No More Learning

The most illustrious author who ever wrote for children (and
yet Goldsmith and Dickens and Thackeray might dispute the title,
though they did not write so much) has been reserved till the end
of the moralists. Charles and Mary Lamb's Mrs Leicester's School
(1807) was certainly a moral tale; rather a dull one in itself, but
interesting because of its author and its style. Equally certainly
Prince Dorus (1811) and The King and Queen of Hearts (1805)
were not moral tales; nor were they, for that matter, either a
commercial success or a literary production in any way worthy of
Lamb. They belong to the reaction against morality, and would
not attract much attention but for the names of Lamb and Godwin.
The Poems have already been mentioned. Tales from Shake-
speare (mainly Mary's) written for Godwin's neat little Juvenile
Library—have a curious charm: it would be possible to read
them in ignorance and be sure that they were the work of a
competent writer. On the other hand, for their particular purpose,
they have strong defects. The language is very long-winded for
children, and the train of thought too often adult; while they
frequently give a very incomplete version of the plays? .
But though, in the eyes of reviewers and the chroniclers of the
serious, the moral tale occupied the larger part of the nursery,
the ‘objectionable' fairy tale and its offshoots still persisted.
Indeed, like the fabled camomile, the harder you trod it, the faster
it grew. In the chapbooks, it and non-moral rimes—about Jack
and Jill and the Babes in the Wood and their peers—had an
inglorious popularity. But, in the editions with coloured illustra-
tions which poured from the press between 1800 and about 1830,
it endued fine and honourable raiment. The best extant col-
lection of these works contains about 400 volumes, which it is
obviously impossible to examine in detail. Ex pede Herculem.
They have a strong family likeness, for the excellent reason that
they were produced imitatively to suit a fashion. That fashion was
set, or, at any rate, rendered dominant, by the best of all these
picture books—William Roscoe's Butterfly's Ball (1806–7), written
for his little son Robert. There is not any moral here; the book is
nothing but fancifulness and graceful frivolity. There were hosts
1 Lee, Sidney, preface to The Shakespeare Story Book, by Mary Macleod (1902).
25
a
B, L, XL.
CH, XVI.


## p. 386 (#408) ############################################

386
[ch.
Children's Books
of imitations, the best and the best-known being Mrs Dorset's
Peacock at Home and Lion's Masquerade. They nearly all ap-
peared in the same year, 1807, which reveals the imitative
vigilance of the publishing trade. Of The Butterfly's Ball and
The Peacock at Home, 40,000 copies were sold that year.
Akin in pictorial appeal, but of more pedestrian execution,
were many facetious jingles and story books, for the most part
derivatives of the nursery rime. The Life and History of A
Apple Pie, The Dame and her Donkey's Five (1823), The Gaping
Wide-mouthed Waddling Frog (1823; a version of an ancient
cumulative rime that appears in The Top Book of All, in 1760)
were among the most noteworthy. Dame Wiggins of Lee (1823),
(
of this numerous fellowship, attracted the attention and eulogy of
Ruskin. The History of the Sixteen Wonderful Old Women
(1821) contains the first instance of the metrical form commonly
called the limerick, and usually ascribed to Edward Lear; it
is here used, with skill and finish, for some preposterous
adventures.
The importance of these works lies not in their individual
merits but in their collective mass. Public opinion was changing.
The ‘renascence of wonder' had spread to the nursery, and a new
age was at hand. It is hardly possible to treat of later books
within the limits of this work; their numbers and variety defy
compression. The reign of Victoria, almost from its inception, saw
children's books much as they are now, in their morale and ideals.
Fresh ideas came, and new methods of production changed the
outward appearance of the nursery library. But, in essentials, it
was full-grown; it was emancipated from the tyranny of dogma,
and the seeds of all its developments had taken root.
The modern era can be dated almost by one book-George
Cruikshank's edition of the German Popular Stories of the
brothers Grimm (1824—6). Once again, English childhood re-
entered fairyland by foreign aid. The immediate popularity of the
book was evidence of the change in taste. A further step towards
freedom and aesthetic attractiveness was made by Sir Henry Cole
("Felix Summerly') and the enlightened publisher, Joseph Cundall,
with The Home Treasury; while Catherine Sinclair's delightful
Holiday House (1839) showed that not only was amusement harm-
less, but naughtiness itself might be venial and even pleasant.
The moral tale was killed, and the crudities of the rival 'pretty
gilt toys for girls and boys' were reborn and regenerated in the
work of greater artists and more ambitious publishers. Morality


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6
Xvi]
Later Writers
387
turned itself to usefulness: the Howitts (Mary first introduced
Hans Christian Andersen to English readers), Peter Parley'
(S. G. Goodrich was the most active claimant to the pseudonym)
and similar writers composed their excellent books and poems
from a plain, serious point of view—they furnished matter of fact,
cheerfully phrased, not matter of doctrine, aggressively insisted
upon. Harriet Martineau and others wrote stories which were
nothing but stories, and in which the wider range of human know-
ledge enormously increased the narrative interest.
The logical coincided with the historical development. Modern
fairy tales began to be written, and the higher kind of levity
produced nonsense. Lewis Carroll's two Alice books (1866 and
1872) and Sylvie and Bruno (1889) were works of genius; but
they could not have won a hearing and undying applause if
the minds of the audience had not been prepared by what had
gone before. The fairy tales of Andersen, Kingsley, Jean Ingelow,
George MacDonald, Ruskin, Thackeray, Mark Lemon and other
writers still living were not glorified folklore; but they could not
have been published-perhaps not even written—but for the glory
that had come to folklore after repression. Only an age ready
to be childish after having learnt the hopelessness of tacking
morals on to fairy tales could have welcomed Lear's Book of
Nonsense (1846). Magazines of wide scope came with the 'sixties.
Education was utterly divorced from pleasure—in books. Con-
currently with the rapid increase of the adult novel, and, as the
natural consequence of the relief from insistence upon 'instruction,'
stories pure and simple grew in favour and numbers—stories either
of real life, like Miss Yonge's or Mrs Ewing's, or of genuinely
romantic adventure, like the tales of Ballantyne, Marryat, ‘Percy
St John' and inany others; nor were the adult works of Marryat,
Kingsley, Lytton, Stevenson and others forbidden. They cul-
minated in the modern school of juvenile fiction, adult in form
and young only in style and psychology. Henceforward, indeed,
children's books demand not history, but criticism.
25_2


## p. 388 (#410) ############################################

BIBLIOGRAPHIES
CHAPTER I
EDMUND BURKE
I. COLLECTED EDITIONS
A. Works
Works. 8 vols. 1792-1827. (Vols. IV-VIII, ed. King, W. , bishop of Rochester. )
Works. Ed. by Laurence, F. and King, W. 16 vols. 1803-27.
Works. 9 vols. Boston, 1839. Revised, 12 vols. 1865-7.
Works and Correspondence. 8 vols. 1852.
Works. 6 vols. Speeches. 2 vols. (Bohn. ) 1854-5.
Select Works: 1. Thoughts on the present discontents and Speeches on
America. 2. Reflections on the French Revolution. 3. Four Letters
on the Regicide Peace. Ed. Payne, E. J. Oxford, 1874-8.
B. Speeches and Letters
Speeches in the House of Commons and in Westminster Hall. 4 vols. 1816.
Epistolary correspondence of the Rt. Hon. Edmund Burke and Dr French
Laurence. 1827.
Correspondence between 1744 and 1797. Edd. Fitzwilliam, Earl, and Bourke,
Sir R. 4 vols. 1844.
Letters, Speeches, and Tracts on Irish affairs. Ed. Arnold, M. 1881.
American Speeches and Letters. Ed. Law, Hugh. (Everyman's Library. )
1908.
Correspondence of Edmund Burke and William Windham. Ed. Gilson, J. P.
(Roxburghe Club. ) 1910.
II. SEPARATE WORKS
A Vindication of Natural Society in a Letter to Lord by a late Noble
Writer. 1756. Rptd Oxford, 1796; London, 1858.
A Philosophical Enquiry into the origin of our ideas of the Sublime and the
Beautiful. 1756.
Transl. into French, 1803; German, 1773; and Spanish, 1807.
An Account of the European settlements in America. (Burke revised and
contributed to this work, which was probably written by William Burke. )
2 vols. 1757.
The Annual Register. 1759, etc. (Burke supplied or inspired the annual
survey of events. Some of these surveys were printed in a separate
form in 1763 as A Compleat History of the late War. )


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CH. 1]
Edmund Burke
389
A Short Account of a Short Administration. 1766.
Observations on a late State of the Nation. 1769.
Thoughts on the cause of the present Discontents. 1770.
Observations on Modern Gardening illustrated by descriptions. (Attributed
to Burke, but really by Whately, T. ) 1770.
A Speech on American taxation. 1774.
Transl. into German, 1864.
A Speech on moving his resolutions for conciliation with the Colonies, 1775.
Transl. into German, 1864.
A Letter from E. Burke. . . on the affairs of America. 1777.
Two Letters to gentlemen in Bristol on the Bills depending in Parliament
relative to the trade of Ireland. 1778.
The Substance of Speeches (15 Dec. 1779) on Mr Burke's giving notice of
his intention to bring in a Bill for the retrenchment of public expences.
1779.
A Speech on presenting to the House of Commons (11 Feb. 1780) a plan for
the better securing the independence of Parliament. 1780.
A Speech at the Guildhall in Bristol upon certain points relative to his
parliamentary conduct. 1780.
A Letter to a Peer of Ireland (Viscount Kenmare] on the Penal Laws.
1782. Ed. Clifford, H. C. 1824.
A Speech on Mr Fox's East India Bill. 1784.
A Representation to His Majesty moved by E. Burke and seconded by
W. Windham, 14 June 1784. 1784.
A Speech on the Nabob of Arcot's private debts, 28 Feb. 1785. 1785.
Articles of charge of high crimes and misdemeanors against Warren
Hastings. 1786.
Reflections on the Revolution in France. 1790. 11th edn. 1791. Ed. Samp-
son, G. 1905. Ed.
, with contingent essays, by Grieve, A. J. (Everyman's
Library. ) 1910.
Transl. into French, 1790; German, 1793; and Spanish, Mexico, 1826.
Substance of Speech in the debate on the Army estimates, 9 Feb. 1790.
1790.
A Letter to a Member of the National Assembly; in answer to some objections
to his book on French Affairs. 1791.
Transl. into French, 1791; and Italian, 1793.
An Appeal from the new to the old Whigs. 1791.
A Letter to Sir Hercules Langrishe on the subject of the Roman Catholics
of Ireland. 1792.
A Letter to a Noble Lord on the attacks made upon him and his pension in
the House of Lords by the Duke of Bedford and the Earl of Lauderdale.
1796. 13th edn. 1796.
Transl. into French, 1796; and German, 1796.
Thoughts on the prospect of a Peace with the Regicide Directory. Letters
I and II. 1796. 11th edn. 1796.
Transl. into French.
A Third Letter on a Regicide Peace. 1797. ((Posthumous. The Fourth
Letter was published for the first time in the collective editions, see
sect. I A. )
Two Letters on the conduct of our domestick parties. 1797.
A Letter to the Duke of Portland on the conduct of the Minority in Parlia-
ment. 1797.
a


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390
[Ch.
Bibliography
III. CONTEMPORARY CRITICS
Godwin, Mary Wollstonecraft. See bibliography to chap. II, post.
Hardinge, G. (1743–1816). Miscellaneous Works. 3 vols. 1818.
Rowley and Chatterton in the Shades. 1782.
A series of letters to the Rt Hon. E. Burke in which are contained
enquiries into the constitutional existence of an impeachment against
Mr Hastings. 1791. 3rd edn. 1791.
Essence of Malone. 1800.
Another Essence of Malone. 1801.
Macaulay, Mrs C. (1731-1791). Observations on the Reflections of Burke on
the Revolution in France. 1790.
Mackintosh, Sir J. See bibliography to chap. III, post.
Paine, T. See bibliography to chap. II, post.
Price, Richard. See ante, vol. x, chap. xiv, bibliography.
Priestley, J. Letters to Burke occasioned by his Reflections on the French
Revolution. 1791.
See, also, ante, vol. x, chap. xiv, bibliography.
Stanhope, Charles Stanhope, 3rd earl (1753-1816). Letter to Burke in answer
to his speech on the French Revolution. 1790.
IV. BIOGRAPHY AND CRITICISM
Bisset, R. The Life of Edmund Burke. 1798. 2 vols. 1800.
Buckle, H. T. History of civilization in England. Vol. 1. New in. 1871.
Capadose, I. Edmund Burke. Overzigt van het leven en de schriften van
een anti-revolutionair Staatsman. Amsterdam, 1857.
Cecil, Lord Hugh. Conservatism. [1912. ]
Croly, G. A Memoir of the political life of the Rt. Hon. E. Burke. 1840.
Dilke, C. W. Burke. Papers of a Critic. Vol. 11. 1875.
Extracts from Mr Burke's Table-Talk at Crewe Hall. Philobiblon Soc.
Miscellanies. Vol. VII. 1862-3.
Gilfillan, G. Edmund Burke. Galleries of literary portraits. Vol. 11. 1857.
Hunt, W. Burke. D. of N. B. Vol. VII. 1886.
McCormick, C. Memoirs of E. Burke. 1797.
McCunn, J. The political philosophy of Burke. 1913.
Macknight, T. History of the life and times of Edmund Burke. 3 vols.
1858-60.
Meusel, F. Edmund Burke und die französische Revolution. Berlin, 1913.
Morley, J. (Viscount Morley of Blackburn). Edmund Burke. A historical
study. 1867. Rptd 1893.
Burke. (English Men of Letters Series. ) 1879. Rptd 1888.
Napier, Sir J. Edmund Burke. A lecture. Dublin, 1863. Rptd in Lectures,
Essays and Letters. 1888.
Pillans, T. D. Edmund Burke: Apostle of Justice and Liberty. 1905.
Prior, Sir J. Memoir of the life and character of the Rt. Hon. E. Burke.
1824. 5th edn. 1854.
Weare, G. E. Edmund Burke's connection with Bristol, 1774-80. Bristol,
1894.
Windham Papers. With introduction by the Earl of Rosebery. 2 vols. 1913.
A. T. B.


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ú
11]
Political Writers and Speakers
391
CHAPTER II
POLITICAL WRITERS AND SPEAKERS
I. SATIRISTS
A. The Rolliad and its Contributors
The Rolliad, i. e. Criticisms on the Rolliad; Probationary Odes for the
Laureateship; and Political Eclogues and Miscellanies originally ap-
peared in the Morning Herald and Daily Advertiser for 1784 and follow-
ing years. 9th edn. 1791 (the first complete collection). 22nd edn. 1812.