And this is especially true for girls, since for them it is above all important that there should be a touch of the severe in their taste, and that they should be a little exacting, for if they once let themselves go to what is too light-heartedly popular they do not know where to draw the line and they go very far, with great loss to themselves and others.
One of the beautiful things of to-day in England is the wealth of children's literature.

It is a peculiar grace of our time that we are all trying to give the best to the children, and this is most of all remarkable in the books published for them.

We had rather a silly moment in which we kept them babies too long and thought that rhymes without reason would please them, and another moment when we were just a little morbid about them; but now we have struck a very happy vein, free from all morbidness, very innocent and very happy, abounding in life and in no way unfitting for the experiences that have to be lived through afterwards.

No one thinks it waste of time to write and illustrate books for children, and to do their very best in both, and the result of historical research and the most critical care of texts is put within the children's reach with a real understanding of what they can care for.

A true appreciation of the English classics must result from this, and the mere reading of what is choice is an early safeguard against the less good.
Reading, without commentary, is what is best accepted; we are beginning to come back to this belief.