It should be our study to-day to prove to children that the immediate importance to them is not to think of dying and going to Heaven, but of living and—shall we say?—going to College, which is a far better preparation for a life to come than the morbid dwelling upon the possibility of an early death.
In an article signed “Muriel Harris,” I think, from a copy of the Tribune, appeared a delightful article on Sunday Books, from which I quote the following:
“All very good little children died young in the story-books, so that unusual goodness must have been the source of considerable anxiety to affectionate parents. I came across a little old book the other day called ‘Examples for Youth.’ On the yellow fly-leaf was written in childish, carefully sloping hand: ‘Presented to Mary Palmer Junior, by her sister, to be read on Sundays,’ and was dated 1828. The accounts are taken from a work on Piety Promoted, and all of them begin with unusual piety in early youth and end with the death-bed of the little paragon, and his or her dying words.”
IX.—Stories containing a mixture of Fairy Tale and Science. By this combination you lose what is essential to each, namely, the fantastic on the one side, and accuracy on the other. The true Fairy Tale should be unhampered by any compromise of probability even—the scientific representation should be sufficiently marvellous along its own lines to need no supernatural aid. Both appeal to the imagination in different ways.
As an exception to this kind of mixture, I should quote “The Honey Bee, and Other Stories,” translated from the Danish of Evald by C. G. Moore Smith. There is a certain robustness in these stories dealing with the inexorable laws of Nature, though some of them will appear hard to the child; but they will be of interest to all teachers.
Perhaps the worst element in choice of stories is that which insists upon the moral detaching itself and explaining the story. In “Alice in Wonderland” the Duchess says, “‘And the moral of that is: Take care of the sense and the sounds will take care of themselves.’ ‘How fond she is of finding morals in things,’ thought Alice to herself.” (This gives the point of view of the child.)
The following is a case in point, found in a rare old print in the British Museum:
“Jane S. came home with her clothes soiled and hands badly torn. ‘Where have you been?’ asked her mother. ‘I fell down the bank near the mill,’ said Jane, ‘and I should have been drowned if Mr. M. had not seen me and pulled me out.’ 'Why did you go so near the edge of the brink?‘ 'There was a pretty flower there that I wanted, and I only meant to take one step, but I slipped and fell down.’ Moral: Young people often take but one step in sinful indulgence (Poor Jane!), but they fall into soul-destroying sins. There is a sinful pleasure which they wish to enjoy. They can do it by a single act of sin (the heinous act of picking a flower!). They do it; but that act leads to another, and they fall into the Gulf of Perdition, unless God interposes.”