A History of Nursery Rhymes

LONDON GREENING & CO., LTD. 20, CECIL COURT CHARING CROSS ROAD 1899
Now Reissued by Singing Tree Press 1249 Washington Blvd., Detroit, Michigan. 1968
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 68-31082
Transcriber's Note:
Minor typographical errors have been corrected without note, whilst significant amendments are noted at the end of the text.
Archaic and dialect spellings remain as printed.
Greek text appears as originally printed, but with a mouse-hover transliteration, Βιβλος.


Without advancing any theory touching the progression of the mother's song to her babe, other than declaring lullabies to be about as old as babies, a statement which recalls to mind an old story, entitled The Owl's Advice to an Inquisitive Cat.
O cat, said the sage owl of the legend, to pass life agreeably most of all you need a philosophy; you and I indeed enjoy many things in common, especially night air and mice, yet you sadly need a philosophy to search after, and think about matters most difficult to discover. After saying this the owl ruffled his feathers and pretended to think.
But the cat observed that it was foolish to search after such things. Indeed, she purringly said, I only trouble about easy matters.