It is curious to find how many stories have become obsolete. Not only have the tales where vanity is displayed by wearing white stockings and
A bonnet cocked up to display to the view
Long ringlets of curls and a great bow of blue,
become archaic; but the stories of the good children who are household supports and little nurses, picking up chance crumbs of instruction, have lost all present reality such as the younger and less clever children require.
Elder ones, if they have any imagination, prefer what does not run in the grooves of their daily life, and some are much more willing to listen to, or to read, what is not too obviously written for them. A book labelled ‘A tale for—’ is apt to carry a note of warning to the perverse spirits of those to whom it is addressed.
Historical tales and those of other lands require a certain degree of cultivation and imagination, to be appreciated. To some, even the best are distasteful, to others they supply the element of romance. Those that have a charm about them of character and adventure, fitting them for almost all readers, have been put into the groups intended for the age they suit, as well as into their places as illustrations of history.
I endeavour to give here a classified list that may be an assistance in the choice of books. It is not an advertisement. Most of the books I have personally proved. No doubt many readers will be disappointed at omissions, but it is quite impossible to answer for all the books in existence, and my object here is to suggest the fittest for the purposes of lending, reading aloud, or giving. It is no condemnation of a work that its name does not appear in this list—only it has either not become known to me, or has not appeared to me so eminently desirable as the others.
The lists of books in the present work have been drawn up in different gradations, a great number of them having been actually proved by reading aloud. There are many very fairly suitable for lending, not equally good for reading aloud, as lengthiness, description, and over-moralising, hang on hand with a mixed class; and, in other cases, the reader seems to be inculcating with authority all that is uttered, and thus gives a sense of preaching instead of amusing.
The tales that have any dissenting bias, or which appear to involve false doctrine, are of course omitted, though all those here mentioned do not belong to the same school of thought within the Church.
The classified list then includes books for:—