 ,girls were not allowed to act in ,shakespeare's time1 and it is not easy to reduce boys capable of acting to the stature of young girls4 ,more than this1 boys and girls are not themselves dramatic in action1 though in the more modern drama they are sometimes used1 especially in domestic scenes1 to heighten effects1 and to make most reasonable people wish them in bed4 ,still1 within the limits enforced by his art1 ,shakespeare more than once rested much on youthful figures4 ,the gay1 agile ,moth has a species of femineity about him1 so that we fancy he would be most easily shown on the stage by a girl2 but one readily recalls others who have distinct boyish properties4 ,in ,coriolanus1 when the mother and wife go out to plead with the angry ,roman1 they take with them his little boy4 ,volumnia1 frantic with fear1 with love1 and with a woman's changing passion1 calls upon one and another to join her in her entreaty4 ,virgilia1 the wife1 crowds in a word at the height of ,volumnia's appeal1 when the voluble grandmother has been rather excitedly talking about ,coriolanus treading on his mother's womb1 that brought him into the world4 ,virgilia strikes in1-- 8,ay1 and mine ,that brought you forth this boy1 to keep your name ,living to time40 ,whereupon young ,marcius1 with delicious boyish brag and chivalry3-- 8,a' shall not tread on me2 ,i'll run away till ,i am bigger1 but then ,i'll fight40 ,in the same play there is a description of the boy which tallies exactly with the single appearance which he makes in person4 ,valeria drops in upon the mother and grandmother in a friendly way1 and civilly asks after the boy4 8,vir4 ,i thank your ladyship2 well1 good madam4 8,vol4 ,he had rather see the swords1 and hear a drum1 than look upon his schoolmaster4 8,val4 ,o' my word1 the father's son3 ,i'll swear1 'tis a very pretty boy4 ,o' my troth1 ,i looked upon him o' ,wednesday half an hour together3 has such a confirmed countenance4 ,i saw him run after a gilded butterfly2 and when he caught it1 he let it go again2 and after it again3 and over and over he comes1 and up again2 catched it again2 or whether his fall enraged him1 or how 'twas1 he did so set his teeth and tear it2 ,o1 ,i warrant1 how he mammocked it6 8,vol4 ,one on 's father's moods4 8,val4 ,indeed1 la1 'tis a noble child4 8,vir4 ,a crack1 madam40 ,the most eminent example in ,shakespeare of active childhood is unquestionably the part played by young ,arthur in the drama of ,king ,john4 ,it is the youth of ,arthur1 his dependence1 his sorry inheritance of misery1 his helplessness among the raging wolves about him1 his childish victory over ,hubert1 and his forlorn death1 when he leaps trembling from the walls1 which impress the imagination4 8,stay yet10 says ,pembroke to ,salisbury1-- 8,i'll go with thee ,and find the inheritance of this poor child1 ,his little kingdom of a forced grave40 ,shakespeare1 busy with the story of kings1 is moved with deep compassion for this child among kings1 who overcomes the hard heart of ,hubert by his innocent words1 the very strength of feeble childhood1 and falls like a poor lamb upon the stones1 where his princedom could not save him4 ,in that ghastly play of ,titus ,andronicus1 which melts at last into unavailing tears1 with what exquisite grace is the closing scene humanized by the passage where the elder ,lucius calls his boy to the side of his dead grandsire3-- 8,come hither1 boy2 come1 come1 and learn of us ,to melt in showers3 thy grandsire loved thee well3 ,many a matter hath he told to thee1 ,meet and agreeing with thine infancy2 ,in that respect1 then1 like a loving child1 ,shed yet some small drops from thy tender spring1 ,because kind nature doth require it so40 ,the relentless spirit of ,lady ,macbeth is in nothing figured more acutely than when the woman and mother is made to say1-- 8,i have given suck1 and know ,how tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me4 ,i would1 while it was smiling in my face1 ,have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums ,and dashed the brains out1 had ,i sworn as you ,have done to this40 ,in the witch's hell-broth one ingredient is 8finger of birth-strangled babe10 while in the portents which rise to ,macbeth's vision a bloody child and a child crowned1 with a tree in his hand1 are apparitions of ghostly prophecy4 ,then in that scene where ,ross discloses slowly and with pent-up passion the murder of ,macduff's wife and children1 and ,macduff hears as in a dream1 waking to the blinding light of horrid day1 with what a piercing shriek he cries out1-- 8,he has no children60 and then surges back to his own pitiful state1 transformed for a moment into an infuriated creature1 all instinct1 from which a hell-kite has stolen his mate and pretty brood4 ,by what marvelous flash of poetic power ,shakespeare in this mighty passage lifts that humblest image of parental care1 a hen and chickens1 into the heights of human passion4 ,ah6 as one sees a hen with a brood of chickens under her1--how she gathers them under her wings1 and will stay in the cold if she can but keep them warm1--one's mind turns to those words of profound pathos spoken over the unloving ,jerusalem2 there was the voice of a nature into which was gathered all the father's and the mother's love4 ,in these two passages one sees the irradiation of poor feathered life with the glory of the image of the highest4 ,how important a part in the drama of ,king ,richard ,,iii4 do the young princes play2 as princes1 indeed1 in the unfolding of the plot1 yet as children in the poet's portraiture of them4 ,we hear their childish prattle1 we see their timid shrinking from the dark ,tower1 and then we have the effect of innocent childhood upon the callous murderers1 ,dighton and ,forrest1 as related in that short1 sharp1 dramatic account which ,tyrrel gives3-- 8,dighton and ,forrest1 whom ,i did suborn ,to do this ruthless piece of butchery1 ,although they were flesh'd villains1 bloody dogs1 ,melting with tenderness and kind compassion ,wept like two children in their deaths' sad stories4 #8,lo1 thus1' quoth ,dighton1 #8lay those tender babes3' #8,thus1 thus1' quoth ,forrest1 #8girdling one another ,within their innocent alabaster arms3 ,their lips were four red roses on a stalk1 ,which in their summer beauty kiss'd each other4 ,a book of prayers on their pillow lay2 ,which once1' quoth ,forrest1 #8almost changed my mind2 ,but ,o6 the devil'--there the villain stopp'd2 ,whilst ,dighton thus told on3 #8,we smothered ,the most replenished sweet work of nature1 ,that from the prime creation e'er she framed4' ,thus both are gone with conscience and remorse2 ,they could not speak40 ,the glances at infancy1 though infrequent1 are touched with strong human feeling4 geon1 narrating the strange adventures of his shipwreck1 tells of the 8,piteous plainings of the pretty babes ,that mourned for fashion1 ignorant what to fear20 and scattered throughout the plays are passages and lines which touch lightly or significantly the realm of childhood3 as1-- 8,pity like a naked1 new-born babe20 8',tis the eye of childhood ,that fears a painted devil10 in ,macbeth2 8,love is like a child ,that longs for every thing that he can come by20 8,how wayward is this foolish love ,that like a testy babe will scratch the nurse1 ,and presently all humble kiss the rod10 in ,two ,gentlemen of ,verona2 8,those that do teach young babes ,do it with gentle means and easy tasks10 says ,desdemona2 and ,cleopatra1 when the poisonous asp is planting its fangs1 says with saddest irony1-- 8,peace6 peace6 ,dost thou not see my baby at my breast ,that sucks the nurse asleep80 ,there is a charming illustration of the blending of the classic myth of ,amor with actual childhood in these lines of ,a ,midsummer-,night's ,dream1 where ,helena says1 8,love looks not with the eyes1 but with the mind2 ,and therefore is winged ,cupid painted blind3 ,nor hath ,love's mind of any judgment taste3 ,wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste3 ,and therefore is ,love said to be a child1 ,because in choice he is so oft beguiled4 ,as waggish boys in games themselves forswear1 ,so the boy ,love is perjured everywhere40 ,in the noonday musing of ,jaques1 when the summer sky hung over the greenwood1 and he fell to thinking of the round world and all that dwell therein1 the ,seven ,ages of ,man passed in procession before him3-- 8,at first the infant ,muling and puking in the nurse's arms4 ,and then the whining school-boy1 with his satchel ,and shining morning face1 creeping like snail ,unwillingly to school10 until the last poor shambling creature is borne off in second childhood4 ,there are doubtless other passages which might be gleaned1 but the survey is full enough to show how scantily1 after all1 ,shakespeare has made use of the figure and the image of childhood4 ,the reflection has led an ingenious writer to explain the fact by the circumstances of ,shakespeare's life1 which hindered his study of children4 8,he was clearly old for his age when still a boy1 and so would have associated1 not with children1 but with young men4 ,his marriage as a mere lad and the scanty legends of his youth all tend in the same direction4 ,the course of his life led him to live apart from his children in their youth2 his busy life in ,london brought him into the interior of but few families2 his son1 of whom he saw but little1 died young4 ,if our supposition be true1 it is a pathetic thought that the great dramatist was shut out from the one kind of companionship which1 even while it is in no degree intellectual1 never palls4 ,a man1 whatever his mental powers1 can take delight in the society of a child1 when a person of intellect far more matured1 but inferior to his own1 would be simply insufferable40#cb ,the explanation is rather ingenious than satisfying4 ,where did ,shakespeare get his knowledge of the abundant life which his dramas present8 ,he had the privilege of most people of remembering his own boyhood1 and the mind which could invent ,hamlet out of such stuff as experience and observation furnished could scarcely have missed acquaintance enough with children to enable him to portray them whenever the exigencies of his drama required4 ,no1 it is simpler to refer the absence of children as actors to the limitations of the stage1 and to ascribe the infrequent references to childhood to the general neglect of the merely domestic side of life in ,shakespeare's art4 ,shakespeare's world was an out-of-doors1 public world1 and his men1 women1 and lovers carried on their lives with no denser concealment than a wood or an arras could afford4 ,the comprehensiveness of ,shakespeare found some place for children2 the lofty narrowness of ,milton1 none4 ,the word child1 even1 can scarcely be found on a page of ,milton's verse4 ,in his ,ode on the ,morning of ,christ's ,nativity1 with its ,hymn1 how slight is the mention of the child ,jesus6 ,how far removed is the treatment from that employed in the great procession of ,madonnas6 8,say1 heavenly ,muse1 shall not thy sacred vein ,afford a present to the ,infant ,god80 ,the ,infant ,god6--that is ,milton's attitude1 more than half pagan4 ,in ,l',allegro and in ,comus the lightness1 which denotes the farthest swing of ,milton's fancy1 is the relief which his poetic soul found from the high themes of theology1 in ,greek art4 ,one is aware that ,milton's fine scholarship was the salvation of his poetry1 as his ,puritan sense of personality held in check a nature which else might have run riot in sportiveness and sensuousness4 ,when he permitted himself his exquisite short flights of fancy1 the material in which he worked was not the fresh spring of ,english nature1 human or earthly1 but the remote ,arcadian virginity which he had learned of in his books4 ,not dancing children1 but winged sprites1 caught his poetic eye4 ,the weight of personal responsibility which rests upon the ,puritan conception of life offers small play for the wantonness and spontaneity of childhood4 ,moreover1 the theological substratum of ,puritan morality denied to childhood any freedom1 and kept the life of man in waiting upon the conscious turning of the soul to ,god4 ,hence childhood was a time of probation and suspense4 ,it was wrong1 to begin with1 and was repressed in its nature until maturity should bring an active and conscious allegiance to ,god4 ,hence1 also1 parental anxiety was forever earnestly seeking to anticipate the maturity of age1 and to secure for childhood that reasonable intellectual belief which it held to be essential to salvation2 there followed often a replacement of free childhood by an abnormal development4 ,in any event1 the tendency of the system was to ignore childhood1 to get rid of it as quickly as possible1 and to make the state contain only self-conscious1 determinate citizens of the kingdom of heaven4 ,there was1 unwittingly1 a reversal of the divine message1 and it was said in effect to children3 ,except ye become as grown men and be converted1 ye cannot enter the kingdom of heaven4 ,nevertheless1 though ,puritanism in its excessive anxiety may have robbed childhood of its freedom1 the whole spirit of the movement was one conservative of family relations1 and the narratives of domestic life under ,puritanic control are often full of a grave sweetness4 ,indeed1 it may almost be said that the domestic narrative was now born into ,english literature4 ,nor could the intense concern for the spiritual well-being of children1 a religious passion reinforcing natural affection1 fail to give an importance to the individual life of the family1 and prepare the way for that new intelligence of the scope of childhood which was to come later to an ,england still largely dominated by ,puritan ideas4 ,milton expressed the high flight of the soul above earthly things4 ,he took his place upon a summit where he could show the soul all the confines of heaven and earth4 ,bunyan1 stirred by like religious impulses1 made his soul trudge sturdily along toward an earthly paradise4 ,the realism of his story often veils successfully the spiritual sense1 and makes it possible for children to read the ,pilgrim's ,progress with but faint conception of its religious import4 ,in the second part of the allegory1 ,christian's wife and children set out on their ramble1 in ,christian's footsteps4 ,there is no lack of individuality in characterization of the persons4 ,the children are distinctly conceived as children2 they are1 to be sure1 made to conform occasionally to the demands of the spiritual side of the allegory1 yet they remain children1 and by their speech and action betray the childish mind4 ,they come in sight of the lions1 and 8the boys that went before were glad to cringe behind1 for they were afraid of the lions1 so they stepped back and went behind40 ,when they come to the ,porter's ,lodge1 they abide there awhile with ,prudence1 ,piety1 and ,charity2 ,prudence catechizes the four children1 who return commendably correct answers4 ,but ,matthew1 the oldest boy1 falls sick of the gripes2 and when the physician asks ,christiana what he has been eating lately1 she is as ignorant as any mother can be4 8,then said ,samuel10 who is as communicative as most younger brothers1 8#8,mother1 mother1 what was that which my brother did gather up and eat1 so soon as we were come from the ,gate that is at the head of this way8 ,you know that there was an orchard on the left hand1 on the other side of the wall1 and some of the trees hung over the wall1 and my brother did plash and did eat4' 8#8,true1 my child1' said ,christiana1 #8he did take thereof and did eat1 naughty boy as he was4 ,i did chide him1 and yet he would eat thereof4'0 ,so ,mr4 ,skill1 the physician1 proceeds to make a purge4 8,you know10 says ,bunyan1 in a sly parenthesis1 8physicians give strange medicines to their patients40 8,and it was made up10 he goes on1 8into pills1 with a promise or two1 and a proportionable quantity of salt4 ,now he was to take them three at a time1 fasting1 in half a quarter of a pint of ,tears of ,repentance4 ,when this ,portion was prepared and brought to the boy1 he was loth to take it1 though torn with the gripes as if he should be pulled in pieces4 #8,come1 come1' said the physician1 #8you must take it4' #8,it goes against my stomach1' said the boy4 #8,i must have you take it1' said his mother4 #8,i shall vomit it up again1' said the boy4 #8,pray1 sir1' said ,christiana to ,mr4 ,skill1 #8how does it taste8' #8,it has no ill taste1' said the doctor1 and with that she touched one of the pills with the tip of her tongue4 #8,o ,matthew1' said she1 #8this ,portion is sweeter than honey4 ,if thou lovest thy mother1 if thou lovest thy brothers1 if thou lovest ,mercy1 if thou lovest thy life1 take it4' ,so with much ado1 after a short prayer for the blessing of ,god upon it1 he took it1 and it wrought kindly with him4 ,it caused him to purge1 it caused him to sleep and rest quietly1 it put him into a fine heat and breathing sweat1 and did quite rid him of his gripes40 ,the story is dotted with these lifelike incidents1 and the consistency is rather in the basis of the allegory than in the allegory itself4 ,in truth1 we get in the ,pilgrim's ,progress an inimitable picture of social life in the lower middle class of ,england1 and in this second part a very vivid glimpse of a ,puritan household4 ,the glimpse is corrective of a too stern and formal apprehension of social ,puritanism1 and in the story are exhibited the natural charms and graces which not only could not be expelled by a stern creed1 but were essentially connected with the lofty ideals which made ,puritanism a mighty force in history4 ,bunyan had a genius for story-telling1 and his allegory is very frank2 but what he showed as well as what he did not show in his picture of ,christiana and the children indicates the constraint which rested upon the whole ,puritan conception of childhood4 ,it is seen at its best in ,bunyan1 and this great ,puritan poet of common life found a place for it in his survey of man's estate2 nature asserted itself in spite of and through ,puritanism4 99 99 99 99 99 ,milton's ,christmas ,hymn has the organ roll of a mind moving among high themes1 and making the earth one of the golden spheres4 ,pope's sacred eclogue of the ,messiah is perhaps the completest expression of the religious sentiment of an age which was consciously bounded by space and time4 ,in ,pope's day1 the world was scarcely a part of a greater universe2 eternity was only a prolongation of time1 and the sense of beauty1 acute as it was1 was always sharply defined4 ,pope's rhymed couplets1 with their absolute finality1 their clean conclusion1 their epigrammatic snap1 are the most perfect symbols of the ,english mind of that period4 ,when in the ,messiah we read1-- 8,rapt into future times the bard begun1 ,a ,virgin shall conceive1 a ,virgin bear a son6 444 ,swift fly the years and rise the expected morn6 ,o spring to light1 auspicious babe1 be born60 we remember ,milton's ,infant ,god4 ,the two poets touch1 with a like faintness1 the childhood of ,jesus1 but the one through awe and grandeur of contemplation1 the other through the polite indifference of a man of the world4 ,or take ,pope's mundane philosophy1 as exhibited most elaborately in his ,essay on ,man1 and set it beside ,shakespeare's ,seven ,ages of ,man3-- 8,behold the child1 by ,nature's kindly law ,pleased with a rattle1 tickled with a straw3 ,some livelier plaything gives his youth delight1 ,a little louder1 but as empty quite3 ,scarfs1 garters1 gold1 amuse his riper stage1 ,and beads and prayer-books are the toys of age3 ,pleased with this bauble still1 as that before2 ,till tired he sleeps and life's poor play is o'er40 ,this is the only passage in the ,essay hinting at childhood1 and suffices to indicate how entirely insignificant in the eyes of the philosophy underlying ,pope and his school was the whole thought of childhood4 ,the passage1 while not perhaps consciously imitative of ,shakespeare1 suggests comparison1 and one finds in ,jaques under the greenwood a more human feeling4 ,commend us to the tramp before the drawing-room philosopher6 99 99 99 99 99 ,the prelusive notes of a new literature were sounded by ,fielding1 ,gray1 ,goldsmith1 and ,cowper4 ,it was to be a literature which touched the earth again1 the earth of a common nature1 the earth also of a national inheritance4 ,fielding1 though painting contemporary society in a manner borrowed in a measure from the satiric drama1 was moving constantly into the freer domain of the novelist who is a critic of life1 and when he would set forth the indestructible force of a pure nature in a woman who is placed in a loose society1 as in ,amelia1 he instinctively hedges the wife about with children1 and it is a mark of his art that these children are not mere pawns which are moved about to protect the queen2 they are genuine figures1 their prattle is natural1 and they are constantly illustrating in the most innocent fashion the steadfastness of ,amelia4 ,it is significant that ,gray1 with his delicate taste and fine classical scholarship1 when he composed his ,elegy used first the names of eminent ,romans when he wrote3-- 8,some village ,cato1 who with dauntless breast ,the little tyrant of the fields withstood2 ,some mute1 inglorious ,tully here may rest1 ,some ,csar1 guiltless of his country's blood40 ,he changed these names for those of ,english heroes1 and in doing so broke away from traditions which still had a strong hold in literature4 ,it is a pity that for a reason which hardly convinces us he should have thought best to omit the charming stanza1-- 8,there1 scattered oft1 the earliest of the year1 ,by hands unseen are showers of violets found3 ,the ,red-breast loves to build and warble there1 ,and little footsteps lightly print the ground40 ,when ,gray wrote this he doubtless had in mind the ballad of the ,children in the ,wood4 ,in the succession of ,english pictures which he does give is that lovely one1-- 8,for them no more the blazing hearth shall burn1 ,or busy housewife ply her evening's care2 ,no children run to lisp their sire's return1 ,or climb his knees the evening kiss to share40 ,in his poem ,on a ,distant ,prospect of ,eton ,college he has lines which are instinct with a feeling for childhood and youth4 ,there is1 it is true1 a touch of artificiality in the use made of childhood in this poem1 as a foil for tried manhood1 its little life treated as the lost golden age of mankind2 but that sentiment was a prevailing one in the period4 ,goldsmith1 whose ,bohemianism helped to release him from subservience to declining fashions in literature1 treats childhood in a more genuine and artless fashion4 ,in his prose and poetry ,i hear the first faint notes of that song of childhood which in a generation more was to burst from many lips4 ,the sweetness which trembles in the ,deserted ,village finds easy expression in forms and images which call up childhood to memory1 as in those lines1-- 8,the playful children just let loose from school10 8,e'en children followed with endearing wile1 ,and plucked his gown1 to share the good man's smile10-- and in the quaint picture of the village school4 ,it is in the ,vicar of ,wakefield1 however1 that one finds the freest play of fancy about childish figures4 ,goldsmith says of his hero that 8he unites in himself the three greatest characters upon earth1--he is a priest1 a husbandman1 and the father of a family20 and the whole of the significant preface may lead one to revise the estimate of ,goldsmith which his contemporaries have fastened upon ,english literary history4 ,the waywardness and unconventionality of this man of genius and his eager desire to be accepted by the world1 which was then the great world1 were the characteristics which most impressed the shallower minds about him4 ,in truth1 he had not only an extraordinary sympathy with the ever-varying1 ever-constant flux of human life1 but he dropped a deeper plummet than any ,english thinker since ,milton4 ,it was in part his loneliness that threw him upon children for complete sympathy2 in part also his prophetic sense1 for he had an unerring vision of what constituted the strength and the weakness of ,england4 ,after the portraiture of the ,vicar himself1 there are no finer sketches than those of the little children4 8,it would be fruitless10 says the unworldly ,vicar1 8to deny exultation when ,i saw my little ones about me20 and from time to time in the tale1 the youngest children1 ,dick and ,bill1 trot forward in an entirely natural manner4 ,they show an engaging fondness for ,mr4 ,thornhill4 8,the whole family seemed earnest to please him4444 ,my little ones were no less busy1 and fondly stuck close to the stranger4 ,all my endeavors could scarcely keep their dirty fingers from handling and tarnishing the lace on his clothes1 and lifting up the flaps of his pocket holes to see what was there40 ,the character of ,mr4 ,burchell is largely drawn by its association with the children4 ,the account given by little ,dick of the carrying off of ,olivia is full of charming childish spirit1 and there is an exquisite passage where the ,vicar returns home with the news of ,olivia's recovery1 and discovers his house to be on fire1 while in a tumult of confusion the older members of the family rush out of the dwelling4 8,i gazed upon them and upon it by turns10 proceeds the ,vicar1 8and then looked round me for my two little ones2 but they were not to be seen4 ,o misery6 #8,where1' cried ,i1 #8where are my little ones8' #8,they are burnt to death in the flames1' says my wife calmly1 #8and ,i will die with them4' ,that moment ,i heard the cry of the babes within1 who were just awaked by the fire1 and nothing could have stopped me4 #8,where1 where are my children8' cried ,i1 rushing through the flames1 and bursting the door of the chamber in which they were confined4 #8,where are my little ones8' #8,here1 dear papa1 here we are6' cried they together1 while the flames were just catching the bed where they lay4 ,i caught them both in my arms1 and snatching them through the fire as fast as possible1 just as ,i was got out the roof sunk in4 #8,now1' cried ,i1 holding up my children1 #8now let the flames burn on1 and all my possessions perish4 ,here they are4 ,i have saved my treasure4 ,here1 my dearest1 here are our treasures1 and we shall yet be happy4' ,we kissed our little darlings a thousand times2 they clasped us round the neck1 and seemed to share our transports1 while their mother laughed and wept by turns40 ,cowper was more secluded from his time and its influence than ,goldsmith1 but like him he felt the instinct for a return to the elemental in life and nature4 ,the gentleness of ,cowper1 combined with a poetic sensibility1 found expression in simple themes4 ,his life1 led in a pastoral country1 and occupied with trivial pleasures1 offered him primitive material1 and he sang of hares1 and goldfish1 and children4 ,his ,tirocinium1 or a ,review of ,schools1 though having a didactic intention1 has some charming bits of descriptive writing1 as in the familiar lines which describe the sport of 8,the little ones1 unbuttoned1 glowing hot40 ,the description melts1 as do so many of ,cowper's retrospections1 into a tender melancholy4 ,a deeper note still is struck in his ,lines on the ,receipt of my ,mother's ,picture4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the new birth which was coming to ,england had its premonitions in literature4 ,it had them also in art4 ,in this period appeared ,sir ,joshua ,reynolds and ,gainsborough3 the one preminently a painter of humanity1 the other of nature1 and both of them moved by a spirit of freedom1 under well-recognized academic rules4 ,there is in their work a lingering of the old formal character which took sharp account of the diversities of rank1 and separated things common from things choice2 yet they both belong to the new world rather than to the old1 and in nothing is this more remarkable than in the number and character of the children pieces painted by ,reynolds4 ,they are a delight to the eye1 and in the true democracy of art we know no distinction between ,master ,crewe as ,henry ,,viii4 and a ,boy with a ,child on his back and cabbage nets in his hand4 ,what a revelation of childhood is in this great group6 ,there is the tenderness of the ,children in the ,wood1 the peace of the ,sleeping ,child1 where nature itself is in slumber1 the timidity of the ,strawberry ,girl1 the wildness of the ,gypsy ,boy1 the shy grace of ,pickaback1 the delightful wonder of ,master ,bunbury1 the sweet simplicity and innocence in the pictures so named1 and the spiritual yet human beauty of the ,angels' heads4 ,reynolds studied the work of the medival painters1 but he came back to ,england and painted ,english children4 ,goldsmith's ,vicar1 ,cowper's ,lines on his mother's portrait1 and ,reynolds' children bring us close to the heart of our subject4 ,,ii ,it was the saying of the ,swedish seer ,count ,swedenborg1 that a ,day of ,judgment was to come upon men at the time of the ,french ,revolution4 ,then were the spirits to be judged4 ,in whatever terms we may express the fact1 clear it is to us that the close of the last century marks a great epoch in the history of ,christendom1 and the farther we withdraw from the events which gather about our own birth as an organized nation1 and those which effected such enormous changes in ,european life1 the more clearly do we perceive that the movements of the present century are mainly along lines which may be traced back to genetic beginnings then4 ,there was indeed a great awakening1 a renaissance1 a new birth4 ,the ,french ,revolution was a sign of the times3 it furnishes a convenient name for an epoch1 not merely because important changes in ,christendom were contemporaneous with it1 but because they were intimately associated with it4 ,then appeared the portent of ,democracy1 and the struggle of humanity has ever since been for the realization of dreams which came as visions of a great hope4 ,then began that examination of the foundation of things in science and philosophy which has become a mighty passion in intellectual life4 ,i have said that every great renaissance has left its record in the recognition which childhood receives in literature and art4 ,i add that the scope and profundity of that renaissance may be measured by the form which this recognition takes4 ,at the birth of ,christianity the pregnant sentences1 8,except ye become as little children ye shall not enter the kingdom of heaven10 8,for of such is the kingdom of heaven10 8,verily ,i say unto you1 their angels do always behold the face of my ,father in heaven10 sound a depth unreached before4 ,they were1 like other words from the same source1 veritable prophecies1 the perfect fulfillment of which waits the perfect manifestation of the ,son of ,man4 ,at the ,renaissance1 when medivalism gave way before modern life1 art reflected the hopes of mankind in the face of a divine child4 ,at the great ,revolution1 when1 amidst fire and blood1 the new life of humanity stood revealed1 an unseen hand again took a little child and placed him in the midst of men4 ,it was reserved for an ,english poet to be the one who most clearly discerned the face of the child4 ,himself one of the great order of angels1 he beheld in the child the face of ,god4 ,i may be pardoned1 ,i trust1 for thus reading in ,western fashion the meaning of that ,oriental phrase which ,i find has perplexed theologians and ,biblical critics4 ,was it any new disclosure which the ,christ made if he merely said that the attendant ministers of children always beheld the face of the ,father in heaven8 ,was it not the very property of such angelic nature that it should see ,god8 ,but was it not rather a revelation to the crass minds of those who thrust children aside1 that the angels who moved between the ,father of spirits and these new-comers into the world saw in their faces a witness to their divine origin8 ,they saw the ,father repeated in the child4 ,when ,wordsworth published his ,lyrical ,ballads1 a storm of ridicule fell upon them4 ,in that age1 when the old and the new were clashing with each other on every hand1 so stark a symbol of the new as these ballads presented could not fail to furnish an objective point for criticism which was born of the old4 ,wordsworth1 in his defensive ,preface1 declares1 8,the principal object proposed in these ,poems was to choose incidents and situations from common life1 and to relate or describe them throughout1 as far as was possible1 in a selection of language really used by men1 and1 at the same time1 to throw over them a certain coloring of imagination1 whereby ordinary things should be presented to the mind in an unusual aspect2 and further1 and above all1 to make these incidents and situations interesting1 by tracing in them1 truly though not ostentatiously1 the primary laws of our nature2 chiefly as far as regards the manner in which we associate ideas in a state of excitement4 ,humble and rustic life was generally chosen1 because1 in that condition1 the essential passions of the heart find a better soil in which they can attain their maturity1 are less under restraint1 and speak a plainer and more emphatic language2 because in that condition of life our elementary feelings coexist in a state of greater simplicity1 and1 consequently1 may be more accurately contemplated and more forcibly communicated2 because the manners of rural life germinate from those elementary feelings1 and1 from the necessary character of rural occupations1 are more easily comprehended1 and are more durable2 and1 lastly1 because in that condition the passions of men are incorporated with the beautiful and permanent forms of nature40 ,every one of these reasons1 unless the last1 which ,i do not understand1 be excepted1 applies with additional force to the use of forms and images and incidents drawn from childhood2 and though ,wordsworth takes no account of this in his ,preface1 it is more to the point that he does freely and fully recognize the fact in his poetry4 ,the ,preface1 with its dry formality1 was like much of ,wordsworth's poetry1--,pegasus on a walk1 his wings impeding free action4 ,it is one of the anomalies of nature that a poet with such insight as ,wordsworth should never apparently have discovered his own pragmatical dullness4 ,it seems to me that ,wordsworth's finer moods were just those of which he never attempted to give a philosophic account1 and that he did not refer to childhood in his ,preface is an evidence of his inspiration when dealing with it4 ,be this as it may1 his treatment of childhood accords with his manifesto to the ,british public4 ,could anything be more trivial1 as judged by the standards of the day1 than his ballad of ,alice ,fell1 or ,poverty8--of which he has himself said1 8,the humbleness1 meanness if you like1 of the subject1 together with the homely mode of treating it1 brought upon me a world of ridicule by the small critics1 so that in policy ,i excluded it from many editions of my ,poems1 till it was restored at the request of some of my friends1 in particular my son-in-law1 ,edward ,quillinan40 ,what is the motive of a poem which excited such derision that the poet in a moment of alarm withdrew it from publication1 and when he restored it held his son-in-law responsible8 ,simply the grief of a poor child1 who had stolen a ride behind the poet's post-chaise1 upon finding that her tattered cloak had become caught in the wheel and irretrievably ruined4 ,the poet makes no attempt to dignify this grief2 the incident is related in poetic form1 but without any poetic discovery beyond the simple worth of the grief4 ,it is1 perhaps1 the most audaciously matter of fact of all ,wordsworth's poems2 and yet1 such is the difference in the audience to-day from what it was in ,wordsworth's time that ,alice ,fell appears as a matter of course in all the anthologies for children1 and is read by men and women with positive sympathy1 with a tenderness for the forlorn little girl1 and without a question as to the poem's right of existence4 ,the misery1 the grief of childhood1 is conceived of as a real thing1 measured by the child's mind into which we enter1 and not by our own standards of pain and loss4 ,again1 recall the poem of ,lucy ,gray1 or ,solitude4 ,the story is far more pathetic1 and has an appeal to more catholic sensibility3 a child1 sent with a lantern to town from the moor on which she lives1 that she may light her mother back through the snow1 is lost among the hills1 and her footsteps are traced at last to the fatal bridge through which she has fallen4 ,the incident was one from real life2 ,wordsworth seized upon it1 reproducing each detail1 and with a touch or two of genius made a wraith4 ,he discovered1 as no one before had done1 the element of solitude in childhood1 and invested it with a fine spiritual1 ethereal quality1 quite devoid of any ethical property1--a subtle community with nature4 ,how completely ,wordsworth entered the mind of a child and identified himself with its movements is consciously betrayed in his pastoral1 ,the ,pet ,lamb4 ,he puts into the mouth of ,barbara ,lewthwaite the imaginary song to her lamb1 and then says for himself1-- 8,as homeward through the lane ,i went with lazy feet1 ,this song to myself did ,i oftentimes repeat2 ,and it seemed1 as ,i retraced the ballad line by line1 ,that but half of it was hers1 and one half of it was mine4 ,again and once again did ,i repeat the song2 ,nay1 said ,i1 more than half to the damsel must belong1 ,for she looked with such a look and she spake with such a tone ,that ,i almost received her heart into my own40 ,his second thought was best3 more than half did belong to the child1 for he himself was but the wise interpreter4 ,wordsworth's incidents of childhood are sometimes given a purely objective character1 as in ,rural ,architecture1 ,the ,anecdote for ,fathers1 ,the ,idle ,shepherd ,boys2 but more often childhood is to him the occasion and suggestion of the deeper thought of life4 ,a kitten1 playing with falling leaves before the poet and his child ,dora1 leads him on by exquisite movement to the thought of his own decay of life4 ,but what impresses us most is the twofold conception of childhood as a part of nature1 and as containing within itself not only the germ of human life1 but the echo of the divine4 ,there are poems of surpassing beauty which so blend the child and nature that we might almost fancy1 as we look upon the poetical landscape1 that we are mistaking children for bushes1 or bushes for children4 ,such is that one beginning 8,three years she grew in sun and shower10 and 8,wisdom and ,spirit of the universe60 ,he drew images from his children and painted a deliberate portrait of his daughter ,catharine1 solemnly entitled1 ,characteristics of a ,child ,three ,years ,old4 ,yet1 though ,wordsworth drew many suggestions from his own children and from those whom he saw in his walks1 it is remarkable how little he regards children in their relation to parents in comparison of their individual and isolated existence4 ,before ,wordsworth1 the child1 in literature1 was almost wholly considered as one of a group1 as a part of a family1 and only those phases of childhood were treated which were obvious to the most careless observer4 ,wordsworth--and here is the notable fact--was the first deliberately to conceive of childhood as a distinct1 individual element of human life4 ,he first1 to use a truer phrase1 apprehended the personality of childhood4 ,he did this and gave it expression in artistic form in some of the poems already named2 he did it methodically and with philosophic intent in his autobiographic poem ,the ,prelude1 and also in ,the ,excursion4 ,listen how he speaks of his infancy even1 giving it by anticipation a life separate from mother and nurse4 8,was it for this80 he asks1-- 8,was it for this ,that one1 the fairest of all rivers1 loved ,to blend his murmurs with my nurse's song1 ,and1 from his alder shades and rocky falls1 ,and from his fords and shallows1 sent a voice ,that flowed along my dreams8 ,for this1 didst thou1 ,o ,derwent6 winding among grassy holms ,where ,i was looking on1 a babe in arms1 ,make ceaseless music that composed my thoughts ,to more than infant softness1 giving me ,amid the fretful dwellings of mankind ,a foretaste1 a dim earnest1 of the calm ,that ,nature breathes among the hills and groves40 ,still more minutely does he disclose the consciousness of childhood in his record of the mind of the ,wanderer in ,the ,excursion1 in the lines beginning3-- 8,from his sixth year1 the ,boy of whom ,i speak ,in summer tended cattle on the hills40 ,it may be said that in all this ,wordsworth is simply rehearsing and expanding an exceptional experience2 that his recollection of his own childhood passed through the alembic of a fervid poetic imagination4 ,be it so2 we are not so much concerned to know how the poet came by this divination1 as to know that he should have treated it as universal and common to the period of childhood4 ,again and again in descriptive poem1 in direct address1 in indirect allusion1 he so uses this knowledge as to forbid us to regard it as peculiar and exceptional in his own view2 and a poet's attestation to a universal experience is worth more than any negation which comes from our individual blurred recollection4 ,wordsworth discovers in childhood the germ of humanity2 he sees there thoughts1 emotions1 activities1 sufferings1 which are miniatures of the maturer life1--but1 he sees more than this and deeper4 ,to him the child is not a pigmy man2 it has a life of its own1 out of which something even may pass1 when childhood is left behind4 ,it is not the ignorant innocence of childhood1 the infantile grace1 which holds him1 but a certain childish possession1 in which he sees a spiritual presence obscured in conscious youth4 ,landor in one of his ,imaginary ,conversations stoutly asserts a similar fact when he says1 8,children are not men or women2 they are almost as different creatures1 in many respects1 as if they never were to be one or the other2 they are as unlike as buds are unlike flowers1 and almost as blossoms are unlike fruits40#cc ,in all this again1 in this echo of the divine which ,wordsworth hears in the voice of childhood1 there is reference1 psychologically1 to his own personal experience4 ,yet why should we treat that as ruled out of evidence1 which only one here and another there acknowledges as a part of his history8 ,is it not fairer1 more reasonable1 to take the experience of a profound poet as the basis of spiritual truth than the negative testimony of those whose eyes lack the wondrous power of seeing8 ,in the preface to his ode1 ,intimations of ,immortality from the ,recollections of ,early ,childhood1 ,wordsworth declares with great earnestness3-- 8,to the attentive and competent reader the whole sufficiently explains itself2 but there may be no harm in adverting here to particular feelings or experiences of my own mind1 on which the structure of the poem partly rests4 ,nothing was more difficult for me in childhood than to admit the notion of death as a state applicable to my own being4 ,i have said elsewhere-- #8,a simple child ,that lightly draws its breath1 ,and feels its life in every limb1 ,what should it know of death6' ,but it was not so much from feelings of animal vivacity that my difficulty came1 as from a sense of the indomitableness of the spirit within me4 ,i used to brood over the stories of ,enoch and ,elijah1 and almost to persuade myself that1 whatever might become of others1 ,i should be translated1 in something of the same way1 to heaven4 ,with a feeling congenial to this1 ,i was often unable to think of external existence1 and ,i communed with all that ,i saw as something not apart from1 but inherent in my own immaterial nature4 ,many times1 while going to school1 have ,i grasped at a wall or tree to recall myself from the abyss of idealism to the reality4 ,at that time ,i was afraid of such processes4 ,in later periods of life ,i have deplored1 as we all have reason to do1 a subjugation of an opposite character40 ,here ,wordsworth defends the philosophy of the poem by making it an induction from his own experience4 ,there will be found many to question its truth1 because they have no recollections which correspond with the poet's2 and others who will claim that the poem is but a fanciful argument in behalf of the philosophic heresy of a prexistent state4 ,in my judgment1 ,wordsworth's preface is somewhat misleading by its reference to this theory1 although he has furnished hints in the same preface of his more integral thought4 ,as ,i have noticed before1 his artistic presentation is truer and more final than his exegesis4 ,whoever reads this great ode is aware of the rise and fall of the tide of thought2 he hears the poet reasoning with himself2 he sees him passing in imagination out of childhood into age1 yet constantly recovering himself to fresh perception of the immortality which transcends earthly life4 ,it is visible childhood with its intimation of immortality which brings to the poet1 not regret for what is irretrievably lost1 but firmer faith in the reality of the unseen and eternal4 ,the confusion into which some have been cast by the ode arises from their bringing to the idea of immortality the time conception2 they conceive the poet to be hinting of an indefinite time antedating the child's birth1 an indefinite time extending beyond the man's death1 whereas ,wordsworth's conception of immortality rests in the indestructibility of spirit by any temporal or earthly conditions1--an indestructibility which even implies an absence of beginning as well as of ending4 8,heaven lies about us in our infancy10 he declares4 ,it is the investment of this visible life by an unseen1 unfelt1 yet real spiritual presence for which he contends1 and he maintains that the inmost consciousness of childhood bears witness to this truth2 this consciousness fades as the earthly life penetrates the soul1 yet it is there and recurs in sudden moments4 8,hence in a season of calm weather1 ,though inland far we be1 ,our ,souls have sight of that immortal sea ,which brought us hither1 ,can in a moment travel thither1 ,and see the ,children sport upon the shore1 ,and hear the mighty waters rolling evermore40 ,in thus connecting childhood with the highest hope of the human race1 ,wordsworth was repeating the note which twice before had been struck in great epochs of history4 ,this third renaissance was the awaking of the human soul to a sense of the common rights and duties of humanity1 the dignity and worth of the ,person4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the poetic form1 while most perfectly inclosing these divinations of childhood1 and especially suited to the presentation of the faint and elusive elements1 is less adapted to the philosophic and discursive examination of the subject of childhood4 ,it is1 then1 an indication of the impression which the idea had made upon men that a prose writer of the period1 of singular insight and subtlety1 should have given some of his most characteristic thought to an examination of the essential elements of childhood4 ,de ,quincey was undoubtedly strongly affected by ,wordsworth's treatment of the subject2 he has left evidence upon this point4 ,nevertheless1 he appears to have sounded his own mind and appealed to his own memory for additional and corroborative testimony4 ,in his ,suspiria de ,profundis1 a sequel to the ,confessions of an ,english ,opium-,eater1 he offers an account of his recollections of infancy1 together with many reflections upon the experience which he then underwent4 ,if it be said that the opium-eater was an untrustworthy witness1 since his dreaming might well lead him to confuse the subtle workings of a mature mind with the vivid remembrance of one or two striking events of childhood1 we may consider that ,de ,quincey's imagination was a powerful one1 and capable of interpreting the incidents and emotions brought to it by memory1 as a more prosaic mind could not4 ,we are compelled1 of course1 in all such cases1 to submit the testimony of such a man to the judgment of our own reason1 but that reason ought1 before pronouncing a final verdict1 to be educated to perceive the possibilities of a wider range of observation than may have fallen to us individually1 and to submit the results to a comparison with known operations of the human mind4 ,above all1 it should be borne in mind that a distinction clearly exists between a child's consciousness and its power of expression4 ,de ,quincey himself in a note says with acuteness and justice3-- 8,the reader must not forget in reading this and other passages that though a child's feelings are spoken of1 it is not the child who speaks4 ,i decipher what the child only felt in cipher4 ,and so far is this distinction or this explanation from pointing to anything metaphysical or doubtful1 that a man must be grossly unobservant who is not aware of what ,i am here noticing1 not as a peculiarity of this child or that1 but as a necessity of all children4 ,whatsoever in a man's mind blossoms and expands to his own consciousness in mature life must have prexisted in germ during his infancy4 ,i1 for instance1 did not1 as a child1 consciously read in my own deep feelings these ideas4 ,no1 not at all2 nor was it possible for a child to do so4 ,i1 the child1 had the feelings2 ,i1 the man1 decipher them4 ,in the child lay the handwriting mysterious to him2 in me1 the interpretation and the comment40 ,assuredly this is reasonable1 and since we are looking for the recognition of childhood in literature1 we may wisely ask how it presents itself to a man like ,de ,quincey1 who had peculiar power in one form of literature--the autobiographic-imaginative4 ,he entitles the first part of his ,suspiria1 ,the ,affliction of ,childhood4 ,it is the record of a child's grief1 interpreted by the man when he could translate into speech the emotion which possessed him in his early suffering2 and near its close1 ,de ,quincey1 partially summing up his philosophy of the subject1 declares3-- 8,god speaks to children1 also1 in dreams and by the oracles that lurk in darkness4 ,but in solitude1 above all things when made vocal by the truths and services of a national church1 ,god holds communion undisturbed with children4 ,solitude1 though silent as light1 is like light the mightiest of agencies2 for solitude is essential to man4 ,all men come into this world alone2 all leave it alone4 ,even a little child has a dread1 whispering consciousness that if he should be summoned to travel into ,god's presence1 no gentle nurse will be allowed to lead him by the hand1 nor mother to carry him in her arms1 nor little sister to share his trepidations4 ,king and priest1 warrior and maiden1 philosopher and child1 all must walk those mighty galleries alone4 ,the solitude1 therefore1 which in this world appalls or fascinates a child's heart1 is but the echo of a far deeper solitude1 through which already he has passed1 and of another solitude1 deeper still1 through which he has to pass2 reflex of one solitude1 prefiguration of another4 8,deeper than the deepest of solitudes is that which broods over childhood1 bringing before it1 at intervals1 the final solitude which watches for it1 within the gates of death4 ,reader1 ,i tell you in truth1 and hereafter ,i will convince you of this truth1 that for a ,grecian child solitude was nothing1 but for a ,christian child it has become the power of ,god and the mystery of ,god4 ,o mighty and essential solitude1 that wast and art and art to be6 thou1 kindling under the touch of ,christian revelations1 art now transfigured forever1 and hast passed from a blank negation into a secret hieroglyphic from ,god1 shadowing in the hearts of infancy the very dimmest of his truths60 ,i must refer the reader to the entire chapter for a full exposition of ,de ,quincey's views on this subject4 ,despite the bravura style1 which makes us in our soberer days listen a little incredulously to these far-fetched sighs and breathings1 the passage quoted bears testimony to that apprehension of childhood which ,de ,quincey shared with ,wordsworth4 ,both of these writers were looked upon in their day as somewhat reactionary in their poetical philosophy2 so much the more valuable is their declaration of a poetical and philosophical faith which was fundamentally in unison with the political faith that lay behind the outburst of the ,french ,revolution4 ,the discovery of this new continent of childhood by such explorers of the spiritual world marks the age as distinctly as does the discovery of new lands and explorations in the earlier renaissance4 ,it was indeed one of the great signs of the period ushered in by the ,french ,revolution and the establishment of the ,american republic1 that the bounds of the spiritual world were extended4 ,when poverty and childhood were annexed to the poet's domain1 the world of literature and art suddenly became larger4 99 99 99 99 99 ,at such times there are likely to be singular exhibitions of genius1 which are ill-understood in contemporary life1 but are perceived by later observers to be part and parcel of the age in which they occur4 ,something like this may be said of the pictures and poems of ,william ,blake1 who was a visionary in a time when a red flame along the horizon made his spiritual fires invisible4 ,he has since been rediscovered1 and has been for a generation so potent an influence in ,english art that we may wisely attend to him1 not merely as a person of genius1 but as furnishing an illustration of some of the deep things of our subject4 ,no one acquainted with ,blake's work has failed to observe the recurrence of a few types drawn from elemental figures4 ,the lamb1 the child1 the old man1--these appear and reappear1 carrying the prevalent ideas in this artist's imagination4 ,of all these the child is the most central and emphatic1 even as the ,songs of ,innocence is the most perfect expression of ,blake's vision of life4 ,it may be said that in his mind childhood was largely resolvable into infancy1 and that when he looked upon a babe1 he saw life in its purest form1 and that most suggestive of the divine1 as in the exquisite cradle song1 into which is woven the weeping of the child ,jesus for all the human race4 ,the two short antithetical poems1 ,the ,little ,boy ,lost and ,the ,little ,boy ,found1 reveal the depths which ,blake penetrated when engaged in his solitary voyage of discovery to the little known shores of childhood4 ,they have1 to be sure1 the teasing property of parables1 and it would be hard to render them into the unmistakable language of the understanding2 but they could be set to music1 and like the ,duke we exclaim3-- 8,that strain again6 it had a dying fall40 ,it must always be borne in mind that ,blake's contribution to the literature of childhood is through highly idealized forms4 ,it is spiritual or angelic childhood which floats before his eyes1 so that the little creatures who dance on the green1 the little chimney sweep1 the children filing into ,st4 ,paul's1 are translated by his visionary power into the images of an essential childhood2 they cease to be individual illustrations4 99 99 99 99 99 ,we are told that in the fearful days of the ,french ,revolution there was an eruption from the secret places of ,paris of a vast horde of poor1 ignorant1 and vicious people1 who had been kept out of sight by lords and ladies4 ,one may accept the fact as symbolical of that emergence into the light of ,christianity of poverty and degradation4 ,the poor had always been with the world1 but it is not too much to say that now for the first time did they begin to be recognized as part and parcel of humanity4 ,wordsworth's poems set the seal upon this recognition4 ,dickens's novels naturalized the poor in literature1 and1 as in the case of ,wordsworth1 poverty and childhood went hand in hand4 ,dickens1 however1 though he made a distinct addition to the literature of childhood1 rather registered a presence already acknowledged than acted as a prophet of childhood4 ,the great beneficent and humanitarian movement of the century was well under way1 and had already found abundant expression in ragged schools and ,sunday-schools and in education generally1 when ,dickens1 with his quick reporter's sight1 seized upon salient features in this new exhibition of humanity4 ,he was quite aside from the ordinary organized charities1 but he was moved by much the same spirit as that which was briskly at work among the poor and the young4 ,he was caught by the current1 and his own personal experience was swift to give special direction to his imagination4 ,besides innumerable minor references1 there are certain childish figures in the multitude of the creations of ,dickens1 which at once rise to mind1--,paul ,dombey1 ,little ,nell1 ,tiny ,tim1 ,oliver ,twist1 ,david ,copperfield in his earliest days1 and the ,marchioness4 ,dickens found out very soon that the power to bring tears into the eyes of people was a surer road to success than even the power to amuse4 ,when he was drawing the figures of children1 their tenderness1 their weakness1 their susceptibility1 presented themselves as the material in which he could skillfully work4 ,then he used the method which had served him so well in his larger portraiture2 he seized upon the significant feature and emphasized it until it became the unmistakable mark of the person4 ,childhood suggests weakness1 and weakness is more apparent when there is a foil of mental prematurity2 so he invented the hydrocephalic ,paul ,dombey4 ,it suggests tenderness2 he appealed to an unhesitating sympathy and drew for us ,little ,nell1 intensifying her nature by bringing her into contrast and subtle companionship with her imbecile grandfather4 ,it is the defect of ,dickens that by such characters he displayed his skill in morbid conceptions4 ,the little old man in ,paul ,dombey is not without its prototype in real life1 but ,dickens appears to have produced it as a type of tender childhood1 much as one might select a consumptive for an illustration of extreme refinement4 ,tiny ,tim is a farther illustration of this unhealthy love1 on ,dickens's part1 of that which is affecting through its infirmity4 ,that art is truest which sees children at play or in their mother's arms1 not in hospitals or graveyards4 ,it is the infirmity of humanitarianism and of ,dickens1 its great exponent1 that it regards death as the great fact of life2 that it seeks to ward it off as the greatest of evils1 and when it comes1 hastens to cover it out of sight with flowers4 ,this conception of death is bound up with an overweening sense of the importance of these years of life4 ,there is a nobler way1 and literature and art are slowly confessing it1 as they devote their strength to that which is eternal in life1 not to that which is perishable4 ,wordsworth's maiden in ,we are ,seven1 with her simple1 unhesitating belief in the continuity of life1 the imperishability of the person1 holds a surer place in literature than ,paul ,dombey1 who makes the ocean with its tides wait for him to die4 ,it is only fair to say1 however1 that the caricature to be found in ,dickens is scarcely more violent an extreme to some minds than is the idealism to be found in ,wordsworth1 ,de ,quincey1 and ,blake an opposite extreme to minds otherwise constituted4 ,the early life of ,wordsworth1 passed1 as he tells us1 in the solitude of nature1 explains much of his subsequent attitude toward childhood and youth4 ,it is out of such an experience that ,lucy ,gray was written4 ,in like manner the early life of ,dickens discloses something of a nature which reappears afterward in his pictures of childhood4 ,a wounded sensibility is unquestionably the pathetic history of many1 and ,dickens has contributed to the natural history of childhood a distinct account of this feature4 ,the first appearance of a new form in literature produces an impression which can never be repeated4 ,however freshly readers in this decade may come to the works of ,dickens1 it is impossible that they should have the same distinct sensation which men and women had who caught up the numbers of ,the ,old ,curiosity ,shop as they fell from the press for the first time4 ,there can never again be such a lamentation over ,little ,nell1 when men like ,jeffrey1 a hardened old critic1 made no concealment of their tears4 ,yet ,i am disposed to think that this does not give a complete account of the phenomenon4 ,just as ,wordsworth's ,alice ,fell is now but one of a procession of forlorn maidens1 though at the head of it1 so the children of ,dickens are merely somewhat more vivid personages in a multitude of childish creation4 ,the child is no longer a novelty either in poetry or in fiction4 ,it is an accepted character1 one of the dramatis person of literature4 ,for1 when all is said of ,dickens's work1 taken only as the product of a mind singularly gifted with reporting what it has seen1 there remains the noticeable fact that scarcely had the echoes died away from the voice of ,wordsworth1 who ushered in the literature of the new age1 when a great man of the people came forward1 in the person of ,dickens1 and found it the most natural thing in the world to give men pictures of child-life1 and that after the first surprise attendant upon novelty was over1 writers of all sorts were busy modeling these small figures4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the child once introduced into literature1 the significance of its appearance thereafter is not so much in individual instances as in the general and familiar acceptance of the phenomenon4 ,at least1 so it appears from our near view4 ,it is not impossible that later students may perceive notes in our literature of more meaning than we now surmise4 ,they may understand better than we why ,tennyson should have made a babe the heroine of ,the ,princess1 as he acknowledges to ,mr4 ,dawson that he did1 though only one or two critics had discovered the fact1 and why ,mr4 ,swinburne1 who is supposed to scoff at a literature virginibus puerisque1 should have devoted so much of his lyric energy to childhood4 ,the stream which ran with so broken a course down to ,wordsworth has spread now into a broad1 full river4 ,childhood is part and parcel of every poet's material2 children play in and out of fiction1 and readers are accustomed to meeting them in books1 and to finding them often as finely discriminated by the novelist as are their elders4 ,meanwhile1 from the time when childhood was newly discovered1 that is to say1 roughly1 in the closing years of the last century1 there has been a literature in process of formation which has for its audience children themselves4 ,i called attention briefly1 at the beginning of this study1 to the interesting fact that there was a correlation in time1 at least1 between childhood in literature and a literature for children4 ,a nearer study of the literature of this century shows very clearly that while the great constructive artists have been making room for the figures of infancy and youth1 and even consciously explaining their presence1 a host of minor writers1 without much thought of art1 have been busy over the same figures for other purposes4 ,not only so1 but in several instances the great artists themselves have distinctly turned aside from their ordinary audience and appealed directly to children4 ,where was the child in ,english literature before ,goldsmith8 and where before ,goldsmith's time was there a book for children8 ,there have been1 it is true1 nursery tales in all ages3 ditties1 and songs1 and lullabies2 unwritten stories1 which mothers in ,england told when they themselves could have read nothing2 but there came a time when children were distinctly recognized as the occasion of formal literature1 when authors and publishers began to heed a new public4 ,it was impossible that there should be this discovery of childhood without a corresponding effort on the part of men and women to get at it1 and to hold direct intercourse with it4 ,by a natural instinct1 writers for children began at once to write about children4 ,they were moved by educational rather than by artistic impulses1 so that their creations were subordinate to the lessons which they conveyed4 ,during the period when ,wordsworth1 ,lamb1 ,de ,quincey1 and ,blake were idealizing childhood1 and seeing in it artistic possibilities1 there flourished a school of writing for the young which also dealt with childhood1 but with a sturdy realism4 ,this school had its representatives in ,mrs4 ,barbauld1 ,mr4 ,day1 the ,aikens1 ,maria ,edgeworth1 ,ann and ,jane ,taylor1 and holds a place still with ,evenings at ,home1 ,the ,parent's ,assistant1 ,hymns in ,prose for ,children1 ,hymns for ,infant ,minds1 ,frank1 and ,sandford and ,merton4 ,the characteristics of this literature are simple1 and will be recalled by many who dwell with an affectionate and regretful regard upon books which they find it somewhat difficult to persuade their children to read4 ,these books were didactic2 they assumed in the main the air of wise teachers2 they were sometimes condescending2 they appealed to the understanding rather than to the imagination of the child1 and they abounded in stores of useful information upon all manner of subjects4 ,they contained precursors of a long series of juvenile monitors1 and the grandfathers who knew ,mr4 ,barlow had children who knew ,mr4 ,holiday1 ,rollo1 ,jonas1 and ,mr4 ,george1 and grandchildren who may be suspected of an acquaintance with ,mr4 ,bodley and his much traveled and very inquisitive family4 ,yet1 the earlier works1 though now somewhat antiquated1 were not infrequently lively and even humorous in their portraiture of children4 ,they were written in the main out of a sincere interest in the young1 and by those who were accustomed to watch the unfolding of childish nature4 ,if they reflected a somewhat formal relation between the old and the young1 it must be remembered that the actual relation was a formal one3 that the young had not yet come into familiar and genial relation with the old4 ,indeed1 the books themselves were somewhat revolutionary in a small way4 ,much that seems stiff and even unnatural to us now was quite easy and colloquial to their first readers1 and in their eagerness to lure children into ways of pleasant instruction1 the authors broke down something of the reserve which existed between fathers and sons in the ,english life which they portrayed4 ,yet we cannot help being struck by the contrast between the sublimated philosophy of ,wordsworth and the prosaic applications of the ,edgeworth school4 ,heaven lies about us in our infancy8 ,oh1 yes1 a heaven that is to be looked at through a spy-glass and explained by means of a home-made orrery4 ,it would seem as if the spirit of childhood had been discerned with all its inherent capacity1 but that the actual children of this matter-of-fact world had not yet been fairly seen by the light of this philosophy4 ,the literature which we are considering was indeed a serious attempt at holding intercourse with childish minds4 ,it had the embarrassment of beginnings2 there was about it an uncertain groping in the dark of childhood1 and it was desperately theory-ridden4 ,but it had also the mark of sincerity1 and one feels in reading it that the writers were genuinely indifferent in most cases to the figure they might be cutting before the world2 they were bent upon reaching this audience1 and were unobservant of the larger world behind4 ,in most cases1 ,i say4 ,i suspect that ,mrs4 ,barbauld1 with her solemn dullness1 was the victim of a notion that she was producing a new order of literature1 and in this she was encouraged by a circle of older readers2 the children probably stared at her with sufficient calmness to keep her ignorant of their real thoughts4 ,how real literature looked upon the dusty high-road laid out across the fields by some of these writers may be read in the letters of the day4 ,coleridge jibed at that 8pleonasm of nakedness10 ,mrs4 ,bare-bald1 and ,lamb in a letter to ,coleridge speaks his mind with refreshing frankness3 8,goody ,two ,shoes10 he says1 8is almost out of print4 ,mrs4 ,barbauld's stuff has banished all the old classics of the nursery2 and the shopman at ,newberry's hardly deigned to reach them off an old exploded corner of a shelf when ,mary asked for them4 ,mrs4 ,b4's and ,mrs4 ,trimmer's nonsense lay in piles about4 ,knowledge insignificant and vapid as ,mrs4 ,b4's books convey1 it seems1 must come to a child in the shape of knowledge1 and his empty noddle must be turned with conceit of his own powers when he has learned that a horse is an animal1 and ,billy is better than a horse1 and such like2 instead of that beautiful interest in wild tales which made the child a man1 while all the time he suspected himself to be no bigger than a child4 ,science has succeeded to poetry no less in the little walks of children than with men4 ,is there no possibility of averting this sore evil8 ,think of what you would have been now1 if1 instead of being fed with tales and old wives' fables in childhood1 you had been crammed with geography and natural history6 ,hang them6 ,i mean the cursed reasoning crew1 those blights and blasts of all that is human in man and child40 ,yet ,lamb and his sister both took a lively interest in genuine books for the young1 and their own contributions have1 alas6 gone the way1 for the most part1 of other worn-out literature4 ,it was mainly as a direct educative power that this new interest in children first found expression2 with it1 however1 was mingled a more artistic purpose1 and the two streams of tendency have ever since been recognizable1 sometimes separate1 oftener combined4 ,the ,lambs' own work was illustrative of this union of the didactic and the artistic4 ,it is outside the scope of this study to dwell at length upon this phase of literature4 ,it is enough to point out the fact that there is a distinct class of books which has grown up quite within the memory of men now living4 ,it is involved with industrial and commercial interests2 it invites the attention of authors1 and the infrequent criticism of reviewers2 it has its own subdivisions like the larger literature2 it boasts of cyclopdias and commentaries2 it includes histories1 travels1 poems1 works in science1 theological treatises4 ,it is a distinct principality of the ,kingdom of ,letters4 ,it is idle to complain of the present abundance of children's books1 as if somebody were to blame for it4 ,there has been no conspiracy of publishers and authors4 ,it is worse than folly to look with contempt upon the movement2 the faithful student will seek rather to study this new force1 and if possible to guide it into right channels4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the distinction between books for the young and books for the old is a somewhat arbitrary one1 and many have discovered for themselves and their children that instead of one poor corner of literature being fenced off for the lamb1 planted with tender grass which is quickly devoured1 and with many medicinal but disagreeable herbs which are nibbled at when the grass is gone1 the whole wide pasture land is their native home1 and the grass more tender where fresh streams flow than it possibly can be in the paddock1 however carefully planted and watched4 ,this community of possession is more recognizable in the higher than in the lower forms of literature4 ,it is still more clear in pictorial art4 ,art is by its nature more closely representative of childhood than literature can be1 and ,gainsborough and ,reynolds made no innovation when they painted children1 although the latter1 by his evident partiality for these subjects1 does indicate a susceptibility to the new knowledge which was coming upon the world4 ,there are other influences which reinforce the artistic pleasure1 such as the domestic sense1 the pride of family1 the ease of procuring unconscious models4 ,no one can visit an ,english exhibition of paintings without being struck by the extraordinary number of subjects taken from childhood4 ,it is in this field that ,millais has won famous laurels1 and when the great body of book illustrations is scanned1 what designs have half the popularity of ,doyle's fairies and ,miss ,greenaway's idyllic children8 ,i sometimes wonder why this should be the case in ,england1 when in ,america1 the paradise of children1 there is a conspicuous absence of these subjects from galleries4 ,,vii ,,in ,,french ,,and ,,german ,,literature ,i ,french literature before the ,revolution was more barren of reference to childhood than was ,english literature4 ,especially is this true of the eighteenth century1 with its superficial disbelief and its bitter protest against superstition1 under which term was comprehended the supernatural as well as the preternatural4 ,there were exceptions1 as in the case of ,fnelon1 and the constitutional sentiment of the ,french was easily moved by the appeal of dependent childhood4 ,in ,rousseau one may read how it is possible to weep over children1 and yet leave one's own to the cold mercy of a foundling asylum4 ,it is in ,rousseau's disciple1 however1 ,bernardin de ,st4 ,pierre1 that we find the most artistic expression of pure sentimentalism1 and the story of ,paul and ,virginia is an effort at representing a world where childhood1 in its innocence1 is conceived of as the symbol of ideal human life4 ,st4 ,pierre thought of childhood and nature as possessed of strong negative virtues2 they were uncontaminated1 they were unsophisticated4 ,to escape from an evil world1 he fled in imagination to an island of the tropics1 where all that life required was readily furnished by lavish nature4 ,he makes his family to consist chiefly of women and children4 ,the masculine element is avoided as something disturbing1 and except for the harmless old man who acts as chorus1 it is discovered first as a rude1 barbaric1 and cruel force in the person of the governor of the island1 who has no faith in ,madame de la ,tour1 and in the person of the planter at the ,black ,river1 who has been an inhuman master to his slave4 ,the childhood of ,paul and ,virginia is made to have a pastoral1 idyllic character4 ,their sorrows and misfortunes come wholly from evils which lie beyond their control4 ,st4 ,pierre brought back a golden age by ignoring the existence of evil in the heart of man2 he conceived it possible to construct an ideal world by what was vaguely expressed in the words 8a return to nature40 ,as he reflects in the story3 8,their theology consisted in sentiment like that of nature2 and their morality in action like that of the gospel4 ,those families had no particular days devoted to pleasure1 and others to sadness4 ,every day was to them a holiday1 and all which surrounded them one holy temple1 where they forever adored an ,infinite ,intelligence1 almighty and the friend of humankind4 ,a sentiment of confidence in his supreme power filled their minds with consolation for the past1 with fortitude for the present1 and with hope for the future4 ,behold how these women1 compelled by misfortune to return to a state of nature1 had unfolded in their own bosoms1 and in those of their children1 the feelings which nature gives us1 our best support under evil60 ,however we may discover the limitations of the sentimental philosophy1 and its inadequacy when brought face to face with evil in life1 there is a surface agreement with ,christianity in this instinctive turning to childhood as the hope of the world4 ,yet the difference is radical4 ,the child1 in the ,christian conception1 holds the promise of things to come2 in the conception of ,french sentiment of the ,rousseau and ,st4 ,pierre type1 the child is a refuge from present evil1 a mournful reminiscence of a lost ,paradise4 ,if only we could keep it a child6 is the cry of this school1--keep it from knowing this wicked1 unhappy world6 ,but alas6 there are separations and shipwrecks4 ,virginia is washed ashore by the cruel waves4 ,paul1 bereft of reason1 dies1 and is buried in the same grave4 ,the two1 growing like plants in nature1 are stricken down by the mysterious1 fateful powers of nature4 ,the contrast between this unreal recourse to nature and the strong yet subtle return which characterizes ,wordsworth and his school is probably more apparent to the ,english and ,american mind than to the ,french4 ,yet a reasonable comparison betrays the fatal weakness of the one in that it leaves out of view whatever in nature disturbs a smooth1 summer-day world4 ,when ,st4 ,pierre talks of a return to nature1 he does not mean the jungle and the pestiferous swamp2 he regards these as left behind in ,paris4 ,yet the conclusion of his story is the confession wrung from faithful art that ,nature is after all but a step-mother to humanity4 ,in the great romantic movement which revolutionized ,french literature1 an immense impetus was given to the mind1 and literature thenceforth reflected a wider range of thought and feeling4 ,in few respects does this appear more significantly than in the treatment of childhood4 ,there is a robustness about the sentiment which separates it from the earlier regard of such writers as we have named4 ,lamartine1 who certainly was not devoid of sentiment1 passes by his own earliest childhood in ,les ,confidences with indifference4 8,i shall not10 he says1 8follow the example of ,j4 ,j4 ,rousseau in his ,confessions4 ,i shall not relate to you the trifling events of my early childhood4 ,man only dates from the commencement of feeling and thought2 until the man is a being1 he is not even a child4444 ,let us leave1 then1 the cradle to the nurses1 and our first smiles1 our first tears1 and our first lisping accents to the ecstasies of our mothers4 ,i do not wish to inflict on you any but my earliest recollections1 embellished by the light of reason40 ,he gives1 accordingly1 two scenes of his childhood3 one an interior1 where his father reads aloud to his mother from ,tasso's ,jerusalem ,delivered2 the other an outdoor scene1 where he engages in the rural sports of the neighborhood4 ,each picture is delightfully drawn1 with minute detail1 with poetic touch1 with affectionate recollection4 ,encouraged1 apparently1 by the warmth which this memory has inspired1 ,lamartine continues to dwell upon the images of his childhood1 especially as it has to do with the thought of his mother4 ,he paints the simple garden attached to his father's home1 and resting a moment reflects3-- 8,yes1 that is indeed all1 and yet that is what sufficed during so many years for the gratification1 for the reveries1 for the sweet leisures1 and for the as sweet labors of a father1 a mother1 and eight children6 ,such is what still suffices1 even at the present day1 for the nourishment of these recollections4 ,such is the ,eden of their childhood1 where their most serene thoughts take refuge when they wish to receive a little of that dew of the morning life1 a little of that beaming light of early dawn1 which shines pure and radiant for man only amid the scenes of his birth4 ,there is not a tree1 there is not a carnation1 there is not a mossy stone of this garden1 which is not entwined in their soul as if it formed part of it4 ,this nook of earth seems to us immense1 such a host of objects and of recollections does it contain for us in so narrow a space40 ,the fullness with which ,lamartine treats the recollection of his youth partakes of the general spirit of ,french memoirs1--a spirit1 to speak roughly1 which regards persons rather than institutions1--but indicates also something of the new spirit which informed literature when it elevated childhood into a place of real dignity4 ,there are passages1 indeed1 which have a special significance as intimating a consciousness of the deeper relations of childhood4 ,michelet1 for instance1 in his philosophy of the unfolding of woman's life1 recognizes the characteristics of maidenhood as anticipatory of maturity1 and does it with so serious a contemplation that we forget to smile when we discover him profoundly observant of those instincts of maternity which are shown in the care of a child for its doll4 ,this attitude toward the child is observable in the masters of modern ,french literature4 ,however far they may be removed from any mere domestic regard of the subject1 they apprehend the peculiar sacredness attaching to children4 ,alfred de ,musset1 for example1 though by no means a poet of the family1 can never speak of children without emotion4 ,not to multiply instances1 it is enough to take the great poet of the period4 ,victor ,hugo deserves1 it has been said1 to be called the poet of infancy1 not only for the reason that he has written of the young freely1 but has in his ,les ,enfants1 ,livre des ,mres1 written for them4 ,it is to be observed that the suggestion comes1 with ,hugo1 chiefly from the children of his family2 from his brother ,eugne1 who died an early death2 from his daughter1 whom he mourns in tender verse2 and from his grandchildren4 ,one feels the sincerity of a great poet when he draws the inspiration for such themes from his own familiar kind4 ,it may be said in general of the contribution made to this literature by the ,french that it partakes of those qualities of lightness and grace which mark the greater literature2 that the image of childhood is a joyous1 innocent one1 and satisfies the eye that looks for beauty and delicacy4 ,sentiment predominates1 but it is a sentiment that makes little draught upon thought4 ,there is a disposition now to regard children as dolls and playthings1 the amusement of the hour2 now to make them the object of an attitudinizing sentiment1 which is practically wasted unless there be some one at hand to applaud it4 ,,ii ,when we pass from ,france to ,germany we are aware that1 however we may use the same terms1 and recognize the existence of sentiment as a strong element in the literature of both countries1 there is a radical difference in tone4 ,it is not merely that ,french sentiment is graceful and ,german sentiment clumsy3 the grace of the one connects itself with a fine art1--we feel an instinctive good taste in its expression2 in the other1 the awkwardness1 the obtrusiveness1 seem to be the issue of an excess of natural and homely feeling4 ,it would be too much to say that ,french sentiment is insincere and ,german sentiment unpleasantly sincere2 that the one is assumed and the other uncalculating1--we cannot thus dismiss elementary feeling in two great peoples4 ,but an ,englishman or ,american1 to whom1 in his reserve1 the sentiment of either nation is apt to be a little oppressive1 is very likely to smile at the ,french and feel uncomfortable in the presence of the ,german2 to regard the ,french feeling as a temporary mood1 the ,german as a permanent state4 ,be this as it may1 it is true that the ,german feeling with regard to childhood1 as it finds expression in life and literature1 revolves very closely about the child in its home1 not the child as a charming object in nature4 ,childhood1 in ,german literature1 is conceived very generally in its purely domestic relations1 and is so positive an element as to have attracted the attention of other nations1 and even to have given rise to a petty cult4 ,coleridge1 writing from ,germany in #agii1 reports to his ,english readers1 as something strange to himself1 and of local significance only1 the custom of ,christmas gifts from parents to children and from children to parents4 ,he is especially struck with the custom of representing these presents as coming from ,jesus ,christ4 ,the whole structure of ,santa ,claus and ,kriss ,kringle1 the ,christ ,child and ,pelznichel1 with the attendant ceremonies of the ,christmas tree1 is built into the child life of ,germany and the ,low ,countries2 and it is by the energy of this childish miracle that it has passed over into ,english1 and especially into ,american life4 ,all this warmth of domestic feeling is by no means a modern discovery4 ,it is a prime characteristic of the ,germanic people1 and one strong reason for the ascendency of ,lutheranism may be found in the singular exposition of the ,german character which ,luther presented4 ,he was not merely a man of the people2 through his life and writings and organizing faculty he impressed himself positively on the ,german national character1 not turning it aside1 but deepening the channels in which it ran4 ,certain it is that the luxuriance of his nature was almost riotous on the side of family life4 8,the leader of the age10 says ,canon ,mozley1 8and the adviser of princes1 affecting no station and courting no great men1 was externally one of the common crowd1 and the plainest of it4 ,in domestic life the same heart and nature appear4 ,there he overflows with affection1 warmth1 tenderness2 with all the amiable banter of the husband1 and all the sweet arts and pretty nonsense of a father among his little children4 ,whether he is joking1 lecturing his #8rib ,catharine1' his #8gracious dame ,catharine1' or writing a description of fairyland and horses with silver saddles to his #8voracious1 bibacious1 loquacious1' little ,john2 or whether he is in the agony of grief over the death-bed of his favorite daughter1 ,magdalene1 we see the same exuberant1 tender character40#cd ,in this sketch of ,luther we may read some of the general characteristics of the ,germanic life1 and we are ready1 at the first suggestion1 to assent to the proposition that the ,german people1 judged by the apparatus of childhood1 books1 pictures1 toys1 and schools1 stands before other nations4 ,the material for the portraiture of childhood has been abundant2 the social history1 the biographies1 give constant intimations of the fullness with which family life1 inclosing childhood1 has been dwelt upon in the mind4 ,the autobiographies of poets and novelists almost invariably give great attention to the period of childhood4 ,a very interesting illustration of this may be found in the life of ,richter1 who stands at the head of the great ,germans in his portrayal of childhood4 8,men who have a firm hold on nothing else10 says ,richter in his brief autobiography1 8delight in deep1 far-reaching recollection of their days of childhood1 and in this billowy existence they anchor on that1 far more than on the thought of later difficulties4 ,perhaps for two reasons3 that in this retrospection they press nearer to the gate of life guarded by spiritual existences2 and secondly1 that they hope1 in the spiritual power of an earlier consciousness1 to make themselves independent of the little1 contemptible annoyances that surround humanity40 ,he then recites an incident from his second year1 and continues3 8,this little morning-star of earliest recollection stands yet tolerably clear in its low horizon1 but growing paler as the daylight of life rises higher4 ,and now ,i remember only this clearly1 that in earlier life ,i remembered everything clearly40 ,how clearly will be apparent to the reader who follows ,richter through the minute and detailed narrative of his childish life1 and in his writings the images of this early life are constantly reappearing under different forms4 ,something is no doubt due to the early birth in ,richter of a self-consciousness1 bred in part by the solitude of his life4 ,it may be said with some assurance that the vividness of early recollection has much to do with determining the poet and novelist and essayist in his choice of themes bearing directly upon childhood4 ,the childish experience of ,wordsworth1 ,de ,quincey1 ,dickens1 ,lamartine1 and ,richter is clearly traceable in the writings of these men4 ,if they look into their own hearts and write1 the images which they bring forth are so abundantly of childhood that they cannot avoid making use of them1 especially since they retain recollections which demand the interpretation of the maturer mind4 ,that they should so freely draw from this storehouse of childish experience reflects also the temper of the age for which they write4 ,the fullness with which the themes of childhood are treated means not that a few men have suddenly discovered the subject1 but that all are sensitive to these same impressions4 ,it is not1 however1 the vividness of recollection alone1 but the early birth of consciousness1 which will determine the treatment of the subject4 ,if one remember the facts of his early years rather than how he thought and felt about those facts1 he will be less inclined to dwell upon the facts afterward1 or make use of them in his work4 ,they will have little significance to him4 ,a distinction in this view is to be observed between ,richter and ,goethe4 ,the autobiographies of the two men reveal the different impressions made upon them by their childhood4 ,the facts which ,goethe recalls are but little associated with contemporaneous reflection upon the facts1 and they serve but a trifling purpose in ,goethe's art4 ,the facts which ,richter recalls are imbedded in a distinct conception regarding them1 and perform a very positive function in his art4 ,the character of ,mignon may be dismissed from special consideration1 for it is clear that ,goethe used ,mignon's diminutiveness and implied youth only to heighten the effect of her elfish and dwarfish nature4 ,the most considerable reference to childhood is perhaps in the ,sorrows of ,young ,werther1 where the relations between ,werther and ,charlotte comprise a sketchy group of children who act as foils or accompaniments to the pair4 ,werther discovers ,charlotte1 it will be remembered1 cutting slices of bread for her younger brothers and sisters2 it is by this means that ,goethe would give a charm to the character1 presenting it in its homely1 domestic setting4 ,but his purpose is also to intimate the exceeding sensibility of ,werther1 and he represents him as taking a most affectionate interest in the little children whom he sees on his walks4 ,i suspect1 indeed1 that ,goethe in this has distinctly borrowed from the ,vicar of ,wakefield2 at any rate1 the comparison is easily suggested1 and one brings away the impression of ,goldsmith's genuine feeling and of ,goethe's deliberate assumption of a feeling for artistic purposes4 ,nevertheless1 ,goethe makes very positive use of childhood in this novel1 not only through the figures of children1 but also through the sentiment of childhood4 8,nothing on this earth1 my dear ,wilhelm10 says ,werther1 8affects my heart so much as children4 ,when ,i consider them2 when ,i mark in the little creatures the seeds of all those virtues and qualities which they will one day find so indispensable2 when ,i behold in the obstinate all the future firmness and constancy of a noble character1 in the capricious that levity and gayety of temper which will carry them lightly over the dangers and troubles of life1 their whole nature simple and unpolluted1 then ,i call to mind the golden words of the ,great ,teacher of mankind3 #8,except ye become as little children4' ,and now1 my friend1 these children1 who are our equals1 whom we ought to consider as our models1 we treat as subjects4 ,they are allowed no will of their own6 ,and have we then none ourselves8 ,whence comes our exclusive right8 ,is it because we are older and more experienced8 ,great ,god6 from the height of thy heaven1 thou beholdest great children and little children1 and no others2 and thy ,son has long since declared which afford the greatest pleasure4 ,but they believe in him1 and hear him not1--that too is an old story2 and they train their children after their own image40 ,we must regard this as a somewhat distorted application of the words of the gospel1 but it is interesting as denoting that ,goethe also1 who stood so much in the centre of illumination1 had perceived the revealing light to fall upon the heads of young children4 ,it is not1 however1 so much by his direct as by his indirect influence that ,goethe is connected with our subject4 ,if ,luther was both an exponent of ,german feeling and a determining cause of its direction1 ,goethe occupies a similar relation as an expression of ,german intellectualism and a stimulator of ,german thought4 ,a hundred years after his birth1 when measures were taking to celebrate the centenary by the establishment of some educational foundation to bear his name1 the enthusiastic supporters of ,froebel sought to divert public interest into the channel of this movement for the cultivation of childhood4 ,froebel's philosophy has affected modern educational systems even where his method has not been scrupulously followed4 ,its influence upon literature and art can scarcely be traced1 except so far as it has tended to give direction and set limits to the great body of books and pictures1 which1 made for children1 are also expository and illustrative of the life of children4 ,i mention him simply as an additional illustration of the grasp which the whole subject of childhood has obtained in ,germany2 it has made itself felt in religion and politics2 so revolutionary was ,froebel's philosophy held to be that his schools were suppressed at one time by the government as tending to subvert the state4 ,this was not strange1 since ,froebel's own view as to the education of children was radical and comprehensive4 ,a child's life finds its chief expression in play1 and in play its social instincts are developed4 ,now the kindergarten recognizes the fact that play is the child's business1 not his recreation1 and undertakes to guide and form the child through play4 ,it converts that which would otherwise be aimless or willful into creative1 orderly1 and governed action4 ,out of the play as governed by the wise kindergartner grows a spirit of courtesy1 self-control1 forbearance1 unselfishness4 ,the whole force of the education is directed toward a development of the child which never forgets that he is a person in harmonious relation to others4 ,community1 not competition1 is the watchword of the school4 ,in this view the kindergarten has its basis in the same law which lies at the foundation of a free republic4 ,obedience1 as taught by the system of public schools1 is an obedience to rules2 it may be likened to the obedience of the soldier1--a noble thing1 but not the highest form of human subjection of the will4 ,obedience as evolved in the true kindergarten is a conscious obedience to law4 ,the unity of life in the school1 with entire freedom of development in the individual1 is the aim of the kindergarten4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the enthusiasm which made itself felt in ,france in the rise of the romantic school1 with its expression chiefly through poetry1 the drama1 and fiction1 disclosed its power likewise in ,germany4 ,there1 however1 other channels offered a course for the new current4 ,the rise of the school of religious painters1 of which ,overbeck and ,cornelius were eminent examples1 was a distinct issue of the movement of the times4 ,it was regarded as reactionary by some1 but its reaction was rather in form than in spirit4 ,it ran counter to a ,philistinism which was complacent and indifferent to spiritual life1 and it sought to embody its ideas in forms which not only ,philistinism but humanism contemned1 yet it was all the while working in the interest of a higher freedom4 ,it is noticeable1 therefore1 that this religious art1 in its choice of subjects1 not only resorted to the early ecclesiological type1 but struck out into a new path1 choosing themes which imply a subjective view of ,christianity4 ,thus1 ,overbeck's picture of ,christ blessing little children1 a subject which is a favorite one of modern religious art1 is a distinct recognition of modern sentiment4 ,here is the relation borne by the ,christ to little children presented by a religious art1 which1 however much it might seek to reinstate the old forms1 could not help being affected by the new life of ,christianity4 ,overbeck went to the early ,florentines for his masters1 but he did not find this subject among their works4 ,he caught it from the new reading of the old gospel4 ,,viii ,,hans ,,christian ,,andersen ,as ,overbeck and his school returned to the religious art which preceded the ,renaissance1 so ,thorwaldsen1 like ,canova and lesser men1 turned back to ,greek art1 and was working contemporaneously with ,overbeck at ,rome in a very different temper4 ,to him the central figure of ,christianity was not a child in its mother's arms1 but a strong1 thoughtful man2 for childhood he turned to the sportive conception of ,amor1 which he embodied in a great variety of forms4 ,the myth appealed1 aside from the opportunity which it offered for the expression of sensuous beauty1 to his northern love of fairyland4 ,his countryman1 ,andersen1 tells us how1 when they were all seated in the dusk1 ,thorwaldsen would come from his work and beg for a fairy-tale4 ,it is ,andersen himself who has made the most unique contribution not only to the literature which children read1 but to that which is illustrative of childhood4 ,he attained his eminence sheerly by the exhibition of a power which resulted from his information by the spirit of childhood4 ,he was not only an interpreter of childhood2 he was the first child who made a real contribution to literature4 ,the work by which he is best known is nothing more nor less than an artistic creation of precisely the order which is common among children4 ,it is customary to speak of his best known short stories as fairy tales2 wonder-stories is in some respects a more exact description1 but the name has hardly a native sound4 ,andersen himself classed his stories under the two heads of historier and eventyr2 the historier corresponds well enough with its ,english mate1 being the history of human action1 or1 since it is a short history1 the story2 the eventyr1 more nearly allied perhaps to the ,german abenteuer than to the ,english adventure1 presumes an element of strangeness causing wonder1 while it does not necessarily demand the machinery of the supernatural4 ,when we speak of fairy tales1 we have before our minds the existence1 for artistic purposes1 of a spiritual world peopled with beings that exercise themselves in human affairs1 and are endowed in the main with human attributes1 though possessed of certain ethereal advantages1 and generally under orders from some superior power1 often dimly understood as fate2 the ,italians1 indeed1 call the fairy fata4 ,in a rough way we include under the title of fairies all the terrible and grotesque shapes as well1 and this world of spiritual beings is made to consist of giants1 ogres1 brownies1 pixies1 nisses1 gnomes1 elves1 and whatever other creatures have found in it a local habitation and name4 ,the fairy itself is generally represented as very diminutive1 the result1 apparently1 of an attempted compromise between the imagination and the senses1 by which the existence of fairies for certain purposes is conceded on condition they shall be made so small that the senses may be excused from recognizing them4 ,the belief in fairies gave rise to the genuine fairy tale1 which is now an acknowledged classic1 and the gradual elimination of this belief from the civilized mind has been attended with some awkwardness4 ,these creations of fancy--if we must so dismiss them--had secured a somewhat positive recognition in literature before it was finally discovered that they came out of the unseen and therefore could have no life4 ,once received into literature they could not well be ignored1 but the understanding1 which appears to serve as special police in such cases1 now has orders to admit no new-comers unless they answer to one of three classes3 either they must be direct descendants of the fairies of literature1 having certain marks about them to indicate their parentage1 or they must be teachers of morality thus disguised1 or they may be mere masqueraders2 one thing is certain1 they must spring from no belief in fairy life1 but be one and all referred to some sufficient cause1--a dream1 a moral lesson1 a chemical experiment4 ,but it is found that literature has its own sympathies1 not always compassed by the mere understanding1 and the consequence is that the sham fairies in the sham fairy tales never really get into literature at all1 but disappear in limbo2 while every now and then a genuine fairy1 born of a genuine1 poetic belief1 secures a place in spite of the vigilance of the guard4 ,perhaps nothing has done more to vulgarize the fairy than its introduction upon the stage2 the charm of the fairy tale is in its divorce from human experience2 the charm of the stage is in its realization1 in miniature1 of human life4 ,if the frog is heard to speak1 if the dog is turned before one's eyes into a prince1 by having cold water dashed over it1 the charm of the fairy tale has fled1 and in its place we have only the perplexing pleasure of legerdemain4 ,the effect of producing these scenes upon the stage is to bring them one step nearer to sensuous reality1 and one step further from imaginative reality2 and since the real life of fairy is in the imagination1 a wrong is committed when it is dragged from its shadowy hiding-place and made to turn into ashes under the calcium light of the understanding4 ,by a tacit agreement fairy tales have come to be consigned to the nursery2 the old tools of superstition have become the child's toys1 and when a writer comes forward1 now1 bringing new fairy tales1 it is almost always with an apology1 not for trespassing upon ground already occupied1 but for indulging in what is no longer belief1 but make-belief4 8,my story10 he is apt to say1 8is not true2 we none of us believe it1 and ,i shall give you good evidence before ,i am done that least of all do ,i believe it4 ,i shall probably explain it by referring it to a strange dream1 or shall justify it by the excellent lesson it is to teach4 ,i adopt the fairy form as suited to the imagination of children2 it is a childish thing1 and ,i am half ashamed1 as a grown person1 to be found engaged in such nonsense40 ,out of this way of regarding fairy tales has come that peculiar monstrosity of the times1 the scientific fairy tale1 which is nothing short of an insult to a whole race of innocent beings4 ,it may be accepted as a foregone conclusion that with a disbelief in fairies the genuine fairy tale has died1 and that it is better to content ourselves with those stories which sprang from actual belief1 telling them over to successive generations of children1 than to seek to extend the literature by any ingenuity of modern skepticism4 ,there they are1 the fairy tales without authorship1 as imperishable as nursery ditties2 scholarly collections of them may be made1 but they will have their true preservation1 not as specimens in a museum of literary curiosities1 but as children's toys4 ,like the sleeping princess in the wood1 the fairy tale may be hedged about with bristling notes and thickets of commentaries1 but the child will pass straight to the beauty1 and awaken for his own delight the old charmed life4 ,it is worth noting1 then1 that just when historical criticism1 under the impulse of the ,grimms1 was ordering and accounting for these fragile creations1--a sure mark that they were ceasing to exist as living forms in literature1--,hans ,christian ,andersen should have come forward as master in a new order of stories1 which may be regarded as the true literary successor to the old order of fairy tales1 answering the demands of a spirit which rejects the pale ghost of the scientific or moral or jocular or pedantic fairy tale4 ,andersen1 indeed1 has invented fairy tales purely such1 and has given form and enduring substance to traditional stories current in ,scandinavia2 but it is not upon such work that his real fame rests1 and it is certain that while he will be mentioned in the biographical dictionaries as the writer of novels1 poems1 romances1 dramas1 sketches of travel1 and an autobiography1 he will be known and read as the author of certain short stories1 of which the charm at first glance seems to be in the sudden discovery of life and humor in what are ordinarily regarded as inanimate objects1 or what are somewhat compassionately called dumb animals4 ,when we have read and studied the stories further1 and perceived their ingenuity and wit and humane philosophy1 we can after all give no better account of their charm than just this1 that they disclose the possible or fancied parallel to human life carried on by what our senses tell us has no life1 or our reason assures us has no rational power4 ,the life which ,andersen sets before us is in fact a dramatic representation upon an imaginary stage1 with puppets that are not pulled by strings1 but have their own muscular and nervous economy4 ,the life which he displays is not a travesty of human life1 it is human life repeated in miniature under conditions which give a charming and unexpected variety4 ,by some transmigration1 souls have passed into tin-soldiers1 balls1 tops1 beetles1 money-pigs1 coins1 shoes1 leap-frogs1 matches1 and even such attenuated individualities as darning-needles2 and when1 informing these apparently dead or stupid bodies1 they begin to make manifestations1 it is always in perfect consistency with the ordinary conditions of the bodies they occupy1 though the several objects become by this endowment of souls suddenly expanded in their capacity4 ,perhaps in nothing is ,andersen's delicacy of artistic feeling better shown than in the manner in which he deals with his animated creations when they are brought into direct relations with human beings4 ,the absurdity which the bald understanding perceives is dexterously suppressed by a reduction of all the factors to one common term4 ,for example1 in his story of ,the ,leap-,frog1 he tells how a flea1 a grasshopper and a leap-frog once wanted to see which could jump highest1 and invited the whole world 8and everybody else besides who chose to come10 to see the performance4 ,the king promised to give his daughter to the one who jumped the highest1 for it was stale fun when there was no prize to jump for4 ,the flea and the grasshopper came forward in turn and put in their claims2 the leap-frog also appeared1 but was silent4 ,the flea jumped so high that nobody could see where he went to1 so they all asserted that he had not jumped at all2 the grasshopper jumped in the king's face1 and was set down as an ill-mannered thing2 the leap-frog1 after reflection1 leaped into the lap of the princess1 and thereupon the king said1 8,there is nothing above my daughter2 therefore to bound up to her is the highest jump that can be made3 but for this1 one must possess understanding1 and the leap-frog has shown that he has understanding4 ,he is brave and intellectual40 8,and so10 the story declares1 8he won the princess40 ,the barren absurdity of a leap-frog marrying a princess is perhaps the first thing that strikes the impartial reader of this abstract1 and there is very likely something offensive to him in the notion2 but in the story itself this absurdity is so delightfully veiled by the succession of happy turns in the characterization of the three jumpers1 as well as of the old king1 the house-dog1 and the old councilor 8who had had three orders given him to make him hold his tongue10 that the final impression upon the mind is that of a harmonizing of all the characters1 and the king1 princess1 and councilor can scarcely be distinguished in kind from the flea1 grasshopper1 leap-frog1 and house-dog4 ,after that1 the marriage of the leap-frog and princess is quite a matter of course4 ,the use of speaking animals in story was no discovery of ,andersen's1 and yet in the distinction between his wonder-story and the well-known fable lies an explanation of the charm which attaches to his work4 ,the end of every fable is hc fabula docet1 and it was for this palpable end that the fable was created4 ,the lion1 the fox1 the mouse1 the dog1 are in a very limited way true to the accepted nature of the animals which they represent1 and their intercourse with each other is governed by the ordinary rules of animal life1 but the actions and words are distinctly illustrative of some morality4 ,the fable is an animated proverb4 ,the animals are made to act and speak in accordance with some intended lesson1 and have this for the reason of their being4 ,the lesson is first2 the characters1 created afterward1 are1 for purposes of the teacher1 disguised as animals2 very little of the animal appears1 but very much of the lesson4 ,the art which invented the fable was a modest handmaid to morality4 ,in ,andersen's stories1 however1 the spring is not in the didactic but in the imaginative4 ,he sees the beetle in the imperial stable stretching out his thin legs to be shod with golden shoes like the emperor's favorite horse1 and the personality of the beetle determines the movement of the story throughout2 egotism1 pride at being proud1 jealousy1 and unbounded self-conceit are the furniture of this beetle's soul1 and his adventures one by one disclose his character4 ,is there a lesson in all this8 ,precisely as there is a lesson in any picture of human life where the same traits are sketched4 ,the beetle1 after all his adventures1 some of them ignominious but none expelling his self-conceit1 finds himself again in the emperor's stable1 having solved the problem why the emperor's horse had golden shoes4 8,they were given to the horse on my account10 he says1 and adds1 8the world is not so bad after all1 but one must know how to take things as they come40 ,there is in this and other of ,andersen's stories a singular shrewdness1 as of a very keen observer of life1 singular because at first blush the author seems to be a sentimentalist4 ,the satires1 like ,the ,emperor's ,new ,clothes and ,the ,swiftest ,runners1 mark this characteristic of shrewd observation very cleverly4 ,perhaps1 after all1 we are stating most simply the distinction between his story and the fable when we say that humor is a prominent element in the one and absent in the other2 and to say that there is humor is to say that there is real life4 ,it is frequently said that ,andersen's stories accomplish their purpose of amusing children by being childish1 yet it is impossible for a mature person to read them without detecting repeatedly the marks of experience4 ,there is a subtle undercurrent of wisdom that has nothing to do with childishness1 and the child who is entertained returns to the same story afterward to find a deeper significance than it was possible for him to apprehend at the first reading4 ,the forms and the incident are in consonance with childish experience1 but the spirit which moves through the story comes from a mind that has seen and felt the analogue of the story in some broader or coarser form4 ,the story of ,the ,ugly ,duckling is an inimitable presentation of ,andersen's own tearful and finally triumphant life2 yet no child who reads the story has its sympathy for a moment withdrawn from the duckling and transferred to a human being4 ,andersen's nice sense of artistic limitations saves him from making the older thought obtrude itself upon the notice of children1 and his power of placing himself at the same angle of vision with children is remarkably shown in one instance1 where1 in ,little ,klaus and ,big ,klaus1 death is treated as a mere incident in the story1 a surprise but not a terror4 ,the navet which is so conspicuous an element in ,andersen's stories was an expression of his own singularly artless nature4 ,he was a child all his life2 his was a condition of almost arrested development4 ,he was obedient to the demands of his spiritual nature1 and these led him into a fresh field of fancy and imagination4 ,what separates him and gives him a distinct place in literature is1 as ,i have said1 that he was the first child who had contributed to literature4 ,his very autobiography discloses at every turn this controlling genius of childhood1 and the testimony of his friends confirms it4 ,now that ,andersen has told his stories1 it seems an easy thing to do1 and we have plenty of stories written for children that attempt the same thing1 sometimes also with moderate success2 for ,andersen's discovery was after all but the simple application to literature of a faculty which has always been exercised4 ,the likeness that things inanimate have to things animate is constantly forced upon us2 it remained for ,andersen to pursue the comparison further1 and1 letting types loose from their antitypes1 to give them independent existence4 ,the result has been a surprise in literature and a genuine addition to literary forms4 ,it is possible to follow in his steps1 now that he has shown us the way1 but it is no less evident that the success which he attained was due not merely to his happy discovery of a latent property1 but to the nice feeling and strict obedience to laws of art with which he made use of his discovery4 ,andersen's genius enabled him to see the soul in a darning-needle1 and he perceived also the limitations of the life he was to portray1 so that while he was often on the edge of absurdity he did not lose his balance4 ,especially is it to be noted that these stories1 which we regard as giving an opportunity for invention when the series of old-fashioned fairy tales had been closed1 show clearly the coming in of that temper in novel-writing which is eager to describe things as they are4 ,within the narrow limits of his miniature story1 ,andersen moves us by the same impulse as the modern novelist who depends for his material upon what he has actually seen and heard1 and for his inspiration upon the power to penetrate the heart of things2 so that the old fairy tale finds its successor in this new realistic wonder-story1 just as the old romance gives place to the new novel4 ,in both1 as in the corresponding development of poetry and painting1 is found a deeper sense of life and a finer perception of the intrinsic value of common forms4 ,this1 then1 may be taken as the peculiar contribution of ,andersen3 that he1 appearing at a time when childhood had been laid open to view as a real and indestructible part of human life1 was the interpreter to the world of that creative power which is significant of childhood4 ,the child spoke through him1 and disclosed some secrets of life2 childhood in men heard the speech1 and recognized it as an echo of their own half-forgotten voices4 ,the literature of this kind which he produced has become a distinct and new form4 ,it already has its imitations1 and people are said to write in the vein of ,andersen4 ,such work1 and ,andersen's in particular1 presents itself to us under two aspects3 as literature in which conceptions of childhood are embodied1 and as literature which feeds and stimulates the imagination of children4 ,but this is precisely the way in which a large body of current literature must be regarded4 ,,ix ,,in ,,american ,,literary ,,art ,the conditions of life in the ,united ,states have been most favorable to the growth of a special literature for children1 but1 with one or two notable exceptions1 the literature which is independent of special audiences has had little to do with childhood as a subject1 and art has been singularly silent4 ,there is scarcely anything in ,irving1 for example1 which touches upon child life4 ,a sentence now and then in ,emerson shows an insight of youth1 as when he speaks of the unerring instinct with which a boy tells off in his mind the characters of the company in a room4 ,bryant has touched the subject more nearly1 but chiefly in a half-fantastic way1 in his ,little ,people of the ,snow and ,sella4 ,thoreau could hardly be expected to concern himself with the young of the human race when he had nearer neighbors and their offspring4 ,lowell has answered the appeal which the death of children makes to the heart1 but aside from his tender elegiac verses has scarcely dwelt on childhood either in prose or verse4 ,holmes1 with his boyishness of temper1 has caught occasionally at the ebullition of youthful spirits1 as in the humorous figure of young ,benjamin ,franklin in the ,autocrat1 and in some of his autobiographic sketches4 ,his ,school-,boy1 also1 adds another to those charming memories of youth which have made ,cowper1 ,goldsmith1 and ,gray known to readers who else would scarcely have been drawn to them2 for the one unfailing poetic theme which finds a listener who has passed his youth is the imaginative rendering of that youth4 ,whittier1 though his crystalline verse flows through the memory of many children1 has contributed very little to the portrayal of childhood4 ,his portrait of the ,barefoot ,boy and his tender recollection ,in ,school ,days are the only poems which deal directly with the subject1 and neither of them is wholly objective4 ,they are a mature man's reflection of childhood4 ,snow-,bound rests upon the remembrance of boyish days1 but it deals rather with the circumstance of boyhood than with the boy's thoughts or feelings4 ,yet the poet shows unmistakably his sense of childhood1 although one would not be far wrong who understood him as never separating the spirit of childhood from the human life at any stage4 ,his editorial work in the two volumes1 ,child-,life in ,poetry and ,child-,life in ,prose1 is an indication of his interest in the subject1 and he was quick to catch the existence of the sentiment in its association with another poet1 whose name is more directly connected with childhood4 ,in his verses1 ,the ,poet and the ,children1 he gave expression to the thought which occurred to many as they considered how soon ,longfellow's death followed upon the spontaneous celebration of his birthday by multitudes of children4 ,this testimony to ,longfellow was scarcely the result of what he had written either for or of children4 ,it was rather a natural tribute to a poet who had made himself a household word in ,american homes4 ,children are brought up on poetry to a considerable extent2 they are1 moreover1 under training for the most part by young women1 and the pure sentiment which forms the unfailing element of ,longfellow's writings finds in such teachers the readiest response4 ,when one comes to consider the subjects of ,longfellow's poetry1 one finds that the number addressed to children1 or finding their motive in childhood1 is not large4 ,those of direct address are1 ,to a ,child1 ,from my ,arm-,chair1 ,weariness1 ,children2 yet which of these demands or would receive a response from children8 ,only one1 ,from my ,arm-,chair1 and that chiefly by the circumstance which called it out1 and on which the poet relies for holding the direct attention of children4 ,he gets far away from most children before he has reached the end of his poem ,to a ,child1 and in the other two poems we hear only the voice of a man in whom the presence of children awakens thoughts which lie too deep for their tears1 though not for his4 ,turning aside from those which appeal in form to children1 one finds several which1 like those last named1 are evoked by the sentiment which childhood suggests4 ,such are ,the ,reaper and the ,flowers1 ,resignation1 ,the ,children's ,hour1 and ,a ,shadow1 all in the minor key except ,the ,children's ,hour2 and this poem1 perfect as it is in a father's apprehension1 yields only a subtle and half-understood fragrance to a child4 ,one poem partly rests on a man's thought of his own childhood1 ,my ,lost ,youth2 ,the ,hanging of the ,crane contains for its best lines a vignette of infancy2 a narrative poem1 ,the ,wreck of the ,hesperus1 has for its chief figure a child2 and ,hiawatha is bright with a sketch of ,indian boyhood4 ,the translations show two or three which include this subject4 ,while1 therefore1 ,longfellow is repeatedly aware of the presence of children1 it is not by the poems which spring out of that recognition that he especially reaches them4 ,in his poem ,from my ,arm-,chair1 he refers to ,the ,village ,blacksmith2 that has a single verse in which children figure1 but the whole poem will arrest the attention of children far more than ,from my ,arm-,chair1 and it belongs to them more4 ,it cannot be too often repeated that books and poems about children are not necessarily for children4 ,the thoughts which the man has of the child often depend wholly upon the fact that he has passed beyond childhood1 and looks back upon it2 it is impossible for the child to stand by his side4 ,thus the poem ,weariness contains the reflection of a man who anticipates the after life of children2 there is nothing in it which belongs to the reflection of childhood itself4 ,tennyson's ,may ,queen1 which has found its way into most of our anthologies for the young1 is a notable example of a large class of verses quite unfit for such a place4 ,it may be said in general that sentiment1 when made a part of childhood1 is very sure to be morbid and unnatural4 ,we have a sentiment which rises at the sight of childhood1 but children themselves have none of it2 the more refined it is1 the more unfit it is to go into their books4 ,here is a collection of poetry for children1 having all the marks of a sound and reputable work4 ,as ,i turn its leaves1 ,i come upon a long ballad of ,the ,dying ,child1 ,longfellow's ,the ,reaper and the ,flowers1 a poem called ,the ,little ,girl's ,lament1 in which a child asks1 8,is heaven a long way off1 mother80 and for two or three pages dwells upon a child's pain at the loss of her father2 ,tennyson's ,may ,queen1 who is so unconscionably long a time dying2 ,mrs4 ,hemans's imitation of ,mignon's song in a poem called ,the ,better ,land2 and a poem by ,dora ,greenwell which ,i must regard as the most admirable example of what a poem for a child should not be4 ,it is entitled ,a ,story by the ,fire1 and begins1-- 8,children love to hear of children6 ,i will tell of a little child ,who dwelt alone with his mother ,by the edge of a forest wild4 ,one summer eve1 from the forest1 ,late1 late1 down the grassy track ,the child came back with lingering step1 ,and looks oft turning back4 8#8,oh1 mother6' he said1 #8in the forest ,i have met with a little child2 ,all day he played with me1--all day ,he talked with me and smiled4 ,at last he left me alone1 but then ,he gave me this rosebud red2 ,and said he would come to me again ,when all its leaves were spread4'0 ,thereupon the child declares that it will put the rosebud in a glass1 and wait eagerly for the friend to come4 ,so the night goes and the morning comes1 and the child sleeps4 8,the mother went to his little room4 ,with all its leaves outspread ,she saw a rose in fullest bloom2 ,and1 in the little bed1 ,a child that did not breathe nor stir1-- ,a little1 happy child1 ,who had met his little friend again1 ,and in the meeting smiled40 ,here is a fantastic conception1 extremely puzzling to a healthy-minded child4 ,imagine the natural questions of a simple1 ingenuous boy or girl upon hearing this read4 ,who is this other child8 ,why was he coming back when the rose was blown8 ,you explain1 as well as you are able1 that it was a phantom of death2 or1 if that seems too pallid1 you try to imagine that the poet meant ,jesus ,christ or an angel by this other little child3 but1 in whatever way you explain it1 you are obliged1 if you will satisfy the downright little inquirer1 to say plainly1 ,this little boy died1 and you begin to wish with all your heart that the poet with all her ed rhymes had added dead4 ,then the puzzle begins over again to connect the blooming rose and the little playmate with death4 ,do you say that you will leave the delicate suggestion of the lines to find its way into the child's mind1 and be the interpreter of the poem8 ,this is what one might plead in ,wordsworth's ,we are ,seven1 for instance4 ,the comparison suggested by the two poems is a partial answer4 ,wordsworth's poem is a plain1 objective narrative1 which a child might hear and enjoy with scarcely a notion of what was implied in it1 returning afterward to the deep1 underlying sense4 ,this poem of ,dora ,greenwell's has no real objective character2 the incident of the walk in the forest is of the most shadowy sort1 and is used for its subtlety4 ,i object to subtlety in literature for children4 ,we have a right to demand that there shall be a clear outward sense1 whatever may be the deeper meaning to older people4 ,hans ,andersen's story of ,the ,ugly ,duckling is a consummate example of a narrative which is enjoyable by the most matter-of-fact child1 and yet recalls to the older reader a life's history4 ,i have been led into a long digression through the natural correlation which exists between childhood in literature and a literature for children4 ,let me get back to my main topic by a similar path4 ,the one author in ,america whose works yield the most fruitful examples in illustration of our subject is ,hawthorne1 and at the same time he is the most masterly of all our authors who have aimed at writing for an audience of children4 ,whatever may become of the great mass of books for young people published in ,america during the past fifty years1--and most of it is already crumbling in memory1--it requires no heroism to predict an immortality of fame for the little books which ,hawthorne wrote with so much good nature and evident pleasure1 ,grandfather's ,chair and the ,wonder ,book1 with its companion1 ,tanglewood ,tales4 ,mr4 ,parkman has given a new reading in the minds of many people to the troubles in ,acadia1 but he has not disturbed the vitality of ,evangeline2 one may add footnote after footnote to modify or correct the statements in ,the ,courtship of ,miles ,standish1 but the poem will continue to be accepted as a picture of ,pilgrim times4 ,so the researches of antiquarians1 with more material at their command than ,hawthorne enjoyed1 may lead them to different conclusions from those which he reached in his sketches of early ,new ,england history1 but they cannot destroy that charm in the rendering which makes the book a classic4 ,more notable still is ,hawthorne's version of ,greek myths4 ,probably he had no further authority for the stories than ,lemprire4 ,he only added the touch of his own genius4 ,only6 and the old rods blossomed with a new variety of fruit and flower4 ,it is easily said that ,hawthorne ,yankeeized the stories1 that he used the ,greek stones for constructing a ,gothic building1 but this is academic criticism4 ,he really succeeded in naturalizing the ,greek myths in ,american soil1 and all the labors of all the ,coxes will not succeed in supplanting them4 ,moreover1 ,i venture to think that ,hawthorne's fame is more firmly fixed by means of the ,wonder ,book4 ,the presence of an audience of children had a singular power over him4 ,i do not care for the embroidery of actual child life which he has devised for these tales2 it is scarcely more than a fashion1 and already strikes one as quaint and out of date4 ,but ,i cannot read the tales themselves without being aware that ,hawthorne was breathing one air when he was writing them and another when he was at work on his romances4 ,he illustrates in a delicate and subtle manner the line of ,juvenal which bids the old remember the respect due to the young4 ,juvenal uses it to shame men into decorum2 but just as any sensitive person will restrain himself in expression before children1 so ,hawthorne appears to have restrained his thought in their silent presence1--to have done this1 and also to have admitted into it the sunshine which their presence brought4 ,with what bright and joyous playfulness he repeats the old stories1 and with what a paternal air he makes the tales yield their morsels of wisdom6 ,there is no opening of dark passages1 no peering into recesses1 but a happy1 generous spirit reigns throughout4 ,all this could have been predicated from the delightful glimpses which we now have of ,hawthorne's relations to his children1 glimpses which his ,note-,books1 indeed1 had already afforded1 and which were not wanting also in his finished work4 ,nor was this interest in childhood something which sprang up after he had children of his own4 ,in that lonely period of his young manhood1 when he held converse only with himself1 his ,note-,books attest how his observation took in the young and his fancy played about them4 ,as early as #ahcf he makes a note3 8,to picture a child's 7one of four or five years old7 reminiscences at sunset of a long summer's day1--his first awakening1 his studies1 his sports1 his little fits of passion1 perhaps a whipping1 etc40 ,again1 how delicate is the hint conveyed in a passage describing one of his solitary walks6 8,another time ,i came suddenly on a small ,canadian boy1 who was in a hollow place among the ruined logs of an old causeway1 picking raspberries1--lonely among bushes and gorges1 far up the wild valley2 and the lonelier seemed the little boy for the bright sunshine1 that showed no one else in a wide space of view except him and me40 ,he has elsewhere a quick picture of a boy running at full speed2 a wistful look at a sleeping infant1 which somehow touches one almost as if one had seen a sketch for a ,madonna2 and then this passage1 significant of the working of his mind1--he is noting a ,mediterranean boy from ,malaga whom he saw on the wharf3 8,i must remember this little boy1 and perhaps ,i may make something more beautiful of him than these rough and imperfect touches would promise40 ,the relation which ,hawthorne held to his own children1 as illustrated both in the memoirs of him and in his ,note-,books1 was unquestionably a sign of that profound humanity which was the deep spring of his writings4 ,but it was not1 as some seem to think1 a selfish love which he bore for them2 he could show to them1 because the relation was one of the elemental things in nature1 a fullness of feeling which found expression otherwise only as all his nature found outlet1--in spiritual communion with mankind4 ,how deep this inherent love of childhood lay is instanced in that passage in ,our ,old ,home which one reads as it were with uncovered head4 ,it is in the chapter entitled ,some ,glimpses of ,english ,poverty1 and relates how one of the party visiting an almshouse--,hawthorne himself1 as his wife has since told us--was unexpectedly and most unwillingly made the object of demonstrative attention on the part of a poor1 scrofulous1 repulsive waif of humanity4 ,nothing that he had done had attracted the child1--only what he was2 and so1 moved by compassion1 this strange1 shy man took the child in his arms and kissed it4 ,let any one read the entire passage1 note the mingled emotions which play about the scene like a bit of iridescent glass1 and dare to speak of ,hawthorne again except with reverence4 ,in the same chapter occurs that delicious little description of children playing in the street1 where the watchfulness of the older children over the younger is noted1 and a small brother1 who is hovering about his sister1 is gravely noted as 8working a kind of miracle to transport her from one dust heap to another40 ,he makes the reflection1 8,beholding such works of love and duty1 ,i took heart again1 and deemed it not so impossible after all for these neglected children to find a path through the squalor and evil of their circumstances up to the gate of heaven40 ,one of the earliest and most ambitious of his short tales1 ,the ,gentle ,boy1 gathers into itself the whole history of a pathetic childhood1 and there seems to have been an intention to produce in ,ilbrahim precisely those features which mark the childish martyr and confessor4 ,again1 among the ,twice-,told ,tales is the winning sketch of ,little ,annie's ,ramble1 valuable most of all for its unconscious testimony to the abiding sense of companionship which ,hawthorne found with children4 ,in ,edward ,fane's ,rosebud1 also1 is a passage referring to the death of a child1 which is the only approach to the morbid in connection with childhood that ,i recall in ,hawthorne4 ,little ,daffydowndilly1 a quaint apologue1 has by virtue of its unquestionable fitness found its way into all reading-books for the young4 ,the story1 however1 which all would select as most expressive of ,hawthorne's sympathy with childhood is ,the ,snow ,image4 ,in that the half-conventional figures which served to introduce the stories in the ,wonder ,book have passed1 by a very slight transformation1 into quaint impersonations4 ,they have the outward likeness of boys and girls1 but1 by the alchemy which ,hawthorne used chiefly upon men and women1 they are made to have ingenuous and artless converse with a being of other than flesh and blood4 ,it is the charm of this exquisite tale that the children create the object in which they believe so implicitly4 ,would it be straining a point too far to say that as ,andersen managed1 whether consciously or not1 to write his own spiritual biography in his tale of ,the ,ugly ,duckling1 so ,hawthorne in ,the ,snow ,image saw himself as in a glass8 ,at any rate1 we can ourselves see him reflected in those childish figures1 absorbed in the creation out of the cold snow of a sprite which cannot without peril come too near the warm life of the common world1 regarded with half-pitying love and belief by one1 good-naturedly scorned by crasser man4 ,in his romances children play no unimportant part4 ,it is ,ned ,higgins's cent which does the mischief with ,hepzibah1 in ,the ,house of the ,seven ,gables1 transforming her from a shrinking gentlewoman into an ignoble shopkeeper2 and thus it becomes only right and proper that ,ned ,higgins's portrait should be drawn at full length with a gravity and seriousness which would not be wasted on a grown man like ,dixey4 ,in ,the ,scarlet ,letter one might almost call ,pearl the central figure4 ,certainly1 as she flashes in and out of the sombre shadows1 she contrives to touch with light one character after another1 revealing1 interpreting1 compelling4 ,in the deeper lines one reads how this child concentrates in herself the dread consequences of sin4 ,the ,puritan1 uttering the wrath of ,god descending from the fathers to the children1 never spoke in more searching accents than ,hawthorne in the person of ,pearl4 8,the child10 he says1 8could not be made amenable to rules4 ,in giving her existence a great law had been broken2 and the result was a being whose elements were perhaps beautiful and brilliant1 but all in disorder40 ,when one stops to think of ,the ,scarlet ,letter without ,pearl1 he discovers suddenly how vital the child is to the story4 ,the scene in the woods1 that moving passage where ,pearl compels her mother to replace the scarlet ,a1 and all the capricious behavior toward the minister show how much value ,hawthorne placed on this figure in his drama3 and when the climax is reached1 and ,hester1 ,arthur1 and ,pearl stand together on the scaffold1 the supreme moment may fairly be said to be that commemorated in the words1 8,pearl kissed his lips40 ,it is noteworthy1 also1 that when ,hawthorne was struggling with fate1 and1 with the consciousness of death stealing over him1 made ineffectual efforts to embody his profoundest thoughts of life and immortality1 he should have expended his chief art in loving characterization of ,pansie1 in the ,dolliver ,romance4 ,whatever might have come of this last effort1 could fate have been conquered1 ,i for one am profoundly grateful that the two figures of grandsire and grandchild stand thus fully wrought1 to guard the gateway of ,hawthorne's passage out of life4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the advent of the child in literature at the close of the last century was characterized1 as ,i have pointed out1 by a recognition of personality in childhood as distinct from relationship4 ,the child as one of the family had always been recognized1 and the child also in its more elemental nature2 it was the child as possessed of consciousness1 as isolated1 as disclosing a nature capable of independent action1 thought1 and feeling1 that now came forward into the world's view1 and was added to the stock of the world's literature1 philosophy1 and art4 8,the real virtues of one age10 says ,mozley1 8become the spurious ones of the next10 and it is hardly strange that the abnormal development of this treatment of childhood should be most apparent in the ,united ,states1 where individualism has had freest play4 ,the discovery appears to have been made here that the child is not merely a person1 but a very free and independent person indeed4 ,the sixteenth amendment to the constitution reads1 8,the rights and caprices of children in the ,united ,states shall not be denied or abridged on account of age1 sex1 or formal condition of tutelage10 and this amendment has been recognized in literature1 as in life1 while waiting its legal adoption4 ,it has been recognized by the silence of great literature1 or by the kind of mention which it has there received4 ,i am speaking of the literature which is now current rather than of that which we agree to regard as standard ,american literature2 yet even in that ,i think our study shows the sign of what was to be4 ,the only picture of childhood in the poets drawn from real life is that of the country boy1 while all the other references are to an ideal conception4 ,hawthorne1 in his isolation1 wrote of a world which was reconstructed out of elemental material1 and his insight as well as his marvelous sympathy with childhood precluded him from using diseased forms4 ,but since the day of these men1 the literature which is most representative of national life has been singularly devoid of reference to childhood4 ,one notable exception emphasizes this silence4 ,our keenest social satirist has not spared the children4 ,they are found in company with the young ,american girl1 and we feel the sting of the lash which falls upon them4 ,again the silence of art is noticeable4 ,there was so little art contemporaneous with our greater literature1 and the best of that was so closely confined to landscape1 that it is all the more observable how meagre is the show in our picture galleries of any history of childhood4 ,now and then a portrait appears1 the child usually of the artist's patron1 but there is little sign that artists seek in the life of children for subjects upon which to expend thought and power4 ,they are not drawn to them1 apparently1 except when they appear in some foreign guise as beggars1 where the picturesqueness of attire offers the chief motive4 ,in illustration of this1 ,i may be pardoned if ,i mention my own experience when conducting1 a few years ago1 an illustrated magazine for young people4 ,i did my best to obtain pictures of child life from painters who were not merely professional book-illustrators1 and the only two that ,i succeeded in securing were one by ,mr4 ,lambdin1 and ,mr4 ,la ,farge's design accompanying ,browning's poem of ,the ,pied ,piper4 ,on the lower ground of illustrations of text1 it was only now and then that ,i was able to obtain any simple1 unaffected design1 showing an understanding of a child's figure and face4 ,it was commonly a young woman who was most successful1 and what her work gained in genuineness it was apt to lose in correctness of drawing4 ,i shall be told that matters have improved since then1 and shall be pointed to the current magazines of the same grade as the ,riverside4 ,i am quite willing to concede that the demand for work of this kind has had the effect of stimulating designers1 but ,i maintain that the best illustrations in these magazines are not those which directly represent children4 ,and when ,i say children1 ,i mean those in whom consciousness is developed1 not infants and toddlers1 who are often represented with as much cleverness as other small animals and pets4 ,it is more to the point that1 while the introduction of processes and the substitution of photography for direct drawing on the wood have greatly enlarged the field from which wood-cuts may be drawn1 there is little1 if any1 increase in the number of strong designs illustrative of childhood4 ,formerly the painter was deterred from contributing designs by the slight mechanical difficulties of drawing on boxwood4 ,unless he was in the way of such work1 he disliked laying his brush down and taking up the pencil4 ,now everything is done for him1 and his painting is translated by the engraver without the necessity of any help from him4 ,yet how rarely1 with the magazines at hand to use his paintings1 does the painter voluntarily seek such subjects6 ,but if there is silence or scorn in great literature1 there is plenty of expression in that minor literature which has sprung up1 apparently1 in the interest of childhood4 ,it is here1 in the books for young people1 that one may discover the most flagrant illustration of that spurious individuality in childhood which ,i have maintained to be conspicuous in our country4 ,any one who has been compelled to make the acquaintance of this literature must have observed how very little parents and guardians figure in it1 and how completely children are separated from their elders4 ,the most popular books for the young are those which represent boys and girls as seeking their fortune1 working out their own schemes1 driving railway trains and steamboats it may be1 managing farms1 or engaged in adventures which elicit all their uncommon heroism4 ,the same tendency is exhibited in less exaggerated form3 children in the schoolroom1 or at play1 forming clubs amongst themselves1 having their own views upon all conceivable subjects1 torturing the ,english language without rebuke1 opening correspondence with newspapers and magazines1 starting newspapers and magazines of their own1 organizing1 setting up miniature society1--this is the general spectacle to be observed in books for young people1 and the parent or two1 now and then visible1 is as much in the background as the child was in earlier literature4 ,all this is more or less a reflection of actual life1 and as such has an unconscious value4 ,i would not press its significance too far1 but ,i think it points to a serious defect in our society life4 ,this very ephemeral literature is symptomatic of a condition of things1 rather than causative4 ,it has not nearly so much influence on young life as it is itself the natural concomitant of a maladjustment of society1 and the corrective will be found only as a healthier social condition is reached4 ,the disintegration of the family1 through a feeble sense of the sacredness of marriage1 is an evil which is not to be remedied by any specific of law or literature1 but so long as it goes on it inevitably affects literature4 ,i venture to make two modest suggestions toward the solution of these larger problems into the discussion of which our subject has led me4 ,one is for those who are busy with the production of books for young people4 ,consider if it be not possible to report the activity and comradery of the young in closer and more generous association with the life of their elders4 ,the spectacle of a healthy family life1 in which children move freely and joyously1 is not so rare as to make models hard to be found1 and one would do a great service to young ,america who should bring back the wise mother and father into juvenile literature4 ,again1 next to a purified and enriched literature of this sort is a thorough subordination of it4 ,the separation of a class of books for the use of the young specifically is not now to be avoided1 but in the thoughtlessness with which it has been accepted as the only literature for the young a great wrong has been inflicted4 ,the lean cattle have devoured the fat4 ,i have great faith in the power of noble literature when brought into simple contact with the child's mind1 always assuming that it is the literature which deals with elemental feeling1 thought1 and action which is so presented4 ,i think the solution of the problem which vexes us will be found not so much in the writing of good books for children as in the wise choice of those parts of the world's literature which contain an appeal to the child's nature and understanding4 ,it is not the books written expressly for children so much as it is the books written out of minds which have not lost their childhood that are to form the body of literature which shall be classic for the young4 ,as ,mr4 ,ruskin rightly says1 8,the greatest books contain food for all ages1 and an intelligent and rightly bred youth or girl ought to enjoy much even in ,plato by the time they are fifteen or sixteen40 ,it may fairly be asked how we shall persuade children to read classic literature4 ,it is a partial answer to say1 ,read it to them yourself4 ,if we would only consider the subtle strengthening of ties which comes from two people reading the same book together1 breathing at once its breath1 and each giving the other unconsciously his interpretation of it1 it would be seen how in this simple habit of reading aloud lies a power too fine for analysis1 yet stronger than iron in welding souls together4 ,to my thinking there is no academy on earth equal to that found in many homes of a mother reading to her child4 ,there is1 however1 a vast organization inclusive of childhood to which we may justly commit the task of familiarizing children with great literature1 and of giving them a distaste for ignoble books4 ,there is no other time of life than that embraced by the common-school course so fit for introduction to the highest1 finest literature of the world4 ,our schools are too much given over to the acquisition of knowledge4 ,what they need is to recognize the power which lies in enlightenment4 ,in the susceptible period of youth we must introduce through the medium of literature the light which will give the eye the precious power of seeing4 ,but look at the apparatus now in use4 ,look at the reading-books which are given to children in the mechanical system of grading4 ,is this feast of scraps really the best we can offer for the intellectual and spiritual nourishment of the young8 ,what do these books teach the child of reading8 ,they supply him with the power to read print at sight1 to pronounce accurately the several words that meet the eye1 and to know the time value of the several marks of punctuation2 but they no more make readers of children than an accordeon supplies one with the power to appreciate and enjoy a sonata of ,beethoven4 ,i do not object to intelligent drill1 but ,i maintain that in our schools it bears little or no relation to the actual use of the power of reading4 ,the best of the education of children is not their ability to take up the daily newspaper or the monthly magazine after they leave school1 but their interest in good literature and their power to read it with apprehension if not comprehension4 ,this can be taught in school4 ,not only so1 it ought to be taught1 for unless the child's mind is plainly set in this direction1 it is very unlikely that he will find the way for himself4 ,i look1 therefore1 with the greatest interest upon that movement in our public schools which tends to bring the great literature before children4 99 99 99 99 99 ,the study of childhood in literature has led insensibly to observations on literature for children4 ,the two subjects are not far apart1 for both testify to the same fact1 that in the growth of human life there has been an irregular but positive advance1 and a profounder perception of the rights and duties involved in personality4 ,what may lie in the future ,i will not venture to predict1 but it is quite safe to say that the form in which childhood is presented will still depend upon the sympathy of imaginative writers with the ideal of childhood1 and that the form of literature for children will be determined by the greater or less care with which society guards the sanctity of childish life4 ,,footnotes #a ,chapman's ,the ,iliads of ,homer1 ii4 #gj-gg4 #b ,iliads1 iv4 #adg-aea4 #c ,iliads1 xvi4 #e-h4 #d ,ibid4 xi4 #dhe-dij4 #e ,iliad1 vi4 #dff-dge1 #dhb-dhe4 #f ,goldwin ,smith's translation4 #g ,john ,addington ,symonds's translation4 #h ,laws1 ii4 #fec4 ,in this and subsequent passages ,jowett's translation is used4 #i ,laws1 vii4 #gig4 #aj ,laws1 ii4 #ffd4 #aa ,epigrammata ,despota1 ,,dccxi4 #ab ,d',arcy ,w4 ,thompson1 in his ,ancient ,leaves4 #ac ,theodore ,martin's translation4 #ad ,silv1 v4 #e1 #gi-hg4 #ae ,contributors' ,club1 ,atlantic ,monthly1 ,june1 #ahha4 #af ,de ,rerum ,natura1 ,v4 #bbb-bbg1 cited in ,sellar's ,the ,roman ,poets of the ,republic1 p4 #cif4 #ag ,ibid4 ,,iii4 #hid-hif4 ,sellar1 p4 #cfd4 #ah ,satire xiv4 #dg4 #ai ,a thoughtful writer in ,the ,spectator1 #c ,september1 #ahhg1 notes the absence of representations of childhood in ancient art and literature1 and the following number of the journal contains a note of protest from ,mr4 ,alfred ,austin1 in which he says pertinently3 8,is it not the foible of modern art1 if ,i may use a homely expression1 to make a fuss over what it feels1 or wants others to feel1 whereas an older and a nobler art1 which is by no means extinct among us1 prefers to indicate emotion rather than to dwell on it80 #bj ,see an interesting statement of this ,biblical force in the preface to ,matthew ,arnold's ,the ,great ,prophecy of ,israel's ,restoration1 ,london1 #ahgb4 #ba ,hosea iv4 #f4 #bb ,zech4 x4 #i4 #bc ,zech4 viii4 #d4 #e4 #bd ,isa4 xi4 #f-h4 #be ,malachi iv4 #f4 #bf ,this and the other passages from the ,apocryphal ,gospels here cited are in the translation by ,alexander ,walker4 #bg ,canto xxxii4 #g-i1 ,cayley's translation4 #bh ,c4 ,e4 ,norton's translation4 #bi ,studies in the ,history of the ,renaissance1 p4 #hd4 #cj ,sketches of the ,history of ,christian ,art1 iii4 #bgj4 #ca ,legends of the ,madonna1 ,part ,,iii4 #cb ,on ,reading ,shakespeare ,through4 ,the ,london ,spectator1 ,august #bf1 #ahhb4 #cc ,epicurus1 ,leontion1 and ,ternissa4 #cd ,essays1 ,historical and ,theological4 ,by ,j4 ,b4 ,mozley1 i4 #dcj1 #dca4 ,,index4 ,admetus1 #ai1 #bj4 neas1 #ca1 #cb4 neid1 childhood in the1 #ca1 #cb4 ,agamemnon1 belief in1 not dependent on the spade1 #f4 ,alice ,fell1 #c1 #adg4 ,alkestis1 a scene from the1 #ai1 #bj4 ,amelia1 ,fielding's1 #ace4 ,amor1 the myth of1 #cf-ch2 as treated by ,raphael1 #ii2 in the ,elizabethan lullabies1 #aaf1 #aag2 in ,shakespeare1 #abd2 in ,thorwaldsen's art1 #bja4 ,anchises1 #ca4 ,ancient ,leaves1 cited1 #ca1 #cc4 ,andersen1 ,hans ,christian1 the unique contribution of1 to literature1 #bja2 the distinction between his stories and fairy tales1 #bjb2 the basis of his fame1 #bjg2 the life of his creations1 #bjh2 their relation to human beings1 #bji2 the spring in his stories1 #baa2 his satires1 #bab2 the deeper experience in them1 #bac2 his essential childishness1 #bad2 his place with novelists1 #bae2 his interpretation of childhood1 #baf4 ,andromache1 the parting of1 with ,hector1 #aa1 #ab2 the scene compared with one in the dipus ,tyrannus1 #af-ah2 and contrasted with ,virgil1 #ca4 ,angels of children1 #add1 #ade4 ,anna the prophetess1 #dg4 ,anthology1 the ,greek1 #bh-cj4 ,antigone1 #ah4 ,apocryphal ,gospels1 the legends of the1 #eg-fd4 ,art1 ,american1 as it relates to children1 #bcg1 #bch4 ,art1 modern1 the foible of1 #ch4 ,arthur1 in ,king ,john1 #abj4 ,ascanius1 #ca1 #cb4 ,askbert1 #fh1 #fi4 ,astyanax1 #aa2 a miniature ,hector1 #ad4 ,atlantic ,monthly1 ,the1 cited1 #cd4 ,austin1 ,alfred1 cited1 #ch4 ,ballads relating to children1 #ajf-ajh2 characteristics of1 #aac4 ,barbauld1 ,mrs41 #agc2 her relation to the literature of childhood1 #age2 ,coleridge and ,lamb on1 #agd4 ,bathsheba's child1 #db4 ,beatrice1 first seen by ,dante1 #gg4 ,better ,land1 ,the1 #bbb4 ,bible1 the truth of the1 not dependent on external witness1 #f2 the university to many in modern times1 #da1 #db4 ,blake1 ,william1 #afc-afe4 ,boccaccio1 #gi4 ,browning1 ,robert1 as an interpreter of ,greek life1 #bg2 his ,pied ,piper1 #bcg4 ,bryant1 ,william ,cullen1 #bag4 ,bunyan1 childhood in1 #abi-acc4 ,byzantine type of the ,madonna1 #hc1 #hd4 ,catullus1 #cc4 ,chapman's translation of ,homer1 quoted1 #h1 #i1 #aj1 #af2 the quality of his defects1 #i1 #aj4 ,chaucer's treatment of childhood1 #ajh-aaa2 compared with the ,madonna in art1 #aac4 ,childhood1 discovered at the close of the last century1 #d2 in literature as related to literature for children1 #d2 in ,greek life1 how attested1 #g2 indirect reference to it in ,homer1 #h-aa2 the direct reference1 #aa1 #ab2 in the ,greek tragedians1 #af-ba2 in ,plato1 #bb-bf2 in the ,greek ,anthology1 #bi1 #cj2 in ,virgil1 #ca1 #cb2 conception of1 in ,roman literature1 #cb1 #cc2 in ,catullus1 #cc2 in epitaphs1 #cc1 #cd2 in ,lucretius1 #cd2 in ,juvenal1 #ce2 in classic conception of the supernatural1 #cd-cf2 in the myth of ,amor1 #cf-ch2 in ,old ,testament literature1 #db-df2 in ,new ,testament literature1 #dh1 #di2 attitude of the ,saviour toward1 #di2 as a sign of history1 #eb2 in the legends of the ,apocryphal ,gospels1 #eg-fd2 of saints1 #fe-ga2 under the forming power of ,christianity1 #gc2 in ,dante1 #ge-gh2 in the representations of the ,holy ,family1 #hc-hg2 in the art of the northern peoples1 #hg-ib2 in the ,madonnas of ,raphael1 #ib-ih2 in ,raphael's ,amor1 #ih1 #ii2 in his representations of children generally1 #ajj1 #aja2 in the art of ,luca della ,robbia1 #aja1 #ajb2 its elemental force the same in all literatures1 #aje2 in ballad literature1 #ajf-ajh2 in ,chaucer1 #ajh-aaa2 its character in early ,english literature1 #aab1 #aac2 in ,spenser1 #aad1 #aae2 in the lighter strains of ,elizabethan literature1 #aaf1 #aag2 in ,shakespeare1 #aag-abf2 its absence in ,milton1 #abg1 #abh2 how regarded in ,puritanism1 #abh1 #abi2 in ,bunyan1 #abi-acc2 in ,pope1 #acc1 #acd2 in ,fielding1 #ace2 in ,gray1 #ace-acg2 in ,goldsmith1 #acg-adj2 in ,cowper1 #adj1 #ada2 in the art of ,reynolds and ,gainsborough1 #ada1 #adb2 in ,wordsworth1 #add-aeg2 in ,de ,quincey1 #aeh-afb2 in ,william ,blake1 #afc-afe2 in ,dickens1 #afe-agj2 in ,paul and ,virginia1 #aha-ahc2 in ,lamartine1 #ahd-ahf2 in ,michelet de ,musset1 and ,victor ,hugo1 #ahf1 #ahg2 in ,german sentiment1 #ahi2 illustrated by ,luther1 #aij1 #aia2 in ,richter1 #aia1 #aib2 in ,goethe1 #aid-aif2 in ,froebel's system1 #aig1 #aih2 in ,overbeck's art1 #aii1 #bjj2 in ,hans ,christian ,andersen1 #bja-baf2 in ,emerson1 ,bryant1 ,lowell1 and ,holmes1 #bag1 #bah2 in ,whittier1 #bah1 #bai2 in ,longfellow1 #bai-bbb2 mistakenly presented in sentimental verse1 #bbb-bbe2 in ,hawthorne1 #bbe-bcd4 ,child-,life in ,poetry1 #bai4 ,child-,life in ,prose1 #bai4 ,children1 books for1 the beginning of1 #aga1 #agb2 the characteristics of this beginning1 #agc2 their revolutionary character1 #agd2 the sincerity of the early books1 #age2 the union of the didactic and artistic in1 #agg2 a new branch of literature1 #agg1 #agh2 art in connection with1 #agi4 ,children's ,hour1 ,the1 #bbj4 ,child's ,last ,will1 ,the1 #ajf4 ,christ1 the childhood of1 #dh2 his scenes with children1 #dh1 #di2 his attitude toward childhood1 #di-eb2 an efficient cause of the imagination1 #ee2 legends of1 in the ,apocryphal ,gospels1 #eg-fd2 his symbolic use of the child1 #ha2 his infancy the subject of art1 #hb2 especially in ,netherlands1 #hi2 his words illustrative of human history1 #ajb4 ,christianity and ,french sentiment1 #ahb4 ,christianity1 living and structural1 #ec2 its supersedure of ancient life1 #ed2 its germinal truth1 #ee2 its operative imagination1 #ef2 its care of children1 especially orphans1 #gc2 its office of organization1 #gd2 its influence on the family1 #ge2 its insistence on death1 #gi2 in what its power consists1 #ha2 its ideals1 #hb2 its type in the ,madonna1 #hc2 does not interfere with elemental facts1 #aje4 ,christmas in ,germany1 #ahi4 ,cimabue1 #hd4 ,coleridge1 ,samuel ,taylor1 on ,mrs4 ,barbauld1 #agf2 on ,christmas in ,germany1 #ahi4 ,comus1 #abg4 ,confidences1 ,les1 #ahd4 ,coriolanus1 #aah4 ,cornelius1 #hh4 ,courtship of ,miles ,standish1 ,the1 #bbf4 ,cowper1 ,william1 #adj1 #ada4 ,cruel ,mother1 ,the1 ballad of1 #ajf4 ,cupid and ,psyche1 #cf4 ,dana1 the1 of ,euripides1 #bj2 of ,simonides1 #cj4 ,dante1 childhood in1 #ge-gh4 ,day1 ,thomas1 author of ,sanford and ,merton1 #c4 ,death of children1 how regarded by ,dickens1 #afg2 by ,wordsworth1 #afh4 ,democracy revealed in the ,french ,revolution1 #adc4 ,de ,quincey1 ,thomas1 reflections of1 on his childhood1 #aeh-afb4 ,deserted ,village1 ,the1 #acg4 ,dickens1 ,charles1 his naturalization of the poor in literature1 #afe2 his report of childhood1 #aff2 the children created by1 #aff-agj2 compared with ,wordsworth1 #afh1 #afi4 ,distant ,prospect of ,eton ,college1 ,on a1 #acf4 ,dolliver ,romance1 ,the1 #bcd4 ,doyle1 ,richard1 #agi4 ,drama1 children in1 #bj4 ,dying ,child1 ,the1 #bbb4 ,edgeworth1 ,maria1 and ,wordsworth1 #agd4 ,edward ,fane's ,rosebud1 #bca4 ,elegy1 ,gray's1 #ace1 #acf4 ,elijah1 the prophet1 #db2 the incident of the boys and1 #dc4 ,elisha1 #dc4 ,elizabethan era1 characteristics of1 #aac1 #aaf4 ,emerson1 ,ralph ,waldo1 #bag4 ,english race1 characteristics of the1 exemplified in literature1 #aaa-aac4 ,eros1 the myth of1 #cf-ch4 ,erotion1 #cd4 ,essay on ,man1 ,the1 #acd4 ,euripides1 in his view of children1 #ai2 examples from1 #bj4 ,evangeline1 #bbf4 ,excursion1 ,the1 #aea1 #aeb4 ,fables1 ,andersen's stories distinguished from1 #baj1 #baa4 ,faery ,queen1 ,the1 #aad1 #aae4 ,fairy-tales1 ,andersen's stories distinguished from1 #bjb2 the origin of1 #bjc2 fading out from modern literature1 #bjd2 upon the stage1 #bjd1 #bje2 the scientific fairy-tale1 #bjf4 ,fnelon1 #ahj4 ,fielding1 ,henry1 in his ,amelia1 #ace4 ,fitzgerald1 ,edward1 #bg4 ,flaxman1 ,john1 his illustration of ,homer in outline1 #ab4 ,french literature as regards childhood1 #ahj-ahh4 ,french ,revolution1 the1 a sign of regeneration1 #eb2 a day of judgment1 #adb2 the name for an epoch1 #adc2 synchronous with a revelation of childhood1 #add2 its connection with ,english literature1 #afb2 the eruption of poverty in1 #afe4 ,froebel's kindergarten system1 #aig1 #aih4 ,from my ,arm ,chair1 #bbj1 #bba4 ,gainsborough1 ,thomas1 #ada4 ,gascoigne1 ,george1 #aag4 ,gentle ,boy1 ,the1 #bca4 ,germanic peoples1 home-cultivating1 #hh4 ,german literature and childhood1 #ahh-aih4 ,giotto1 #hd4 ,goethe1 compared with ,richter as regards memory of childhood1 #aid2 his ,mignon1 #aid2 his indebtedness to the ,vicar of ,wakefield1 #aie2 his ,sorrows of ,werther1 #aie2 compared with ,luther1 #aif4 ,goldsmith1 ,oliver1 avant-courier of ,wordsworth1 #c2 the precursor of the poets of childhood1 #acg2 his position in literature1 #ach2 his ,vicar of ,wakefield1 #ach-adj4 ,goody ,two ,shoes1 #c4 ,grandfather's ,chair1 #bbf4 ,gray1 ,thomas1 #ace-acg4 ,gray1 ,thomas1 borrowing possibly from ,martial1 #cd4 ,greece1 life in ancient1 how illustrated1 #g2 silence of the child in the art of1 #ba2 our relation to1 #ba2 modern interpretations of1 #bg1 #bh2 compared with ,rome1 #ca2 compared with ,juda1 #db4 ,greenaway1 ,kate1 #agi4 ,greene1 ,robert1 #aag4 ,greenwell1 ,dora1 her poem1 ,a ,story by the ,fire1 an example of pernicious literature1 #bbb-bbe4 ,grimm1 the brothers1 #bjg4 ,hannah1 the song of1 #dd1 #dg4 ,hawthorne1 ,nathaniel1 the most abundant of ,american authors in his treatment of childhood1 #bbe2 his use of ,new ,england history1 #bbf2 his rendering of ,greek myths1 #bbf1 #bbg2 his observation of childhood1 #bbh1 #bbi2 his relation to children1 #bbi1 #bcj2 his apologue in ,the ,snow-,image1 #bcb2 children in his romances1 #bcb1 #bcc2 his ,pearl in ,the ,scarlet ,letter1 #bcc1 #bcd2 his ,pansie in ,the ,dolliver ,romance1 #bcd4 ,hebrew life1 in its influence on modern thought1 #ci-da2 the child in1 #df1 #dg2 its transformation into ,christianity1 #dg1 #dh1 #ec4 ,hector parting with ,andromache1 #aa1 #ab2 face to face with ,ajax1 #ad2 comforts his wife1 #af1 #ag4 ,hemans1 ,felicia1 #bbb4 ,hen and chickens1 in the ,bible and ,shakespeare1 #abb4 ,herakles1 #cf4 ,hermes1 #cf4 ,hiawatha1 #bba4 ,hilarion1 #fg4 ,holmes1 ,oliver ,wendell1 #bah4 ,holy ,family1 the child in the1 #hc2 character of the early type of the1 #hc2 emblematic of domesticity1 #hf1 #hg4 ,homer1 authenticity of the legend of1 supposed to be proved by ,schliemann1 #f2 a better preserver of ,greek womanhood than antiquaries1 #g2 the value of his similes1 #g1 #h2 passages in illustration of his indirect reference to childhood1 #h-aa2 the elemental character of1 #ab2 the peril of commenting on1 #ac2 the nurse in1 #ad2 his view of childhood1 #ae2 compared with that of the tragedians1 #af-ah2 with that of ,virgil1 #ca1 #cb4 ,hosea1 quoted1 #dd4 ,house of the ,seven ,gables1 ,the1 #bcb1 #bcc4 ,hubert1 #abj4 ,hugh of ,lincoln1 #ajh4 ,hugo1 ,victor1 #ahg4 ,iliad1 the swarm of bees in the1 #h2 the passage describing the brushing away of a fly1 #i2 the ass belabored by a pack of boys1 #i2 ,achilles chiding ,patroclos1 #aj2 ,hector parting with ,andromache1 #aa1 #ab2 statuesque scenes in1 #ab4 ,imaginary ,conversations1 quoted1 #aec4 ,imagination1 the1 abnormal activity of1 in early ,christianity1 #ed2 the direction of its new force1 #ef1 #eg4 ,intimations of ,immortality1 #aed1 #aef1 #aeg4 ,irving1 ,washington1 #bag4 ,isaiah1 quoted1 #de4 ,ishmael1 #db4 ,ismene1 #ah4 ,jacob1 the two wives of1 #dd4 ,james1 ,henry1 alluded to1 #bcf4 ,jeffrey1 ,francis1 #afi4 ,jerusalem1 the entry into1 #di1 #eb4 ,john the ,baptist1 #ha4 ,jonson1 ,ben1 #cg4 ,jonson1 ,ben1 ,venus' ,runaway of1 #aaf4 ,jowett1 ,benjamin1 translation by1 #bb-bf4 ,juvenal1 #ce1 #bbg4 ,kenwulf of ,wessex1 #fh4 ,kindergarten1 the1 fortified by reference to ,plato1 #bd2 in connection with politics1 #aig1 #aih4 ,king ,john1 #aai1 #abj4 ,kriss ,kringle1 #ahi4 ,la ,farge1 ,john1 #bcg4 ,l',allegro1 #abg4 ,lamartine1 ,alphonse de1 #ahd-ahf4 ,lamb1 ,charles1 on ,mrs4 ,barbauld's work1 #agf1 #agg2 his and his sister's books1 #agg4 ,lambdin1 ,george ,c41 #bcg4 ,lamkin1 the ballad of1 #ajg1 #ajh4 ,landor1 ,walter ,savage1 remark of1 on children1 #aec4 ,laokon1 #ba4 ,laws1 ,plato's1 cited1 #bb1 #bd1 #be4 ,legends of the ,madonna1 #hi4 ,leslie1 ,c4 ,r41 on ,raphael's children1 #ajj4 ,lindsay1 ,lord1 quoted1 #hh4 ,lines on the ,receipt of my ,mother's ,picture1 #ada1 #adb4 ,literature for children in the ,united ,states1 #bce1 #bcf2 some of its tendencies1 #bci1 #bdj2 measures for its enrichment1 #bdj4 ,literature1 the source of knowledge1 #g2 of ,christendom1 the exposition of the conception of the ,christ1 #ej2 inaction in1 #ed2 fallacy in the study of the development of1 #ajd2 its bounds enlarged1 #afc4 ,little ,annie's ,ramble1 #bca4 ,little ,daffydowndilly1 #bca4 ,little ,girl's ,lament1 ,the1 #bbb4 ,little ,people of the ,snow1 #bag4 ,longfellow1 ,henry ,wadsworth1 childhood in the writings of1 #bai-bba4 ,love1 the figure of1 in classic and modern art1 #cg4 ,lowell1 ,james ,russell1 #bag4 ,loyola1 #ia4 ,luca della ,robbia1 the children of1 #aja4 ,lucretius1 #cd1 #ce4 ,lucy ,gray1 #c1 #adh4 ,luther1 ,martin1 an exponent of ,german character1 #aij2 his treatment of childhood1 #aij4 ,macbeth1 #aba1 #abc4 ,madonna1 development of the1 #hd-hg2 treatment of by ,raphael1 #ib-ih2 a domestic subject1 #ih4 ,magnificat1 ,the1 #dd1 #dg4 ,man of ,law's ,tale1 ,the1 #aaj4 ,marcius1 #aah4 ,martial1 #cd4 ,martin1 ,theodore1 translation by1 #cc4 ,mary1 the ,virgin1 legends concerning1 in the ,apocryphal ,gospels1 #eh-fj2 her childhood1 #fe2 her appearance in early art1 #hc2 her motherhood1 #hd2 her relation to ,jesus1 #he4 ,may ,queen1 ,the1 #bbb4 ,medea1 ,the1 cited1 #ai4 ,menaphon1 #aag4 ,mercurius1 #cf4 ,messiah1 ,pope's1 #acc1 #acd4 ,michelet1 #ahf4 ,midsummer ,night's ,dream1 #abd4 ,millais1 ,john ,everett1 #agi4 ,milton1 ,john1 quoted1 #df2 the absence of childhood in1 #abg1 #abh2 compared with ,bunyan1 #abi2 with ,pope1 #acc4 ,moses1 #db4 ,moth1 ,shakespeare's1 #aah4 ,mozley1 ,t4 ,b41 quoted1 #aij1 #aia1 #bce4 ,musset1 ,alfred de1 #ahf4 ,my ,lost ,youth1 #bba4 ,netherland family life1 pictured in the life of our ,lord1 #hi-ib4 ,new ,testament1 childhood in the1 #dg-eb4 ,nicodemus1 #ej4 ,niebuhr1 ,b4 ,g41 #bh4 ,norton1 ,charles ,eliot1 translation by1 #gh4 ,note-,books1 ,hawthorne's1 #bbh1 #bbi4 ,nurse1 the1 in ,greek life1 #ad2 in the ,odyssey1 #ad1 #ae4 ,ode on the ,morning of ,christ's ,nativity1 #abg1 #acc4 ,odysseus and his nurse1 #ae4 ,odyssey1 memorable incidents in the1 #ad1 #ae4 dipus ,tyrannus contrasted with the ,iliad1 #af-ah4 ,old ,testament1 childhood in the1 #db-df4 ,our ,old ,home1 #bcj4 ,overbeck1 #hh1 #aii-bja4 ,palmer1 ,george ,herbert1 as a translator of ,homer1 #bh4 ,parkman1 ,francis1 #bbf4 ,pater1 ,walter1 quoted1 #gi4 ,patient ,griselda1 #aaa4 ,paul and ,virginia1 representative of innocent childhood1 #ahj2 an escape from the world1 #aha2 an attempt at the preservation of childhood1 #ahc4 ,pet ,lamb1 ,the1 #adi4 ,pheidias1 #bf1 #bh4 ,pied ,piper1 ,the1 #bcg4 ,pilgrim's ,progress1 ,the1 #acj-acc4 ,plato1 references of1 to childhood1 #bb-bf2 compared with artists1 #bf2 can be read by children1 #bdb4 ,pope1 ,alexander1 #acc2 compared with ,milton1 #acc1 #acd2 with ,shakespeare1 #acd4 ,prelude1 ,the1 #aea4 ,princess1 ,the1 #agj4 ,puritanism1 the attitude of1 toward childhood1 #abh1 #abi4 ,queen's ,marie1 the ballad of the1 #ajf4 ,raphael1 an exponent of the idea of his time1 #ib2 the ,madonnas of1 #ib2 in the ,berlin ,museum1 #ic2 ,casa ,connestabile1 #ic2 del ,cardellino1 #ic2 at ,st4 ,petersburg1 #ic2 della ,casa ,tempi1 #id2 at ,bridgewater1 #ie2 del ,passegio1 #if2 ,san ,sisto1 #ig1 #ih2 treatment by1 of ,amor1 #ii2 his children1 #ajj4 ,reaper and the ,flowers1 ,the1 #bbj1 #bbb4 ,renaissance1 the spirit of the1 in ,raphael's work1 #ih2 childhood in its relation to the1 #ajb4 ,republic1 ,plato's1 cited1 #bc4 ,resignation1 #bbj4 ,reynolds1 ,sir ,joshua1 #ada1 #adb4 ,richter1 ,jean ,paul ,friedrich1 autobiography of1 #aia2 early birth of consciousness in1 #aib2 compared with ,goethe1 #aid4 ,riverside ,magazine for ,young ,people1 ,the1 #bcg1 #bch4 ,roman literature1 childhood in1 #ca-ch4 ,rousseau1 ,jean ,jacques1 #ahj1 #ahb1 #ahd4 ,ruskin1 ,john1 #bdb4 ,samuel1 #db4 ,sanford and ,merton1 #c4 ,sarah1 the laugh of1 #dd4 ,scarlet ,letter1 ,the1 #bcc1 #bcd4 ,schliemann1 ,dr41 #f4 ,school1 great literature in1 #bdb4 ,sella1 #bag4 ,sellar1 ,john ,y41 quoted1 #ce4 ,sentiment1 ,french and ,german1 as seen by the ,english and ,american1 #ahh4 ,shadow1 ,a1 #bbj4 ,shakespeare1 childhood in1 #aag2 limitations of the exhibition1 #aag1 #aah2 his ,moth1 #aah2 his ,coriolanus1 #aah1 #aai2 his ,king ,john1 #aai1 #abj2 his ,titus ,andronicus1 #abj1 #aba2 his ,macbeth1 #aba2 his ,richard ,,iii41 #abb2 random passages in1 relating to childhood1 #abc-abe2 reasons for the scanty reference1 #abe1 #abf2 compared with ,pope1 #acd4 ,shunamite1 the1 #dc4 ,simeon1 #dg4 ,simonides1 #bj2 quoted1 #cj4 ,sketches of the ,history of ,christian ,art1 #hh4 ,smith1 ,goldwin1 translation by1 #bj4 ,snow-,bound1 #bah4 ,snow-,image1 ,the1 #bcb4 ,solitude1 the1 of childhood1 #afj-afb4 ,songs of ,innocence1 #afd4 ,sophocles1 the dipus ,tyrannus of1 #af4 ,sparrows1 the story of the miraculous1 #fa1 #fb4 ,spectator1 ,the1 a writer in1 quoted1 #ch4 ,spenser1 ,edmund1 his ,faery ,queen1 #aad1 #aae4 ,statius1 #cc4 ,story by the ,fire1 ,a1 an example of what a poem for a child should not be1 #bbb-bbe4 ,supernaturalism in ancient literature1 #ce1 #cf4 ,suspiria de ,profundis1 #aeh-afb4 ,swedenborg1 a saying of1 #adb4 ,symonds1 ,john ,addington1 translation by1 #bj4 ,s4 ,bernard1 #gf1 #gg4 ,s4 ,catherine1 #fe4 ,s4 ,christina1 #gj4 ,s4 ,elizabeth of ,hungary1 #fe1 #ff4 ,s4 ,francis of ,assisi1 #ga1 #gb4 ,s4 ,genevieve1 #ff4 ,s4 ,gregory ,nazianzen1 #ff4 ,s4 ,john ,chrysostom1 #ff4 ,s4 ,kenelm1 #fh-gj4 ,st4 ,pierre1 ,bernardin1 #ahj-ahc4 ,tanagra figurines1 #bh4 ,tanglewood ,tales1 #bbf4 ,tennyson1 ,alfred1 makes a heroine of the babe1 #agj2 his ,may ,queen1 #bbb4 ,thompson1 ,d',arcy ,w41 translation by1 #ca1 #cc4 ,thoreau1 ,henry ,david1 #bag4 ,thorwaldsen1 #cg1 #bja4 ,tirocinium1 #adj4 ,titus ,andronicus1 #abj1 #aba4 ,to a ,child1 #bbj4 ,translations1 the great1 of the ,elizabethan era1 #aaf4 ,twice-,told ,tales1 #bca4 ,two ,gentlemen of ,verona1 #abd4 ,ugly ,duckling1 ,the1 #bac2 compared with ,the ,snow-,image1 #bcb4 ,ugolino1 ,count1 #gf4 ,vicar of ,wakefield1 ,the1 #c1 #acg-adj1 #adb4 ,village ,blacksmith1 ,the1 #bba4 ,virgil1 contrasted with ,homer1 #ca1 #cb2 his treatment of childhood1 #cb4 ,virgilia1 #aah1 #aai4 ,volumnia1 #aah1 #aai4 ,we are ,seven1 #afh-bbd4 ,weariness1 #bbj1 #bba4 ,whittier1 ,john ,greenleaf1 childhood in the writings of1 #bah1 #bai4 ,wonder-,book1 ,hawthorne's1 #bbf1 #bbg1 #bcb4 ,wordsworth1 ,william1 the creator of ,alice ,fell and ,lucy ,gray1 #c2 quoted1 #c2 the ridicule of his ,lyrical ,ballads1 #ade2 his defensive ,preface1 #ade-adg2 his apology for ,alice ,fell1 #adg1 #adh2 his poem of ,lucy ,gray1 #adh1 #adi2 his poem of ,the ,pet ,lamb1 #adi1 #aej2 his treatment of incidents of childhood1 #aej2 the first to treat the child as an individual1 #aea2 his draft on his own experience1 #aeb2 his poetic interpretation of childhood1 #aec-aef2 his ode1 ,intimations of ,immortality1 #aef1 #aeg2 his treatment of death1 #afh2 his ,we are ,seven contrasted with ,a ,story of the ,fire1 #bbd1 #bbe4 ,wreck of the ,hesperus1 ,the1 #bba4 ,zarephath1 the widow of1 #db4 ,zechariah1 quoted1 #de4