A widely read little book was somewhat pompously entitled The Looking Glass for the Mind. It was chiefly translated from that much-admired work, L'Ami des Enfans. Those terse and entertaining tales of Berquin had perennial youth in their English form and were reprinted till our own day. The illustrations of Bewick have a distinct value as showing the dress of children. A few are here shown. The first is from William and Amelia; both children are not eight years old. The long trained gowns, bare necks, elbow sleeves, and tall feathered hats are precisely the dress of grown women of that day, as William's coat and knee-breeches are the garb of a man. The two "ladies" were "walking arm in arm humming a pretty song then fashionable in the village collection of Ballads." When they glanced at the apples in the tree William, "the politest and prettiest little fellow in the village," dropped his shepherd's pipe, climbed the tree, and threw down apples in the ladies' aprons. As Charlotte got more and bigger apples Amelia abandoned her "usual pleasing prattle," sulked and at last ordered William to fall down "on his knees on this instant" to apologize. As he refused Amelia pouted at dinner, would not touch her wine nor say "Your good health, William," and at last was ordered by her mother from the table. William, after many attempts, sneaked out with some peaches for her, and thus an affectionate and generous friendship was restored.
"Clarissa, or the Grateful Orphan," from The Looking Glass for the Mind
Another illustration is for the tale, Caroline, or a Lesson to Cure Vanity. Caroline's dress is further described in the text as of pea-green taffety with fine pink trimmings, elegantly worked shoes, hair a clod of powder and pomatum. Her "fine silk slip was nicely soused in the rain"; her hoop and flounces and train caught in the furzes, her gauze hat blew in a pond of filthy water, etc.; all these made her glad to return to a more modest dress. The illustration for the Worthy Tenant shows Farmer Harris speaking to polite Sophia, while "Robert was so shamefully impertinent as to walk round the farmer, holding his nose, and asking his brother if he did not perceive something of the smell of a dung heap. He then lighted some paper at the fire, and carried it around the room in order to disperse, as he said, the unpleasant smell," etc. Clarissa, or the Grateful Orphan, who was so good that the king relinquished a large fortune to her, complete the quartette of illustrations.
A group of books was published just after the end of the colonial period, which had a vast influence on the children of our young Republic. These books were English; the most important of them were: The History of the Fairchild Family, 1788 circa, by Mrs. Sherwood; Sanford and Merton, 1783, by Thomas Day; The Parents' Assistant, 1796, by Maria Edgeworth; Evenings at Home, 1792, by Dr. Aikin and Mrs. Barbauld.
The Juvenile Biographer 83
When Miſs Fiddle Faddle is in the Company of little Females of her Acquaintance, her whole Diſcourſe turns on the prevailing Faſhion of Head-dreſs; what an elegant Taſte one little Miſs has, and how terribly impolite is another.